Kyrgyzstan
Tashkent shook quite strongly yesterday in the first hour after midnight (00:35). At first the tremors appeared rather weak, but after a couple of seconds the shaking became no joke.
Standing in the doorway, I woke up almost hysterical. We grabbed our documents and ran into the street, finding dozens of neighbors doing the same.
Soon the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) reported that the earthquake was 6.2 or 6.5 on the Richter scale. At first we were under the impression that its epicenter was north of Tajikistan. Residents of Khujand and Sughd shook really hard. However, Gazeta.uz is reporting that in fact it was 235 kilometers southeast of Tashkent in Kyrgyzstan. Nature has a way of reminding us of the futility of human political borders. (The map above is from IRIS.)
Gazeta.us is also reporting that 13 people have been killed and 86 people provided with first aid, of which 35 have been hospitalized. According to the news site, President Islam Karimov “shall take prompt action to mitigate the effects of the incident and provide comprehensive assistance to victims”.
So, as you’ve probably noticed from our Twitter feed, the WordPress ban in Kazakhstan appears to be over. Two days ago, neweurasia‘s Asqat tweeted the good news. To double-check, I checked with our team in Kyrgyzstan whether they are having an easier time accessing WordPress (that’s because the two countries’ telecoms are deeply entwined, and so what happens in Kazakhstan inevitably washes over into Kyrgyzstan). Happily, they report that everything’s back to normal. Now, an update and a comment…
Update: Earlier I posted about how this ban may have been (ostensibly) due to two blogs. There’s been a small debate concerning the URL of one of the them. We’ve reported that it’s djamat.wordpress.com, but RFE/RL reported that it’s jamaat.wordpress.com (here and here). The URL we reported doesn’t appear to have ever existed; the URL RFE/RL reported belongs to the Bangladeshi Jamaat-i-Islami, created in 2005 but after just one post never used again. Consider this my digital version of a shrug.
Comment: Like any nation, Kazakhstan has legitimate concerns regarding the effects of controversial content on the Internet, and it reserves the right to do what it sees best to protect its population. However, considering that the target of this latest action was a major platform for citizen journalism, what’s also at stake are rights that encompass and even transcend the national — the rights of individuals to express their opinions and, in turn, be heard. By lifting this ban, the Kazakh authorities are therefore doing the right thing twice-over. It is my hope that this is setting a positive precedent, although of course time will tell.
The National Library of Kyrgyzstan (from website).
Editor’s Note: There’s potentially good news around the corner for Kyrgyzstan’s troubled libraries: the EMC Heritage Trust Project has recently awarded the Kyrgyz Kitep Borburu a generous grant to re-catalogue and digitize its rare book holdings, including several manuscripts of the Kyrgyz language in Arabic script. neweurasia’s Emerson reports.
The EMC Heritage Trust Project has recently awarded the public association Kyrgyz Kitep Borburu (Kyrgyz State Book Chamber) $15,000 to preserve and protect old books in Kyrgyz:
The EMC grant will support the digitization of early Kyrgyz books in Arabic type, making selected resources available to the public. Resources include handwritten books and manuscripts which preserve and transmit the history, geography, and ethnography of their time.
It’s my understanding that a portion of the grant money is to be spent for digitizing the Manas epic and some select books.
The EMC Corporation is a world leader in information infrastructure solutions. Of particular interest is its Information Heritage Initiative (IHI) program, whose grants support projects that digitize, protect and improve access to cultural information in communities around the world. Award recipients are selected based on potential size of the audience that would benefit, and the risk status of the information in question and any related urgency to digitize.
The Kyrgyz Kitep Borburu (KKB) was founded in 1937 to preserve books, serial publications and other printed materials. Their grant will include (a) a temporary Arabic reader who will build a new database of Arabic-script Kyrgyz works and (b) a digitization effort of about 400 books, part of the intention of which is to make the rare books collection available to public through Internet in pdf format. The KKB will also be responsible for investigating any necessary issues relating to copyright permissions.
World Bank Group support to countries in the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region totaled more than $9.3 billion in fiscal year 2011. This was double pre-crisis levels but, as planned, less than at the height of the crisis. The Bank continued to lend significant support this fiscal year to help countries sustain the nascent recovery in the region, while mitigating the impact of lingering effects of the crisis on the region’s most vulnerable, World Bank’s press-service reports.
