MUSAEV О.R., KARSHIEV Sh.C. Some Aspects of Strengthening International Relations in Polyethnic States (On the Example of Uzbekistan)
DOI 10.35775/PSI.2019.33.3.005
О.R. MUSAEV Candidate of Sciences (history), Associate Professor at the National University of Uzbekistan named after Mirza Ulugbek, Tashkent, Republic of Uzbekistan
Sh.C. KARSHIEV Lecturer at Tashkent State Pedagogical University named after Nizami, Tashkent, Republic of Uzbekistan
SOME ASPECTS OF STRENGTHENING INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS IN POLYETHNIC STATES (ON THE EXAMPLE OF UZBEKISTAN)
The article studies and analyzes some aspects of strengthening interethnic relations in multi-ethnic states (on the example of Uzbekistan).
Key words: nation, ethnicity, people, interethnic relations, multi-ethnic states, national minorities, interethnic harmony, interethnic conflicts, harmonization of interethnic relations, national interests.
Modern world development is increasingly characterized by the appearance of complexly interwoven processes of national self-assertion and the growth of nationalism, interethnic contradictions and conflicts. In recent years, a number of countries seeking to move away from the totalitarianism have become the scene of such conflicts.
In the space of the former Soviet Union, as in Yugoslavia, centrifugal tendencies are accompanied by warped fates of thousands of people and even deaths. Events in Nagorno-Karabakh, ethnic clashes in Moldova, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the North Caucasus, etc. should become the subject of serious reflection and in-depth analysis by politicians and scientists.
Unfortunately, for decades, the problems arising as a result of the awakening and rapid activation of national identity have remained unnoticed. But today, the time is different. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the mirage of the allegedly “superethnic” community dispelled [9. P. 4].
It should be emphasized that the works of Russian authors published in recent years highlight a wide range of issues on this subject [1; 3; 6. Pp. 157-172; 7. Pp. 46-50; 8. Pp. 100-108; 10; 13. Pp. 229; 11].
The processes of democratization of public life have exposed problems and contradictions in the national sphere that have deep social, economic, political, spiritual, cultural, environmental, demographic and other roots. It has become obvious that the issues of survival of entire nations and the deformation of national development, as reflected in their national identity, give rise to a sense of resentment, create the basis for conflicts. Massive repressions, deportations of entire nations, their deprivation of national and basic human rights, organization of targeted population migration and arbitrary determination of the borders of the union and autonomous republics left a deep imprint on the social “well-being” of nations.
The issues of the language and cultural development, of the preservation of national traditions and cultural life of small nations have become acute now.
All these questions require a scientific assessment and a search for real ways directing the national movements into the general flow of world civilization. They pose a complex set of theoretical and practical problems for the science, the solution of which is possible through a broad philosophical understanding of the dialectics of national trends, identifying the effects of patterns of social development, contradictions and driving forces of social progress.
Correct and scientifically sound national policy can be pursued only we understand the key trends of reality, the dialectic of what is happening, its objective logic, and creatively use the principle of a systematic approach.
The world has already entered the technological era thanks mostly to the economic, political, cultural, environmental and other ties of the states. Peoples can be greatly degraded if their leaders choose the path of autarchy, naively thinking that you can move forward, protecting yourself with a high wall from other ethnic groups. Nations inevitably interact within the framework of a single civilization according to the principles of dialectics, which implies not only the struggle of opposites, but also their unity.
A qualitatively new model of interethnic relations should exclude a set of ready-made recipes and doctrinaire prescriptions, ensure an active interaction of innovative theoretical thoughts with practice. National relations, the interactions between nations revealed many new phenomena and trends. It would be a mistake not to take them into account. A task of paramount importance is the revision of established ideas about the essence of a nation, the rethinking of the principles of interethnic relations, of the issues connected with the management of this sphere, etc. Fundamental research in this area, based on a new approach, on a fundamentally new socio-philosophical concept, will create a reliable basis for the successful updating of the system of interethnic relations, which are a powerful source of social development.
