Transcaucasia and Central Asia 2007

 

Although antisemitic incidents are uncommon in the region, several popular radical Islamic groups support spread antisemitic propaganda both in Central Asia and outside it.

 

The eight national republics in Transcaucasia and Central Asia gained their independence in the early 1990s after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Six of them have a Muslim majority (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Azerbaijan), and two have a Christian majority (Armenia and Georgia). Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan share a long common border with Iran; Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan adjoin Afghanistan.

The revival of nationalist movements and conflicts following independence in these countries led to civil wars in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Tajikistan; as a result, demarcation of their borders has not been completed. The issue of national minorities is also complex since there are more than one hundred national groups in the region. Some (such as the Karakalpaks in Uzbekistan and the Ajarians in Georgia) have autonomous regions, while others created their own unrecognized states (Abkhazians and South-Osetians in Georgia and Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh).

There are also interstate economic difficulties relating to taxes, transportation, and ownership and use of common natural resources. The question of the exploitation of the oil- and gas-rich Caspian Sea, for example, involves Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.

The socio-political situation provides fertile ground for the activity of radical political and religious groups.

 

The Jewish Community

The Jewish population is made up of several sub-groups: Bukharan, Georgian and Mountain Jews have been living in the region for centuries while most Ashkenazi Jews arrived during and after World War II. The massive emigration from the region (not only of Jews, but also of Russians, Germans, Poles, and others) has left some 30,000−50,000 Jewish residents, mostly Ashkenazi Jews living in the capital cities. In Bukhara (Uzbekistan), for example, only a handful of Jewish families are left, and a similar situation exists in other regional cities of Uzbekistan (such as Samarkand, Kokand and Fergana). Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan have about 10,000 Jews each; about one thousand remain in Georgia and a few hundred each in Armenia, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

Apart from Turkmenistan, where there is no synagogue or Jewish cultural center, the republics impose no limitations on the activities of local or international (the Jewish Agency for Israel and the Joint) Jewish organizations, which all have representatives and offices in the capitals. Chabad is the most active Jewish religious organization in the region, represented by at least a dozen rabbis. The synagogues of Georgian, Mountain and Bukharan Jews have their own rabbis. Other religious services include mikvehs and kosher food.

Chabad operates four Jewish schools (in Tashkent, Alma-Ata, Baku and Tbilisi), as well as Sunday schools and kindergartens in the capitals and the periphery. Two schools in Uzbekistan (in Tashkent and Bukhara) are sponsored by Midrash Sfaradi (the Israeli Sephardic religious organization); one school in Kyrgyzstan (in Bishkek) is supported by a private Jewish donor from Belgium who lived in Bishkek during World War II, while another in Azerbaijan (Baku) is funded by the anti-Zionist Vaad ha-Hatsala. Sunday schools are also operated by the Jewish Agency and by the Israeli embassies.

 

Extremist Groups

Several radical Islamic organizations operate in the region. The most prominent are the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Hizb ut-Tahrir and the Union of Islamic Jihad. All of these groups use antisemitic slogans in their propaganda.

The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan is one of the most influential and dangerous groups in the region. A militant pan-Islamist group, it originally focused on overthrowing the government of Uzbek President Islam Karimov and replacing it with an Islamic ruled one. In June 2001, its name was changed to the Islamic Party of Turkestan and it expanded its goals to the creation of an Islamic state throughout all of Central Asia, including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and China's Xinxiang province. The movement’s military structure was developed in Afghanistan and Pakistan at the training camps of the Taliban and al-Qa`ida in the 1990s and its propaganda materials are distributed not only in its base, Uzbekistan, but also in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. On the occasion of the 5th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US, the leader of the movement, Tahir Yuldosh (or Yoldoshev – who is wanted by the American Defense Intelligence Agency), called − in an audio recording distributed by email to several radio stations and information agencies including the BBC − for a jihad "against Jews and Christians, who humiliate and offend Islam.” He continued: “Nowadays the world is ruled by only a few million Jews through the USA… While in the past the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan fought mainly against the regime of Islam Karimov, the organization has begun a struggle against all the enemies of Islam on the planet." The movement was banned in Russia in 2006 and its members are observed and prosecuted in the Central Asian countries.

Another popular Islamist movement in the region is Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami (see also ASW 2003/4). The aim of this organization is to establish a Khalifat (a theocratic state, based on Islamic religious laws). In their propaganda, the US, UK and Israel are depicted as "creations of the devil" and all their enemies are regarded as Jews. Although banned in Russia, Germany, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, Hizb ut-Tahrir does not appear on the US State Department’s list of designated foreign terrorist organizations. Nevertheless, some of the propaganda materials they distribute in Western countries, such as Denmark, the UK, Germany and Australia, include calls "to murder Jews everywhere where you find them.”

A third organization, Union of Islamic Jihad, which split from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, organized the explosions near the Israeli and American embassies in Tashkent (Uzbekistan) in July 2004. Its members are active also outside the region: in September 2007 three militants were arrested in Germany for planning an attack on Frankfurt International Airport and US military installations in Germany. 

 

Antisemitic activity

As in previous years very few antisemitic incidents were recorded in the region in 2007, despite the antisemitic propaganda of radical Islamist groups. In December it was discovered that a memorial to Holocaust victims in Yerevan (capital of Armenia) was defaced with swastikas and black paint splattered on the Hebrew inscription. A senior advisor to President Robert Kocharian condemned the incident. The memorial was desecrated several times in the past.

On May 9, police in Azerbaijan confiscated twelve copies of an Azeri translation of Mein Kampf. The translator, Aviaz Zeinally, was interrogated and warned not to print more copies. However, he continued printing at a private printing house and the case was reopened in August 2007 for incitement of ethnic hatred.

Antisemitic material can also be found on local Internet sites, such as Muslim Uzbekistan (http://muslimuzbekistan.com) which contains many antisemitic and anti-Zionist articles. The most popular subjects on this site are denial of the Holocaust, accusing the mass media of being controlled by Jews, and descriptions of how the “Zionists” allegedly oppress the Arabs in the Holy Land.