Bullying the Rising Heads: Lukashenko Speaks on the Redistribution of the World

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has stated that the next battle for the redistribution of the world will take place in Central Asia, with symptoms already emerging, according to RIA Novosti.

“The Americans want to dominate... they want a unipolar world, while they are bullying those who rise up... The reason is the emergence of new relations in the world, multipolarity. Today, a struggle is underway not only for our post-Soviet space, for its European part, but a struggle has erupted for Central Asia, where our (former Soviet) republics are located,” Lukashenko said at a ceremonial meeting on the occasion of Belarus's Independence Day.

He emphasized that earlier this year he warned of the risk of destabilization in Uzbekistan following mass protests in Kazakhstan. “Look at the Karakalpakstan (autonomous) Republic... supposedly, something was not reflected in the constitution, and now it has risen up. No, Uzbekistan is beginning to shake. And today it is already being announced that foreign hands are involved. They will not leave Kazakhstan either. The situation there is complex,” Lukashenko stated.

“Central Asia, like us, is caught between two fires: on one side are the Europeans and the Americans, on the other, China, which greatly aids Central Asia's survival. This fight will soon take place in Central Asia, and its symptoms have already appeared,” announced the Belarusian president. He underlined that “the world will be divided.”

It is noteworthy that Uzbekistan's President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has declared a state of emergency in the Karakalpakstan autonomous region, where unrest occurred, with a curfew in place until August 2. On Friday, a group of people attempted to seize state institutions in the autonomous capital, Nukus, prompted by dissatisfaction with Mirziyoyev's proposed constitutional reforms, which also pertained to the autonomous region.

Law enforcement decisively suppressed the illegal actions. The next day, Shavkat Mirziyoyev announced that he decided not to alter the constitution regarding the status of Karakalpakstan.

The autonomous Republic of Karakalpakstan, with a population of nearly two million, is located in northwestern Uzbekistan and is considered the largest region of the country, occupying almost 40 percent of its territory. In the 1990s, an agreement was signed granting it entry into Uzbekistan with the status of a sovereign republic, with the right to secede based on a future referendum.