“Countries in the region are continuing to face a challenging environment as they look to recover from the crisis. Growth resumed in Europe and Central Asia in 2010 and reached 4.5 percent, following sharp declines during the global crisis. Projections for 2011–13 are for slightly stronger performance, but remain below those for other regions.
For net importers, higher food and energy prices threaten to increase poverty, particularly in Armenia, the Kyrgyz Republic, and Tajikistan, and the continued financial concerns in Western Europe provides added uncertainty. The World Bank remains committed to supporting the countries in the region as they continue to recover from the crisis and take the necessary steps to improve the lives of their citizens.”
Philippe Le Houérou, World Bank Vice President for the Europe and Central Asia Region.
Editor’s note: Information about the WordPress ban in Kazakhstan is slowly trickling out. On 15 July, it was revealed that the ban is ostensibly due to two WordPress blogs that fell afoul of Kazakh censors, but one of the blogs appears not to have existed and the other was taken down from WordPress for violating the latter’s terms of service. neweurasia’s Schwartz reports.
According to neweurasia‘s Asqat, Kazakhstan’s Minister of Communications and Information, Askar K. Zhumagaliev, has announced that the WordPress ban will be lifted soon, although the official didn’t say precisely when. In the meantime, I’m still trying to make sense of what even happened. Back on 15 July, the following comment and reply appeared on Zhumagaliev’s blog:
[...] Пожалуйста дайте срочное указание в Казахтелеком. Пусть сделают полное отображение блога на bakhytzhan10.wordpess.com Я думаю сотни людей сейчас испытывают затруднения. На wordpress заходят,а на приборную панель попасть не могу!
[...] Please give an indication of an emergency in Kazakhtelecom. Let them do the full display on a blog bakhytzhan10.wordpess.com I think hundreds of people are now experiencing difficulties. We can sign into WordPress but not access the dashboard!
25 мая 2011 года решением Сарыаркинского районного суда г. Астана наложен запрет на распространение казахстанскими провайдерами информации, размещенной на интернет-ресурсах www.djamat.wordpress.com и www.caucase.wordpress.com и признанной противоречащей законодательным актам Республики Казахстан. В этой связи, доступ к блог-платформе wordpress.com закрыт, так как все блоги, размещенные на данном интернет-ресурсе, обладают идентичными IP-адресами.
May 25, 2011 – The district court of Saryarka Astana decided to ban from distribution by Kazakh providers information posted on the websites djamat.wordpress.com and caucase.wordpress.com, which were found to contradict the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan. In this regard, access to the WordPress.com blog platform is closed, as are all blogs are posted on this web resource [because they] have identical IP-addresses.
I went looking for information about these two blogs. Read the full story »
Translated from Kamilla’s post (RUS).
Another Kurultai of the Peoples’ Assembly of Kyrgyzstan, which took place on June 17, gave a way for hot debates about necessary mechanisms of regulating interethnic relations. The meeting was a platform for a special work group of the President’s Apparatus to present a Conception of ethnic politics and of the consolidation of the society. At the same time another Conception of development was presented by the Ata-Jurt fraction. The documents demonstrate a number of general distinctions that unveil authors’ motives.
Neweurasia has invited a PhD candidate in historical science, the analytical expert of “PolisAsia” Pavel Dyatlenko to comment on the contradicting situation around ethnic politics in Kyrgyzstan.
Neweurasia: What do you think about the current ethnic situation in Kyrgyzstan?
The interethnic situation in Kyrgyzstan remains complicated and intense. There are still many problems and unresolved issues. There are a few examples. For instance, Kyrgyzstan completely lacks effective and democratic ethno-linguistic policy. Neither the state, nor the citizens are willing to fight xenophobia and nationalism.
Neweurasia: In what way the June events of 2010 can affect the outcome of the presidential elections?
Political and ethnic conflicts of 2010 will push the candidates to position themselves in the light of several crucial issues – interethnic relations, language politics, relations with Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and their attitude to the last year’s April and June events. They will use and already are using nationalistic mottos and the discourse with pseudo-patriotic content.
