From the category archives:

Kyrgyzstan

Nobody Likes a Critic…

by Nathan Hamm

…especially right now in Kyrgyzstan, it seems.
Last week, both the head of Kyrgyzstan’s National Security Council under Askar Akaev, Bolot Djanuzakov, and Russian political scientist Aleksandr Knyazev were attacked near their homes on the night of December 9. Knyazev has been critical of the Kyrgyz government (you can find his work on his website), and [...]

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A Kyrgyz power play beginning?

by Steven_Schwerbel

Something seems to be afoot in Kyrgyzstan — after another slaying of a journalist (the third this year) and the rearranging of the government that put the President’s son into a leading role, the Ata-Meken (Fatherland) party is speaking out:
Ata-Meken opposition party disseminated the statement of its leader Omurbek Tekebaev, where he blames Kyrgyz President [...]

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Look Out Kid, It’s Something You Did

by Asher Kohn

Let’s try something different today. A big part of some folks’ frustration with getting involved in Central Asian happenings is that they have a difficult time jumping in to the deep-end of the subject matter that gets covered here. To remedy that, I’m going to try to explain some trends in energy policies within Central [...]

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Kyrgyz Base Antics

by michaelhancock
Thumbnail image for Kyrgyz Base Antics

It’s hard to call this stuff news.  When I share the news, I like to think it’s surprising or somewhat unprecedented, or at the very least, not completely predictable.  But, well… here it is.
Item: Military Spending

The US continues to fund development in Kyrgyzstan.  It’s nice to have a record of this stuff, so that the [...]

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Militants in the Valley

Thumbnail image for Militants in the Valley by michaelhancock

The map shows Isfara [Исфара] and the “A” is Vorukh, both cities in Tajikistan, though one is in an enclave inside Kyrgyzstan.  The area is part of Central Asia’s most densely populated zone, the Fergana Valley.
Last week there was a shootout in the Fergana Valley.  The Valley is one of the most complex geographic/political divisions [...]

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Five countries, under God, Divisible…

Thumbnail image for Five countries, under God, Divisible… by michaelhancock

Central Asia is convenient term, but what does it mean?  For Registan.net, it often stretches south to include Afghanistan, east to include Xinjiang, and north to include Kazakhstan.  Kazakhstan might seem a natural inclusion, but in the Soviet Union it was considered apart, and maps that included it were generally labeled “Kazakhstan and Central Asia.”  [...]

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Kyrgyzstan Goes After Its Uighurs

by Joshua Foust

These people just can’t get a break.
Kyrgyzstan’s police detained two Uighur community leaders after they accused China of “state terrorism” at a rally on Monday and called for an independent investigation of last month’s clashes in neighbouring Xinjiang.
About 500 Uighurs gathered at a building on the outskirts of the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek with photographs posted [...]

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Uzbekistan Protests New Russian Base

Thumbnail image for Uzbekistan Protests New Russian Base by Nathan Hamm

Uzbekistan is stepping up its criticism of Russia’s plan to open a second military base in Kyrgyzstan, this one to be placed near Uzbekistan’s border in the Ferghana Valley. It has stepped up the rhetoric, claiming that the new base would destabilize the region and provoke extremists.
“The implementation of such projects on complex and unpredictable [...]

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Kyrgyzstan Votes, Sort of, and the U.S. Turns Its Back on Another Ally

by Joshua Foust

This and many more photographs are available courtesy our friends at neweurasia.net.
Tolkun Umaraliev says the opposition candidates claim the election in Kyrgyzstan to be illegal.
There is a confusion among media, both local and foreign, that candidates Nazaraliev and Atambaev have withdrawn their candidacies. However, both Nazaraliev and Atambaev have several times stated that according to [...]

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Of Bases and Transit Centers

by Nathan Hamm

Russia wants a new CSTO base in Kyrgyzstan near Osh, and it is hard not to interpret its desire as having something to do with the decision to keep the airbase transit center at Manas open to US and NATO forces. It is probably a mistake to interpret this desire as a response to Russia’s [...]

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