Sean Roberts over at the Roberts Report posted his recent thought-provoking speech on clan politics in Central Asia. It seems that Roberts disagrees most with the a) the use of the term “clan,” b) the notion that the political mechanisms employed by those in power are based on kinship networks, and c) the argument that clans inhibit democracy.

His post makes his argument seem a bit more expansive than it comes across in the speech itself, however. From the transcript it is clear that there are several characterizations of clan politics he is not contradicting.
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Chilly Vegetarians by tienshan

Michael Steen of Reuters reported an odd happening on Almaty Square: two British animal rights campaigners wearing bikinis made of lettuce leaves urged people of Kazakhstan to stop eating horses and go vegetarian in a freezing -8 °C in Almaty.

Whereas Borat is ridiculing the country, we’re trying to come here with a positive message,” Yvonne Taylor, 35, told Reuters. “We’re saying that going vegetarian is the best thing people can do for their health and to stop animals suffering.” “We’ve got stronger immune systems because we’re vegetarian,” Taylor told reporters and photographers wearing winter coats in front of Kazakhstan’s independence monument”, writes Steen.

Their visit must be another side-effect of Borat publicity phenomenon. I wouldn’t exclude that the next thing the animal rights campaigners would do is produce a Youtube video where Borat explains “Shurik”, (“we take dog, shoot them in the field”), followed by a clip of poor treatment of animals in Kazakhstan. That is how international Hare Krishna group creatively attracted attention to the demolition of Krishna community houses in Almaty.

Well, if Borat made the rest of the world believe that Kazakhstan is a country where people drink horse urine, the “Lettuce Ladies”, as they called themselves, have probably made Kazakhs think the Brits are strange, to say the least. There is a joke among Kazakhs that they take a second place in the world in meat consumption. If you wonder who has the first – the wolves, goes the joke.

After the ice park and the book-shaped library, President Saparmurat Niyazov has continued with the theme of inaugurating relatively light-hearted centers with the opening last Friday of an amusement park named after himself.
The 88-acre funfair has been called The World of Turkmensbashi Tales, The Associated Press reported:

“It has 54 rides including a Ferris Wheel echoing designs of Turkmen jewelry and a roller coaster swooping over a model of the Caspian Sea, the source of Turkmenistan’s rich oil and gas reserves. The park also features staff dressed as Turkmen folklore characters.”

As Niyazov said during the inauguration ceremony, attended by numerous members of Ashgabat’s diplomatic community, as pictured below, the characters could help children “better understand the world and the history and culture of their people.”

In typical fashion, Niyazov insists on driving himself around; this time in a golf cart.

Niyazov meets his cartoon alter ego.

Niyazov enjoys a joke in front of an assembley of bored diplomats. Note the stern-looking member of the security team in the crowd behind.

Fun is had by all at the The World of Turkmensbashi Tales

This is the roundup of the blogging activity in Kygyzstan for the last 2 weeks.

Obviously, the main story that was discussed by bloggers in Kyrgyzstan was the shooting accident at the American military base in Manas airport. The bottom line of the story- American military man kills the driver of the fuelling station as he suspected him in carrying a knife that could pose a threat.

Commenting on this incident Elena Skochilo writes :

“I think that someone in this country has really become impudent. Guess who it is?” Elena also mentions her discussion with of the people working at the airport Manas. Quoting her source, she writes : “According to this woman, local stuff of the airport and of the American military base is shocked. She recalls that Alexander Ivanov who got shut down was one of the most calm and benevolent stuffers. She also emphasized that at Alexander’s funeral Kyrgyz official representatives never showed up. No letters of condolence, no wreaths, nothing. The only high rank person was the US ambassador in Kyrgyzstan. When the widow asked why her husband was killed the reply from Maria Iovanovich was: “Our soldier was following instructions.”

Elena in her livejournal also cites an interview that was published in the newspaper “Delo”. The journalist of this newspaper interviewed several MPs trying to fund out what their reaction was. Apparently, it turned out that no one was especially murdered by the killing of the ordinary man. Thus Kubatbek Baybolov said that it was probably just an act of hooliganism, one among hundreds of similar nature. As far as the MP was concerned no politics was involved whatsoever.

Edil Baysalov argues in his live journal that shooting that took place was a matter of a tragic mistake. He suggests not jumping to conclusions and waiting until official results of the investigation are released. Meanwhile Baysalov shares his opinion about the present status of the American military in the country. He writes :

“ American military personnel are not always physiologically stable. We saw that recent example with major Metzger, for instance. The army is currently under a great deal of pressure. The prestige of American service people is gradually plunging. It’s not a big surprise that shootings happen in the military. But it is sad that it happened in our country… This will obviously give a reason to build up on anti American rhetoric among the supporters of the idea to push Americans out.”

