Since 2016, Dilmurad Mirusmanov and his family have been living in a two-storey house in the bustling neighborhood of Mirobod Avenue, in the Uzbek capital Tashkent. When they bought it, they would have never thought that a private company – with the support of a corrupt judiciary and political system – could suddenly take it away. But in the morning of January 11, Dilmurad and his 14 family members – including nine children and his elderly mother – risk being forcibly evicted and forever lose their home.
Dilmurad started his legal battle in 2019, when the private firm Golden House first started threatening seizing the property to build a new housing project. Golden House is a subsidiary of Orient Group, one of the biggest business holdings of Uzbekistan, and its funding sources are quite opaque. According to some sources, it receives Russian capital.
To defend his right to keep his house or to at least receive fair compensations, Dilmurad has been actively engaged in advocacy campaigns and legal battles. The company, though, has been ignoring his plea. Even worse, they have been threatening him that they wouldn’t give him any compensation if he wouldn’t accept their conditions. But the conditions proposed are simply inacceptable. In a public appeal to the President of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Dilmurad writes that the company has proposed to move them from the current place – a 300 square meters and modern house in the city center – to cheaper and smaller buildings (two apartments, of around 67 square meters each), located in a very polluted, industrial area.
“We are forcibly evicted from our own house,” writes Dilmurad in the letter. “Not for state or public needs (such as the construction of bridges, roads, etc.), but only because someone wants to build a multi-story building on the site of our home, just for the purpose of making a profit. It feels like it’s back to the serfdom age: they want to decide for us where we should live and where not.”
Protest sign in front of Dilmurad Mirusmanov’s house in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
Dilmurad’s case is not an isolated one. In recent years, Tashkent has attracted significant foreign investments as it has been undergoing a massive urban renovation scheme. Over ten thousand people have already been forced to leave their homes, and thousands more are under threat of eviction.
In the Facebook page “Tashkent Snos movement”, which counts around 23000 members, hundreds of people complain about this mass campaign of forced evictions, which are depriving people of their private properties and demolishing buildings that have historical or cultural value.
In 2018 and 2019 there was a wave of public protests and, as a result, a ministerial decree froze seizures. However, several private companies have managed to infiltrate the political and judiciary system to keep obtaining building permits and to force evictions through court decisions. According to several sources, corruption is playing a big role in this. Local journalists have also identified direct links between developers and local or central authorities.
Defying this system is an uphill battle. Dilmurad has witnessed first hand how even the law can be twisted or broken, to protect the interests of private companies instead of the rights of ordinary citizens. Yet, he is determined to keep demanding justice and defending his family’s rights.
Further readings
- English translation of the letter addressed to the Uzbek president in January 2024
- The limits of reform in Uzbekistan (By Margaret Hanson, Eurasia Net, 2022)
- Evicted without warning: sudden Tashkent demolitions spark anger (by Marc Bennetts, The Guardian, 2019)
- Dispossession and urban development in the new Tashkent (By Atkhan Akhmedov, Open Democracy, 2018)
Media contacts
- Dilmurad Mirusmanov | +998 90 982 27 94 | dili2025@gmail.com (Uzbek, Russian, English)
- Lorena Cotza (Communications Lead – Coalition for Human Rights in Development) – lcotza@rightsindevelopment.org (English)
Further contacts of local activists can be provided upon request.
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