On July 1, 2022, thousands of people in Karakalpakstan took to the streets to demonstrate against proposed changes to Uzbekistan’s constitution which, if enacted, would have stripped the region of its status as a sovereign republic with the right to secede. When police and security forces moved to disperse the peaceful protesters, violence broke out. At least 21 people were killed. What has happened in the year since the Karakalpakstan tragedy? Joining host Bruce Pannier to discuss are Gulyaim Ahmedova, a pseudonym for a native of Karakalpakstan now living outside Uzbekistan; Joanna Lillis, a veteran Central Asia journalist who has been in Karakalpakstan several times since the violence; and Steve Swerdlow, a rights lawyer who has spent many years focusing on Central Asia, and is currently an associate professor at the University of Southern California.
