I was deployed to Uzbekistan in 2003. Local contractor secretaries were all beautiful Uzbek girls. They spoke excellent English, thought Islam sucks, liked vodka & rock music, and dressed as they pleased. Hated Afghanistan & burkas.
But all their national heroes were Genghis Khan (Temujin), Tamerlaine (Timur the Lame), Aleksandr Makedonskii (Alex the Great), and Josef Stalin. Tyrants and destroyers. And we liked to say that if the USSR were still around, every one of these lovelies would be some Soviet colonel’s b*tch.
Democracy? Rights of the individual? Never heard of those in Central Asia.
Uzbeks are an interesting people. They are basically Iranic peoples who became Turkified. Timurids wrecked their area, but he is loved?? The Iranic peoples of Uzbekistan were part of Bactria, which was a Hellenized kingdom after Iskandar.
“Uzbeks - They are the weak link in the great chain of socialism”