Karakalpakstan

Yeah, I mean, th- it is, um, obviously a very pertinent question.

We should point out that 2023 was the exact year when Mirziyoyev changed the constitution, and we should also mention very importantly that the year before, in 2022, there was an outbreak of unrest in Karakalpakstan, which became a sort of a litmus test of the government's commitment to real change.

Well, unfortunately, we saw the government resort to old methods, suppressing the unrest using what Human Rights Watch described as excessive violence that led to death, so 21 people died, the vast majority of them civilians.

So, you know, I think we can say that the litmus test was also about the aftermath of the violence.

And in Nukus, we had one day, one full day, and we visited the Savitsky Art Museum, which was the main reason we went there.

So Nukus is the capital of Karakalpakstan, which is, like, a different, um, semi-autonomous region in Uzbekistan near the Aral Sea, and it's very hot.

It's very dry.

It's very deserty.