Mubarek zone

The Mubarek zone (, ) was a failed proposal by the government of the Soviet Union promoted by the KGB throughout the 1970s and 80's to push exiled Crimean Tatars (referred to as "people of Tatar nationality that formerly lived in Crimea" by the government) scattered throughout the Ferghana valley to move to the mostly unindustrialized Mubarek district of the Qashqadaryo Region with the goal of having them help industrialize the area, "take root" in Uzbekistan to put to rest desires to return to Crimea, and compose a new Tatar district in lieu of the Crimean Tatar community's long-sought goal of full right of return to Crimea and restoration of the Crimean ASSR. Few Crimean Tatars supported it or ever moved to the proposed district, seeing it as a plan to further assimilate them in Uzbekistan, turn them into "Mubarek Tatars", keep them out of Crimea, prevent restoration of the Crimean ASSR, and artificially recreate the "promised land" so far away. It was eventually scrapped when it became clear that few Crimean Tatars were moving to Mubarek and held strong desires to return to Crimea despite strong encouragement to "take root" in Central Asia, which promoters of the project described as their "ancestral home" to push the project and downplay Crimean Tatar ties to Crimea. Previously, the Central Committee attempted to "solve" the "Crimean Tatar problem" by suggesting that exiled Crimean Tatars move to the Tatar ASSR and "reunite" with Kazan Tatars, despite the huge linguistic differences and starkly different origins between the two nations bearing a coincidental name, and as expected no Crimean Tatars ever "returned" to Tatarstan at the suggestion.