Tolkun Umaraliev on neweurasia also offers his insight. He mentions:

“This incident may cause big anti-american debates on both local and international level, as it is not the first time when US Air Force is on headlines for flawed actions. I guess that Russia could press on United States too, as the victim is an ethnic Russian. Another reason for debates may also be the fact that US Air Force soldiers have diplomatic immune, and even cant be judged at the International Criminal Court at the Hague, Netherlands. So even if the soldier is guilty, no specific actions could be done. I guess it is a little early to make conclusions.”

Profet on Russian neweurasia comments on the idea to introduce a special course of “Ruhnama” ( a series of flamboyant poems written by the president of Turkmenistan) in the National Agrarian Academy in Bishkek. Scrutinizing possible consequences of such actions he writes :

“ My feelings towards this idea were rather ambiguous. From one hand, it is a probably the right time to start thinking about what could possibly become a basis for creating National Ideology of Kyrgyzstan. From the other- I was slightly worried about the fact that this idea was obviously triggered not by patriotic feelings but rather by the desire to be politically smart and, in a way, original. This time the person who decided to get the score was the dean of the Kyrgyz Agrarian Academy Bataraly Sadykov, who during his visit to Turkmenistan conferred a title of the honorary professor of the Agrarian Academy upon the president of Turkmenistan”.

Azamat Kachiev in one of his posts also touches upon the issue of higher education in Kyrgyzstan. He publishes his investigation on the corruption in medical universities in the country providing an impressive selection of interviews of students, professors and practitioners. According to his information, only 4 out of 10 medical graduates end up becoming medical practitioners. Mind also that it is not only traditional means are used nowadays to get your medical degree in Kyrgyzstan.

“ After talking to a bunch of students I discovered that you can easily pass your exam if you give a sack of sugar as a bribe,”-writes Azamat. “When I asked them how they can become decent medical specialists several of my respondents replied that all you need is practice”.

Following up on the post about a new architectural landmark to be built in Astana, I stumbled across a website about city planning in the Kazakh capital – Kasachstan Projekt (GER). Taking into account that the relocation of the capital was probably one of the most ambitious city planning tasks in Asia, it’s an interesting topic for all architecture and city planning students.

So, it’s no surprise that students of the German Technische Universität have cooperated with the Eurasian University Astana and the Kazakh Academy for Architecture and Construction to study the plans of this ambitious project. The project took place some years ago – so it’s not breaking news, but nevertheless a great insight into what changes Akmola/Astana underwent and is still undergoing.

Of particular interest are the systematic photo galleries, the city plans and the large posters the students designed for an exhibition (also in Russian).

Industrial Zone:
The cityscape in the northern parts of Astana are characterised predominantly by large factory halls but also by small enterprises. Many of the former factories are not in operation nowadays and are lying idle. There are also smaller settlements of the typical prefabricated style (using concrete slabs) and single-family house areas which mostly in bad conditions. Typically built as workers’ settlements, they are today distant from the ‘new’ city.

It has been a busy week in the Turkmen gas sector over the past week. On Dec. 8, Central Bank head Geldymurad Abilov announced that according to preliminary reports the amount of natural gas to be extracted next year will reach 71 billion cubic metres, Reuters said. As Abilov said in a televised government meeting:

“At the end of 2006, extraction of gas will have exceeded 68 billion cubic metres … while oil extraction will reach 10 million tons.”

As the Reuters report notes, there is nothing unusual about the fact that the announcement should have been made by the head of the Central Bank, whose competencies do not cover the energy sector. On previous occasions, the Minister of Defence has been given the task of releasing data about the cotton harvest.
Abilov also revealed that this year 7 million tons of oil have been refined and 13 billion kilowatt hours of electricity were generated.
At the start of the year, the Turkmen Statistics Service said that in 2005 the country had extracted 63 billion cubic metres of natural gas, 9.9 million tons of oil, and produced 12.8 billion kilowatt hours of electricity.
Next year oil extraction will reach 10.9 billion tons, from which 8 million tons will be refined, and 14 kilowatt hours of electricity will be generated, Abilov said.
However, there are some obvious misgivings about the nature of the information coming out of Turkmenistan, as the Reuters report notes:

“This year, the government stopped publishing statistics in the official press. International organizations have pointed out the lack of transparency of official Turkmen statistics, which complicates the process of assembling independent macroeconomic data.”

