Kazakhstan
The KazakhTelecom building in Almaty. Photograph by neweurasia's Schwartz (CC-usage).
We are now entering the third weekend of whatever crisis has befallen WordPress in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Unfortunately, there’s not much to report, as the situation remains unchanged, if odd (why can only Opera users access WordPress?) [Ed.: Finally, some clarification. Note the comment below by "anon":
The Opera browser working query is relatively simple - IF you have enabled their “Turbo” mode, all content is loaded via the company’s servers, and sent to you. A bit like how a proxy server works really, but with a few bells and whistles (image compression etc.). You can get wordpress.com and blogger/blogspot blogs to load in IE/Chrome/Firefox etc if you use a proxy server, though I’d be careful posting anything you don’t want traced back to you, as free proxy servers could be run by anyone at all.]
I’ve asked another large WordPress-enabled blogging site in the region whether they’re having problems but have not yet received a reply. The internal forum for WordPress users is also unhelpful. I filed a query with the WordPress organization itself today, now waiting for a reply (I’m not holding out hope — it’s not as if Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are high on the list of priorities, unfortunately). Kazakhtelecom has so far not responded to enquiries about the service interruption.
Meanwhile, the spam-attack on neweurasia has slowed over the course of the week, but it’s nonetheless steep: as of today we’ve had 1231 spam comments since Monday. Doesn’t sound like a denial-of-service attack to me, but our bloggers in the region are still reporting lethargic interactivity from our platform, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we had another 850+ blow-up beginning tomorrow. [Ed.: This indeed did occur, and as of Monday, we are at nearly 2000 hits. Yet, once more note the comment below by "anon":
The spam issue you’re encountering may well be unrelated - I get more spam than that each week, and I doubt you have lower visitor stats than me! I’d take a look at the code wp-blackcheck (a WordPress plug-in) uses, you might find it can be implemented here to stop most common forms of spamming before they start using your resources too much.]
Translator’s note: Originally written by neweurasia’s Avicenna (RUS)
Last week a group of HIV-positive prisoners from High Security Prison №71 based in Zarechnyi village not far from Almaty initiated a meeting with representatives of the region’s Department of Punishment. According to human rights activist and journalist Vadim Kuramshin, the goal of the meeting was to complain about poor food provision and medical care. Oddly enough, the Department’s administration reacted to prisoners’ requests by tasking internal security forces to solve the problem.
Editor’s note: WordPress has been mysteriously inaccessible in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan while spam-bots assault neweurasia. Just a coincidence? It’s uncertain, but it’s also part of a disturbing trend. neweurasia’s Askhat and Schwartz report. [Updated]
There are two curious events going on. They’re not necessarily connected, but their timing is interesting: (a) WordPress appears to be inaccessible in Kazakhstan, and by extension, Kyrgyzstan; and meanwhile (b) neweurasia appears to be under some kind of spam attack.
Editor’s note: An ex-Kyrgyz national security service agent and two Kazakh students have been brought to court for the 2009 death of Kyrgyz opposition journalist Gennady Pavlyuk. neweurasia’s Tomyris reports. “Let’s hope that 2011 will shine a new light on press freedom in Kyrgyzstan,” she writes. “As Pavlyuk’s murder trial proceeds, may nothing short of ultimate justice prevail for this honorable journalist and his family.”
The death of Kyrgyz opposition journalist Gennady Pavlyuk has brought three ‘bad apples’ – one former Kyrgyz national security service agent and two Kazakh citizens – to court in Kazakhstan’s capital Almaty “Apple” city on June 6th 2011.
Pavlyuk, 51, died on December 22nd 2009 after being thrown – hands and feet bound – from the 6th floor of a building.
According to the Associated French Press:
“He had been staying in a hotel in Almaty and according to media reports on December 16 went to the apartment with an unknown individual. Police have found a roll of duct tape, keys to Pavlyuk’s hotel room and his jacket in the apartment.”
In January 2010, the Committee to Protect Journalists reported that Omurbek Tekebayev, a Kyrgyz opposition leader who Pavlyuk allegedly worked with politically, told The New York Times he believed “the Kyrgyz security service had lured Pavlyuk to a meeting in a neighboring country with the intention of killing him. “They do that to avoid suspicion. They do their activities outside of Kyrgyzstan.”” However, Kyrgyz President Bakiyev’s spokesman Almaz Turdumamatov denied the allegation, saying: “It is unfortunate that this killing happened… But it is wrong to say that this was connected to any kind of political motivation.”
