Tashkent - the city you'll keep going back to
Capital of Uzbekistan through Azerbaijani eyes

ANALYTICS 24 October 2022 - 10:43

Recently a large group of Azerbaijani media visited Uzbekistan. The event was timed to coincide with the opening of a new Baku-Samarkand-Baku flight. But so much has already been written and said about it that we would not like to repeat it. So, let's talk about something else, which I am sure is not less interesting.

Out of the various cities of this country, where our journalists have set foot, I would like to mention its capital in particular. Firstly, because Tashkent is the heart of Uzbekistan, it is difficult to imagine this country without it. Secondly, it is very difficult to imagine another capital city that has:

A) so many police (including mounted police);

B) almost all taxi drivers have outstanding musical taste;

C) practically all cars are locally made, namely Chevrolets assembled in Uzbekistan;

D) the metro and all public transport, in general, are very cheap;

E) there is no Armenian embassy;

F) there is our embassy, but it doesn't seem to exist;

g) despite the abundance of construction work, trees are hardly ever cut down and the city is buried in verdure.

Well, now, let's talk about everything in order.

Tashkent is completely apolitical. Even the state treaty with Kyrgyzstan, under which Uzbekistan recently transferred tens of thousands of hectares of its land to that country, is virtually never discussed here, either in the street or in the media.

Speaking about the apolitical nature of the population, of course, it is impossible not to recall taxi drivers who in any country of the world "understand" politics better than any political scientist. But not in Uzbekistan as a whole and in Tashkent in particular! Here the taxi drivers are happy to tell you about their music or sports passions, and talk about the Beatles, Enigma, and Ray Charles, rather than discuss with you the laws of the state, or at least the situation on the Russian-Ukrainian border. For example, it is almost impossible to imagine such a thing in Baku, Tbilisi, or Moscow, isn't it?

Meanwhile, despite such indifference to the political processes taking place both in Uzbekistan itself and abroad, Tashkent is literally swarming with police and other representatives of security agencies, among whom the National Guard, a kind of police elite, stands out. One can see them at almost every significant cultural and sporting event. And working in the National Guard is considered a very cool and honourable job.

Continuing to talk about the taxis, I would like to note that for all the whining of local taxi drivers about low prices for their services it is impossible to imagine such a disconcerting and bewildering price list for taxi or metro services in Baku, too! So, a trip to any part of the city will cost you no more than two, and in the case of "traffic jams" three American dollars. In the local currency, it would cost 20-30 thousand sums. This is despite the fact that petrol prices in Uzbekistan are almost identical to ours. Moreover, a trip on the metro costs 10 cents (1,400 sums)!

The only thing Tashkent is inferior to Baku is the number of expensive foreign-made cars on its streets. The citizens of the country fully support local production - they buy exclusively Chevrolet cars, which are assembled at the local plant. However, they are forced to do so because the taxes on imported cars are so high that only local oligarchs, including many of our compatriots, can afford a Range Rover or BMW X5.

By the way, there are a lot of Azerbaijanis both in Uzbekistan as a whole and in Tashkent itself, but I can't call our diaspora strong and capable of influencing decisions of state importance. The diaspora is fragmented and its most influential members act independently, without looking at each other. Even the activities of the Azerbaijani embassy in Tashkent are equal to zero! For example, the embassy representatives managed to ignore Judo World Championship that was held these days in Tashkent. At least, except for a couple of our compatriots living in the Uzbek capital, NONE of the diplomats came to support our guys! And this was against the background of an abundance of, let's say, Kazakh and Georgian flags that literally flooded the Humo Arena during the judo performances of these countries. During our athletes' bouts, we could see only a couple of lonely Azerbaijani flags. But if we pay a sharp visit to the Azerbaijani Embassy, we can find more than a dozen flags that are getting dust in the cellars instead of being used as a PR tool for our country and inspiration for our athletes. Alas, embassy officials are only waiting for the Foreign Ministry's order to at least somehow mark their activities in this country. And this is despite the fact that Armenia's activities in Tashkent are not initially indicated because there is no Armenian embassy in Uzbekistan at all. It would seem that our diplomats should take advantage of this and develop a boisterous activity, keeping up with everywhere where socially significant events take place. But alas, the existence of our embassy is only marked on paper...

Being in Tashkent, apart from the diplomatic inactivity of the Azerbaijanis, it is impossible to ignore the construction activities of the Uzbeks. There is a lot of construction work going on in literally every district of Tashkent. And not a single tree is practically cut down during this work! Therefore, watching the construction of yet another building in yet another district of the Uzbek capital, you have to admit that such careful preservation of green areas in the capital of Azerbaijan is, alas, still at the level of unattainable fiction. We have a lot to learn from the Uzbeks, who, incidentally, have a very friendly attitude towards Azerbaijanis. At least, when you say that you are from Azerbaijan, their faces light up in benevolent smiles. A smile that says more clearly than any words about the attitude towards Azerbaijanis. A smile that needs no intermediaries, no ambassadors, and no diplomacies. A smile that clearly shows the warmth and sincerity of relations between our countries.

Summing up all of the above, we can state that Tashkent is the city you'll keep going back to!