It is quite possible, of course, that Oil Minister Gurbanmyrat Atayev is otherwise engaged studying English, as ordered by President Saparmurat Niyazov in his nationally broadcast appointment in Dec. 2005. Either way, disappointing figures will almost certainly lead him to a similar fate to that of his predecessors.

Predictably, the government has only appeared forthcoming with news when it is in some way beneficent to its projected image. The recently discovered Iolotan gas fields in southeastern Turkmenistan, which was discovered recently, according to statements by Niyazov on Nov. 5. The president went to some lengths to explain the scale of the find in comments reported by the Associated Press, although no independent verification of the figures proposed by Niyazov has yet been provided:

“A might fountain [of gas] caught fire … It took us three days to put it out.”

On Sunday, he signed an order allowing Turkey-based Chalyk Energy to participate in the development of the field, the Associated Press reported.

“Chalyk Energy plans to spend $140 million to drill 12 oil wells up to 3,600 metres deep in Iolotan, the presidential press service said in a statement.
Niyazov said in November that the Iolotan fields contained an estimated 7 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, adding to the Central Asian state’s proven commercial reserves of 2.8 trillion cubic meters.”

This follows a similar order signed Nov. 21 endorsing a partnership the state geological exploration company Turkmengeology and China National Petroleum Corp.
Also, deputy head of Russian state gas monopoly Gazprom Valery Golubev held talks with Niyazov on Monday, to discuss plans to jointly explore and develop hydrocarbon fields, Radio Free Europe reported.
Notably, in the same week that further development was made on plans to develop a field ostensibly intended to supply China, they also discussed the possibility of creating a new pipeline along the coast of the Caspian Sea.
On the same day, Niyazov met with Ukraine deputy fuel and energy minister Vadim Chuprun.
The two sides discussed a range of ongoing joint projects in Turkmenistan, including work on a drainage-and-communication tunnel, a compressor station, and a bridge across the Amu-Darya. Again, it is notable that none of these projects are particularly closely related to the Ukrainian minister’s area of responsibility.
Nonetheless, as Chuprun said in a televised statement after the meeting:

“Ukraine has always been and will always be a dependable ally and partner to Turkmenistan, and it is prepared to undertake any measure to further develop our effective relationship.”

I happened upon a strange article about a notebook that is being spread about Uzbekistan.

There was a smiling picture of another country’s president on the cover of the notebook. The notebook also contained copies of various issues of that president’s book, which is popular in his country, state symbols of that country – its flag and emblem. There was the text of the oath of that country’s citizens and anthem on the inner side of the cover page….

The strange thing is that there is no information about which publishing houses printed these notebooks. It is clear that if the address of the publisher, in other words the source of a product is not indicated, then it is considered to be contraband.

The article does not actually tell the reader what president or which country is depicted by the notebook… just that it was likely originally printed in China, and that the author was able to trace the distribution source to the Osh oblast in Kyrgyzstan. The author concludes by asking the readers for information on where the “unacceptable material” might be coming from.

Do traders not know that they are dancing to somebody else’s tune or are they pretending to be patsy?

All in all, the article does in fact beg a variety of questions:

• Which Central Asian president is depicted on these notebooks?
• Who indeed is responsible for distributing them?
• Is this part of an elaborate propaganda strategy of oneupmanship within Central Asia?
• What exactly does “pretending to be patsy” mean?

In regard to the first question, I at first assumed that the book must be the Rukhnama, and the president in question must be none other than Turkmenistan President Niyazov. Then again, Kazakhstan President Nazarbayev is also an author, has a closer relationship with China, and has a much more effective PR apparatus.

Perhaps our readers can lend insight.

Update 2: At The Registan, Joshua discusses the story as well and some readers reply.

Update: Check out the official development website, it has some flashy 3D-models and lists the exclusive pastimes that will be available in Astana from next year onwards.

neweurasia reported more than a year ago about Sir Norman Foster’s gig in Astana, where he designed the pyramid-shaped “Palace of Peace and Reconciliation”. Contrary to one of Foster’s other projects, the new Wembley Stadium in the UK, the palace has been finished in record time and already hosted the Second Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions.

Now, after so much religious solemnity, chief planner and architect of the new Kazakh capital, Nursultan Nazarbayev, thought that it’s time for some circus. The growing population locked in the middle of the inhospitable Steppe capital is plagued by low winter temperatures dipping below -20°C and generally nasty weather conditions. So, within the next twelve months, relief is being built in the form of a giant yurt.

