TURKISH BUSINESSES UNDER FIRE IN UZBEKISTAN
On March 3, 2011, two of Uzbekistan’s state-owned TV channels broadcast a special documentary called Kurnamaklar (Ungrateful), which uncovered the illegal activities of several Turkish business enterprises operating in Uzbekistan. Local observers note that during the last two years about fifty Turkish enterprises were closed in Uzbekistan and various charges were pressed against their managers. Meanwhile, local media report several reasons for the crackdown against Turkish businesses in the country.
Last year Demir, one of the oldest supermarkets of the capital which happens to be Turkish-owned, was closed. On March 2 another major Turkish enterprise, the Turkuaz trade center and all its branches in Tashkent, were also closed. Additional Turkish enterprises that have recently been closed include Orzu-plastic, Emirtextile, Marmar Group, Akeca-textile, Oskaynak, Kaynak NTA, among other.
The broadcast program informed that the abovementioned enterprises “abused the favorable investment climate” and friendly relations between the two countries. Thus, the owners and persons affiliated with these businesses were charged with different tax and financial violations. In addition, the program stated that these Turkish businessmen supported the activities of the international religious organization Nurchular, which is considered extremist in Uzbekistan, but maintains close ties with the Turkish leadership.
The independent local news source Harakat reported that after the closure of the Turkuaz trade center, there were massive detentions and interrogations of its staff, consisting of Uzbek and Turkish citizens. A significant number of controls conducted by the Central Authority on Fighting Contraband under the State Customs Committee, the State Tax Committee, the Uzstandart agency, the Antimonopoly Committee, the Assay Office, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, revealed a number of tax violations in the operation of this enterprise. The investigation found that the general director of Turkuaz, and the main representative of Gunes Tekstil were importing goods and jewelry with forged documents. The documents understated the amount and cost of the goods in order to pay minimum customs duty.
As a result of the alleged criminal activity, the state authorities confiscated valuables constituting worth over 400 million Uzbek Sums (about US$ 239,000) from the accounts of the Turkish enterprises.
Another hypothesis on the motivation for the massive move against Turkish businesses in Uzbekistan is that such Turkish enterprises as Gunesh, Turkuaz, Kaynak, and the Turkish catering network were involved in distributing literature promoting the activities of the Nurcular, Bozkurt and Milli Görus groups. Nurchilar is a religious group, consisting of followers of the Turkish Islamic figure Said Nursi and of the preacher Fethullah Gülen. Bozkurt is a nationalistic Turkish youth organization; while Milli Görus, also known by the name Refah, is a Turkish Islamic movement; the political party Refah was outlawed in Turkey in 2001, but its successor, the Saadet party, operates to this day. Furthermore, it was stated that the above-mentioned enterprises “opened underground venues for conducting religious rites, and underground shops that provided material support for radical religious activity”.
Some observers think that such charges of involvement with religious activities banned in Uzbekistan is just an excuse for closing numerous Turkish companies in the country, and that the real reasons for doing so are economic ones. Kamron Aliev, an independent political scientist from Tashkent, rejects the idea that the moves against Turkish businesses are related to the worsening of political relations between Uzbekistan and Turkey, which occurred in the late 1990s due to Turkey’s support for Muhammad Solih, leader of the Uzbek opposition party Erk. Aliev thinks that there is no hidden political motive behind the actions of the Uzbek authorities, but that they are simply a repartition of property in line with the interests of corrupt local officials.
It should be noted that Komfort-Elit, a large network of furniture stores owned by the Uzbek-Arab joint enterprise Komfort LTD, were recently closed in Tashkent. It was reported that similarly to the Turkish businesses, the owners of Komfort-Elit made a number of tax violations. Thus, the Uzbek authorities confiscated goods that had no accompanying documents worth over 10 billion Uzbek Sums (US$ 24 million).
It seems that Turkish businesses, as well as other foreign businesses operating in Uzbekistan, indeed have not followed Uzbekistan’s legislation and that their illegal activities were eventually revealed. In the case of Turkish businesses, which have enjoyed quite favorable conditions in Uzbekistan and made large investments into Uzbekistan’s economy, their affiliation with certain religious groups provides an additional excuse for their harsh treatment by the Uzbek authorities. However, it is still unclear why the activities of these foreign businessmen were not scrutinized before during their long-term operation in the country and how they managed to import such large quantities of goods while evading local customs.
