Uzbek President Islam Karimov, authoritarian leader of his Central Asian state for more than 25 years, died yesterday, the government and parliament said in a statement which hailed him as “truly great”.
The statement said that Karimov, who was 78 and was said by diplomats to have suffered a stroke, would be buried in his hometown of Samarkand today according to Muslim traditions.
Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev was appointed head of the commission organising his burial, a sign that he might succeed Karimov, at least in the interim.
“He has left us,” Karimov’s younger daughter Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva wrote on Instagram in Russian, adding “God bless him” in Uzbek.
Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed condolences to acting President Nigmatilla Yuldoshev.
The Kremlin quoted Putin as saying that his death was a “heavy loss for Uzbekistan”.
Karimov, who had been in hospital since last Saturday after suffering what his daughter described as a brain haemorrhage, left no obvious successor to take over the Central Asian nation.
Long criticised by the West and human rights groups for his authoritarian style of leadership, Karimov ruled Uzbekistan from 1989, first as the head of the local Communist Party and then as president of the newly independent republic from 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed.
Earlier, even before his death was officially confirmed, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim offered his condolences.
The two countries have close ethnic, cultural and linguistic ties.
Georgy Margvelashvili, president of the former Soviet republic of Georgia, also expressed his sympathy, saying that Karimov had led Uzbekistan during the most difficult period of its history.
Karimov did not designate a political heir, and analysts say the transition of power is likely to be decided behind closed doors by a small group of senior officials and family members.
If they fail to agree on a compromise, however, open confrontation could destabilise Uzbekistan, which shares a border with Afghanistan and has become a target for Islamist militants.
The country is a major cotton exporter and is also rich in gold and natural gas.
In Samarkand, where Karimov’s mother and two brothers are also buried, public workers were already out on Thursday cleaning the streets so his death had clearly been expected, possibly for some days.
Samarkand airport was reported to be closed for arriving and departing aircraft last Saturday, possibly indicating even then that the government was making way for official foreign delegations to arrive.
Apart from Prime Minister Mirziyoyev, his deputy Rustam Azimov has also been seen as a possible successor.
Security service chief Rustam Inoyatov and Karimova-Tillyaeva, the younger of his two daughters, could become kingmakers.
According to the constitution, Yuldoshev is supposed to take over on Karimov’s death and elections must take place within three months.
However, analysts do not consider Yuldoshev a serious player.
His erstwhile counterpart in Turkmenistan, who was also supposed to become interim leader after the death of authoritarian president Saparmurat Niyazov in 2006, was quickly detained and thus eliminated from the line of succession.
Whoever succeeds Karimov will need to balance carefully between the West, Russia and China, which all vie for influence in the resource-rich Central Asian region.
Another task for the new leader will be resolving tensions with ex-Soviet neighbours Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan over disputed borders and the use of common resources such as water.