The transparent tent will be 150 meters high, house an indoor city and will provide temperatures of +15°C even when it’s freezing outside. The BBC and The Times round up the yurt’s specifications:

• The tent is being made from special material that absorbs sunlight to create the effect of summer inside.
• Underneath, in an area larger than 10 football stadiums, will be a city with squares and cobbled streets, canals, shopping centres and golf courses.
• It will defy the bitter Kazakh winter with tropical gardens, beaches and a nine-hole golf course and, as the president declared last week, provide “everything that a man needs for his life”.
• It will also house 225 shops and a concert venue for 5,000.
• Terraced gardens will stretch the area of two football pitches, gondolas will ply an artificial river and artificial wave pools and beaches will replicate the nearest sea

Foster has said he enjoys aspects of working for an autocrat. In a recent essay he criticised British public inquiries as “bureaucratic charades”

On December 5, the Novy Sin Gallery in Prague hosted a concert by Ridina Ahmedova, a 32-year-old Prague-born singer whose roots lie in Kazakhstan, far away from the Prague City Lights. Her website features downloadable tracks of her music, which I very much recommend listening to.

The candle-lit performance, Ahmedova’s magical voice and an entranced audience all made for an amazing atmosphere. Ridina sings, tapes her voice, reproduces it and then performs over the recorded audio. She does not use any music instruments.

Born in the Czech Republic, Ridina later lived in Algeria with her Czech mother and Sudanese father, from whom she inherited her surname, which could strike many Europeans as highly exotic. Her grandfather was a Russian Jew who lived in Almaty most of his life. Ridina is interested in her roots, and even though she has never been to Kazakhstan, she is keen to learn more about the country, she said while sipping tea after the concert.

Ridina started singing when she was 16, went through different styles, including jazz and ambient, before finding her own music style, or “before the music found her”, as she puts it. Ridina compares creating music with knitting a fabric from threads — small pieces that come through inspiration. The rest is hard work.

Ridina is eight months pregnant, and yet remains amazingly active — she runs workshops for non-professional singers, helping them to explore their potential; gives charity concerts (like the one in support of Afghani women); and runs projects with the theatre. She has an inner strength — in spite of failing to be accepted to music school on the grounds of not having talent, Ridina proved just the opposite to her audience on Tuesday — me included.

For observers of Turkmenistan’s post-Soviet history of rule-by-purge, the death of former Prime Minister Khan Akhmedov will be of some interest.
As Radio Free Europe reports:

“Akhmedov died of a heart attack on Dec. 6 in the western city of Serdar [formerly known as Gyzylarbat], where he had been in internal exile since 2002. He was buried on Dec. 7.”

From December 1989 to May 1992, a period marking his country’s establishment of independence, Ahkmedov acted as Turkmen Prime Minister.
As the subject of President Saparmurat Niyazov’s first ever wide-scale power reshuffle Akhmedov was dismissed from his post and put in charge of the railways ministry. By contemporary standards, this treatment was doubly permissive on Niyazov’s part; First, Akhmedov was allowed the relatively dignified leisure of being demoted, a parallel with Khrushchevite practices in the period after Stalin’s death. Moreover, he was indeed suited to the position as he had studied at the Tashkent Railway Engineering Institute in the late 1950s. He worked in various functions in various functions of the Turkmen Republic’s transport until 1985, when he was appointed first secretary of the Ashgabat party town committee.
However, his placement in the railways ministry was short-lived and he was soon moved on, in August 1992, to the ambassadorship of Turkey, which as Radio Free notes was considered by observers to have “heralded his downfall and eventual exile.”
More recently Ahkmedov has been confined to internal exile, and as Radio Free Europe reports relatives have claimed that he was denied medical treatment in Ashgabat.
Akhmedov was arrested in September 2002, for reasons that have never been completely clear. However, it can be assumed that personal enmity between the former prime minister and Niyazov may have been the cause of this decision.
After his arrest, Akhmedov had a house in Bikrov, in the outskirts of Ashgabat, confiscated. The authorities also confiscated flats in Ashgabat belonging to his children and the cars of various other family members.
As might be expected of a personality that could scale the heights of Soviet Turkmen power structures, Akhmedov was not without his influence, an issue that could only serve to unsettle Niyazov. He was a member of the Kyzyl-Arvat clan, which could still count on a considerable presence among the Turkmen elite under Niyazov’s rule. The clan, which is still considered influential and close-knit, also held great respect for Akhmedov, who had additional leverage through his family relations to other centres of authority in Chardjou and Mary.