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Poetry of witness: Uzbek identity and the response to Andijon

ABSTRACT This article focuses on poetry written about the 13 May 2005 events in Andijon, Uzbekistan to examine how Uzbek identity is expressed in relation to the narrow nationalism of post-Soviet Uzbek state culture. While the Uzbek government insists the 13 May events were a justified retaliation against armed insurgents, the authors of the Andijon poems portray the episode as a brutal attack on innocent civilians by government forces. In so doing, they not only contradict the official state narrative, but challenge the legitimacy of the government's construction of Uzbek identity and nationhood. This article examines the content, language and distribution of the poems as well as the persecution and arrests of their authors. The cases of these dissident poets touch on a number of theoretical issues—among them nationalism, identity, authoritarianism and literary politics—which have risen to the fore as a result of the Andijon events.