In principle, many books are written on national issues. However, paying tribute to the work of the researchers, it should be emphasized that many of these works are far away from life and the reasearchers themselves are not prepared for radical changes and forecasts. The nature of their research topics was mainly determined by the needs of “developed socialism” [2. P. 82-86]. Therefore, many pressing problems of national relations have not been studied in their entirety and depth. The theory being under the “hypnosis” of dogmatic stereotypes, fulfilling the social order of the bureaucratic party and state apparatus, proved unable to adequately comprehend the practice, the new phenomena and trends in the national sphere. For a long time, scientific research avoided the acute problems of national development and national relations, which hindered the study of pressing issues of the development of nations and national relations. In essence, the entire content of the dialectic of national relations boiled down to proving the non-conflict nature of national processes, an ethnic analysis of the development trends and rapprochement of nations. As a result, an erroneous conclusion was drawn about the supposedly inevitable overcoming of national differences, about the “merger of nations” [12. P. 12].
The research of “The Soviet people as a new historical community of people” carried out in the 70-80s met the objectives of the then current policy and not the real national interests. A scientific analysis of the real processes taking place in the national sphere will make it possible to more fully elucidate the trends in the laws of development and interaction of nations, to more deeply reveal their interconnection and mutual influence in order to achieve social progress.
The study of interethnic relations dictates the need to understand the essence of many concepts, including the concepts of “nation” and “ethnos” and to consider other concepts of the topic under study with the account of new scientific data. This is important because the content of many of them is emasculated and distorted.
The processes occurring in recent years in national and interethnic relations show that an updated national concept cannot be developed without a new scientific understanding of the problem of “self-awareness of nations,” “national independence,” “national idea,” the relations between “national” and economic, psychological, etc. This fully applies to the concepts of “national relations,” “interethnic relations,” “national processes,” “within the national relations” [9. P. 106] where more strict and clear differentiations are needed. Scientific development is required for such “forgotten” problems as the development of nations in the framework of universal progress, a holistic world, the national aspect of justice, etc.
National relations carry contradictions that are multifaceted and cover all spheres of life of nations. They show the interests and needs of nations. National relations are a specific form of social relations, therefore, the contradictions that arise in the national sphere are a reflection of the processes taking place in the society. They are caused by the appearance on the historical stage of nations that will exist for a long time. The consideration of this provision should be one of the starting points of methodological points in the analysis of national phenomena.
It should be noted that different types of national contradictions appeared in the Soviet Union, and they were not always taken into account either in politics or in management.
Of particular importance and relevance in a methodological sense is the task of clearly distinguishing between the concepts of “contradiction,” “deformation” and “negative phenomena” in the field of interethnic relations.
It seems essential to study the problems of the formation of national feelings inextricably linked with the environment: natural, cultural, ethnic, etc. For example, even ecology, having a huge impact on the health, the social well-being of a person as a representative of a particular nationality, can act to some extent as a catalyst for negative national feelings.
The conditions for optimizing and then harmonizing interethnic relations are organically linked to the political structure of society and its functioning. The task of the theory is to rethink the national-state structure of peoples in a new way, to seek a scientifically based mechanism for implementing the principles of self-determination and sovereignty of nations in a democratic society and the rule of law.
The interests of social practice are put forward as the most important problem of the scientific knowledge of the material foundations of the renewal of national relations, their harmonization in the face of manifold forms of ownership. Acute questions arise in relations between peoples in connection with the implementation of the principles of economic sovereignty of the republics, as a result of which many former forms of economic relations lose their significance. In the context of the formation of a new economic infrastructure, of the creation of a market economy in the independent republics, the urgent task is to develop a modern concept of the economic progress of the peoples, of the participation of independent states in the international division of labor, specialization and the use of the potential of economic communities in the interests of states, etc.
Nothing affects the national well-being of people as a violation of social justice. Unfortunately, to this day, this issue has not been sufficiently developed, the criteria and norms of social justice in the national sphere are not defined, which negatively affects the national politics.
The growth of anomalies in the interethnic relations requires elucidation of the underlying spiritual factors, the search for a mechanism for a more effective introduction of people of different nationalities to the cultural values, to the norms of human society and ways of behavior in a multinational environment. Each nation has sovereignty in determining the form of development of its culture, the viability of which depends on the strength of successive ties and on the degree to which it reflects new phenomena and trends generated by the communication of peoples and their familiarization with global humanistic values [2. P. 12-16].
