There’s new talk of a New Great Game unfolding in Central Asia. The thing that made me post on this, to me unfamiliar, terrain of geopolitics was a news report in yesterday’s UK Times. The piece quoted the head of the British army Sir Richard Dannattin in the context of British forces facing a “generation of conflict” in Afghanistan:

[He] gave warning of the dangers posed by a “strident Islamist shadow” and suggested that the British Army was “on the edge of a new and deadly Great Game in Afghanistan”.

Discussing the speech on BBC Radio 4’s Today show, Dr. Michael Denison of Leeds University said that Sir Dannatin’s remarks should be read as that British security interests can only be maintained by fighting in “remote and treacherous areas abroad”, and on a tactical level by “local deal-making, attrition and espionage”.

Well, although Sir Dannatin only mentioned Afghanistan in his speech, the return to an oldschool-19th century “Tournament of Shadows” might also be an appealing story for the odd sensationalist journalist predicting a clash between the NATO-West and the SCO-East in Central Asia. (more…)

Kiran over Mongolia is a feature-length documentary about a Kazakh eagle hunter in Mongolia. neweurasia asked the filmmaker, Joseph Spaid, a few questions about the film, which is hitting the screen in Kazakhstan at this year’s Almaty Film Festival.

Question: Joseph, thanks for taking the time to answer our questions. Let’s start with a little bit about yourself.

I am a 41-year-old American male from a not-so-observant Christian family. I grew up in Southern California, studied film at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, and have been working in the TV/film industry almost two decades now.

Besides filmmaking, I love to surf (yes, we do that in New York City), am fascinated with art, foreign cultures, hand crafted rugs and tapestries, and travel. At age 33, I took a year-long trip around the world to 20 countries. It was during this trip that I first encountered the Kazakh eagle hunters of Mongolia.

Q: What exactly does Kiran stand for?

“Kiran” is the Kazakh word for golden, and the word used to describe the qualities of an eagle that make it good for hunting, i.e., a bird that is large, fierce, and has deep red eyes is “Kiran”. (more…)

Abdulgamid analyzes the situation on Turkmen bread market (ENG, RUS).

The citizens of Kyrgyzstan, a nominally Muslim country, have an interesting history with Islam: While the nomadic Kyrgyz haven’t really been introduced to the religion before the 18th century, Kyrgyzstani Uzbeks from the Ferghana Valley practice a more traditional form of Islam. During the Soviet era, religion was pushed to the sidelines of society, but Islam has seen some revival since Kyrgyzstan’s independence in 1991, again mostly in the southern rural parts of the country.

Hajj pilgrims heading to Mecca from Osh, southern Kyrgyzstan. By Flickr user teokaye.

Last week, Kyrgyzstani bloggers were worried about the threat of Islamisation in their country. The debate was the result of an interdepartmental commission’s decision to allow Muslim women to wear hijabs for their passport photographs. (more…)

Ben thinks over the reasons and pretexts for the Kazakh government’s cressure on Agip KCO consortium, which had to start exploitation of the world’s top oil deposit Kashagan this year, but has once again delayed the works (ENG).

Vadim reports on opening ceremony of a bridge across Panj river between Tajikistan and Afghanistan (ENG).

Kamron discusses the probability of forthcoming presidential elections in Uzbekistan (RUS).

Ben reports on the Kazakh government’s declared decision to review the agreement with ENI on development of world’s top-ten oil deposit Kashagan after the consortium, led by the Italian corporation, said it will pospone the start of extraction (ENG).

Kamneed’s Friday Photo provides several glances on the people doing their jobs in Almaty (RUS).

Jamiyat questions recent confiscations of CDs with Uzbek music on Tajik markets (ENG).