Soros Foundations in Central Asia organize “Youth in the 21st Century: Debating and Producing Media” summer camp that will last for 12 days (yahoo!) with young brilliant people aged 17 to 25.
So here is a deal:
Apart from age, the following thing is the last requirement: participants must be young people from Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to be eligible for applying.
“This is a regional series of workshops that will be held during the summer and early autumn of 2011 for young people throughout the world. These workshops teach youth to be effective producers of media information by equipping them to produce and package content towards creating a better society,” Soros Foundation’s press-release says.
Editor’s note: Guljan Yergaliyeva, former editor of Svoboda Slova, hard-hitting critic of Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev, and human rights advocate imprisoned in 2006 for supporting Altynbek Sarsenbayev — is now stripping on YouTube, reports neweurasia’s Tomyris. “It has always felt claustrophobic wherever I’ve worked – radio, TV, press,” Yergaliyeva says. “The only thing left is the Internet.”
Bearing it all to tell the truth. Shedding layers to get to the surface. Holding back nothing so nothing can be held back. Western advocates for PETA (People for The Ethical Treatment of Animals) strip down to spread the message that they’d rather go naked than wear animal fur – so, why can’t a Central Asian journalist in search for unembellished and undecorated media truths do the same?
Former editor of Svoboda Slova, hard-hitting critic of Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev and human rights advocate imprisoned in 2006 for supporting Altynbek Sarsenbayev – Guljan Yergaliyeva is now stripping on YouTube.
Translator’s note: Originally written by neweurasia’s Askhat in Kazakh.
A famous British singer Sting will visit Kazakhstan with a June 4th concert for Astana’s birthday. When two years ago in 2009 he visited Tashkent, he was criticized for ignoring the human rights situation in the country.
In 2009 Sting gave a concert in Uzbekistan, which triggered discontent among human rights activists. The problem was that the artist, who promotes peace and justice in his creative work, did not really fit in the society, where basic rights of most citizens are systematically violated. Besides it was reported that Islam Karimov’s daughter Gulnara Karimova herself paid a million pounds for his visit, the fact The Telegraph obviously points out. Among other things, The Telegraph stresses that presidential elections in Kazakhstan were far from being free and fair. Read the full story »
This post, the first in a new segment on exploring the past of Kazakhstan, is a piece of writing on football by the late historian, political scientist and public intellectual Nurbulat Masanov. He was well known in both Kazakhstan and with foreign academics (Read some tributes after his 2006 death here). Last year, I stumbled upon a posthumously published book containing a collection of his interviews and articles: Я, Нурбулат Масанов
In addition to discussing historical, political and social issues, Masanov was, like me, a huge sports fan. Being an Alma-Ata native, his real love was the local football club FC Kairat. FC Kairat has fallen on tough times recently, but their futsal offshoot, AFC Kairat Almaty, is one of the best in Europe (remember — Kazakhstan plays in UEFA competitions, not Asia). They have made the final four of the UEFA Futsal Cup the four of the last six years, and this past April they finally received the chance to host the final tournament. They fell, once again, in the semis to Sporting Club de Portugal before capturing third.
So, in honor of Nurbulat Masanov and AFC Kairat Almaty’s success I offer this translation of his article on the glory days of Kairat. Enjoy ыныздар!
A magnitude 5.4 earthquake at a depth of 20 kilometers/12.4 miles has been recorded just 71 kilometers/44 miles northeast of Almaty today by the US Geological Survey. There have been no reports of any damage. However, this is a good reminder of the city’s troubled geological past.
Recall that the city has been destroyed twice before, in 1887 and 1911, and in an interview with IRIN today, the deputy Director of Seismology at the National Academy of Sciences, Askar Ospanov, and Baurzhan Iskakov, the chief of local emergency services, explain that the city’s overdue for another “Big One”:
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom placed Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan on list of countries of particular concern (or CPC), emphasizing that since independence and limited reforms undertaken by regimes since 1991, governments have systematically and egregiously violated freedom of religion or belief.
14 countries of that made the CPC list of the 2011 Annual Report include: Burma, the Democratic People‘s Republic of Korea (North Korea), Egypt, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, the People‘s Republic of China, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.
Tajikistan is in the watch list, while Kazakhstan is in the list of additional countries closely monitored. Te situation with religious freedom in Kyrgyzstan is not mentioned at all, probably as there is no visible violation on a state level as in other neighboring countries.
We will start with Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, two worst dictatorship regimes in the region. Read the full story »
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