For a long time, national policy was based on a distortion of the provision on the two trends in the development of nations. The whole variety of forms of development was boiled down to a scheme which, in the dialectics of the development and rapprochement of nations, gave priority to the rapprochement trends. This was the root of many distortions. In that scheme, the principles of internationalism were not aimed at harmonizing national relations, but served utilitarian, narrow practical purposes.
The realities of life show that one cannot consider a person without taking into account his or her nationality, specific qualitative characteristics and the national diversity of the human factor. Taking this into account is very important in managing the society.
You should know that due to objective factors there can be different periods in the relations between nations, but the essence of the phenomenon of friendship of peoples, its historical justification, fixed by the joint living and mutual influence of many generations, remains unchanged. It is necessary to understand this from a methodological point of view, because an absolutization of the negative facets of the relationship between nations is a constant source of interethnic conflicts.
The Republic of Uzbekistan provides a convincing example of peaceful life and coexistence of various nations, religions, cultures and traditions of the peoples inhabiting it, it is an example of interethnic harmony and spiritual unity of citizens in a multinational context.
The state policy of Uzbekistan in the field of national relations in the broad sense is an integral part and a specific aspect of politics in a multinational, multi-ethnic state.
The main sources of support of the ethnopolitics in the Republic of Uzbekistan are:
– The Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan and legislative acts in this area (Laws “On the State Language,” “On the Foundations of State Independence of the Republic of Uzbekistan,” “On Citizenship,” “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations,” etc.);
– International treaties in the field of human rights and humanitarian law ratified by the Republic of Uzbekistan (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, Final Act of the OSCE Helsinki Conference, etc.);
– adopted and ratified resolutions and recommendations of international organizations of which the Republic of Uzbekistan is a member (UN, OSCE, CIS, etc.);
– bilateral and multilateral interstate agreements governing the status of ethnic minorities (National Human Rights Action Program).
Ethnopolitics of the Republic of Uzbekistan includes the following elements:
– practical actions aimed to create in the society an atmosphere of interethnic and interfaith tolerance;
– improvement of provincial institutions and legislative mechanisms to ensure individual and collective human rights, including the rights of minorities (ethnic, racial, linguistic, religious, cultural, etc.);
– measures to preserve the ethnocultural identity of minorities and their integration.
The basic constitutional norms relating to ethnopolitics are enshrined in Articles 4, 8, 18, 21, 31, 57, 73, 74, 115 of the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Article 4 of the Constitution enshrines the principle of promoting the cultural development of minorities: the Republic of Uzbekistan “ensures respect for the languages, customs and traditions of the nations and nationalities living in its territory, creating conditions for their development” [12. P. 4].
Article 8 reads: “The people of Uzbekistan are citizens of the Republic of Uzbekistan, regardless of their nationality” [12. P. 5].
According to Article 18 of the Constitution “all citizens of the Republic of Uzbekistan have the same rights, freedoms and are equal before the law without distinction of gender, race, nationality, language, religion, social origin, beliefs, personal and social status” [5. P. 6].
Another important source of peaceful coexistence between the titular nation and national minorities lies in the special mentality of the Uzbek people. What underlies the specific features of the mentality of the people? This is, first of all, the historical experience of the people, the system of customs and traditions that has developed over the centuries. President of the Republic of Uzbekistan I.A. Karimov emphasized: “The majority of the people of Uzbekistan do not put their personal well-being in the first place, but concern for the health and well-being of their families, relatives and neighbors. This is the highest spiritual value of the man. Our people never put themselves above other peoples, showing due respect to other nations and representatives of other faiths.
Virtue and generosity, hospitality and mercy, formed over the centuries, are the high spiritual qualities of the Uzbek people. These qualities played an important role during the most difficult historical periods, becoming the basis of the resilience of our people” [4. P. 45].
Mentality is a certain socio-psychological state of a nation that captures the results of a long and sustained impact of the ethnic, socio-economic and socio-cultural conditions of this nation.
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