Jahangir Mamatov - in Exile

In Exile

With the help of supporters he escaped from jail. His wife, the mother of four children, was put under pressure to divorce him but refused to do so, and was convicted and sentenced for two years.

During 1993 and 1994 Mamatov lived in Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and Georgia encountering a lot of hardships. He worked unpaid for the newspaper of Erk and the Birlik movement's Harakat magazine. After securing his family's exit from of Uzbekistan, he moved to Turkey and in 1994-1998 worked in Koch University in Istanbul, and as a correspondent of the BBC Uzbek Service and for the newspaper Turkiye. While living abroad he wrote his book Quvg’in ("Exile", trilogy), which was critical of the Karimov regime and had some impact in Uzbekistan.

The Supreme Court of Uzbekistan under pressure from the National Security Service (SNB, successor of former the KGB), accused Mamatov of leaving the country illegally, insulting the President of Uzbekistan, and publishing the illegal newspaper of Erk Democratic Party, and launched a criminal investigation for his arrest in 1995. Mamatov was also accused of attempting to overturn the constitutional government of Uzbekistan.

Under pressure from the Uzbek government, which sllegedly sent secret agents three times to eliminate him, and from the Turkish authorities, Mamatov was granted political asylum from the United States through the UN in February 1998.

The Supreme Court of Uzbekistan ordered the arrest of Mamatov’s relatives and his sisters who were apprehended in May 2001.

Many of his books have been published. He resumed his career as a journalist in the United States, and he led the VOA Uzbek Service from 1999-2004. He also taught Uzbek in American language schools, and since 2001 has been working as a senior linguist at the Language Research Center.

In 2005 Mamatov brought together leaders of the Uzbek opposition who had been unable to effectively coordinate their activities over the past 15 years. A Congress of Democratic Uzbekistan (CDU), open to all opposition groups and individuals, convened on September 25, 2005, and elected Mamatov as Chairman. The CDU was registered in the United States on November 18, 2005.