Neweurasia: Why “pseudo-patriotic” discourse has become so popular among politicians?
Our society remains in the post-revolutionary state of exaggerated expectations and hopes and many people still expect fast and easy benefits. Politicians know that and keep using them for their electoral campaigns and other interests. By playing down the ‘patriotism’ theme, they attempt to gain popularity bonuses. It is known that that the so-called ‘patriotic’ discourse does not necessarily require real action and concrete, measurable achievements; populist and appealing media statements are usually enough.
Neweurasia: What are the focal points in the Ata-Jurt’s Conception?
The Conception by Ata-Jurt attempts to formulate the action plan for constructing a mono-linguistic and mono-cultural society in Kyrgyzstan. To reach this goal anti-democratic, anti-constitutional and discriminatory measures are going to be used with regards to interethnic relations, language and ethnic politics. The authors of the Conception are trying to legalize antiscientific and anti-constitutional terms such as ‘titular nation’ and others.
Neweurasia: Why are they trying to promote their Conception directly via the parliament and by passing over the President’s administration? To what extent is it legitimate?
With the presidential elections ahead, the Ata-Jurt fraction is positioning itself as ‘patriots’. They are trying to attract attention of the electorate on the range of crucial and rather sensitive issues. The question of ethno-linguistic politics and interethnic course will dominate during the presidential elections, while nowhere, neither in our Constitution nor in the political culture in general, there are clear directions of which branch of the government is responsible for ideology and for all corresponding matters around ethno-linguistic politics and interethnic affairs. In most parliamentary republics these sorts of issues are under the authority of the President, as he/she is a head of the state.
The proposal to the Parliament’s consideration itself does not go against the current legislation, but serious legal and political contradictions are likely to emerge in case if it is approved.
Neweurasia: What is the probability that the Conception is approved?
At the moment we can observe a serious power struggle among different forces, whereby the Ata-Jurt’s Conception is just one of its episodes. The proposal is another attempt to relax the President’s power. In case if it is approved, we can end up with a serious problem – the state will not be able to realize two contradicting conceptions – the Conception of the ethnic politics and of the consolidation of peoples of Kyrgyzstan and the Conception of the Ata-Jurt. The Conception of the work group of the President’s Apparatus was adopted on the 17th of June 2011 at the Seventh Extraordinary Kurultai of the Assembly of the Peoples of Kyrgyzstan. The control over the conception has already been extended to the President.
Neweurasia: What consequences can there be if the Ata-Jurt’s Conception is approved?
It will lead to the increase in xenophobia and nationalism and very serious reputational losses in foreign policy. The project contains a lot of bold contradictions to the current Constitution and national legislation, as well as the international documents on the protection of human rights, against discrimination and xenophobia.
Neweurasia: How will the rights be protected of the citizens, whose native language is not Kyrgyz?
Everything will depend on the decisions, actions and statements of the senior state officials, who [in Kyrgyzstan particularly] are more powerful than any written laws. Our politicians unfortunately do not understand the virtue of being a multicultural and multi-linguistic society as the best development option for a poor agrarian state as ours. The international law allows each individual to speak any language of his/her choice, while any attempts to force a certain language in the multi-ethnic states is clearly a violation of civil rights and freedoms; it can be regarded as an act of nationalism and xenophobia.
Dozens of states around the world have several languages as official. For instance, South Africa has eleven, Sri-Lanka – three, Singapore – four official languages. In Canada and Finland there are two official languages. Unfortunately, the society and the political elites of Kyrgyzstan do not want to take this route and follow their example.
Neweurasia: What are the most likely consequences?
They are few. The first one is that the Ata-Jurt fraction manages to have its Conception approved and with that will create political and legal collision. The government will then face a problem of choice – which of the two conceptions to realize – the State Conception of ethnic politics and consolidation of the society or the Conception of the national politics, suggested by the Ata-Jurt fraction.
In case if the Ata-Jurt’s proposal is approved, we can experience the rapid raise of nationalism and xenophobia, open electoral discourse of the nationalists and the increase of nationalistic moods within the society. These are going to intensify political struggle, disintegration of the society by ethnic components. Such developments are most likely to add to a probability of the interethnic conflicts in Kyrgyzstan.
Moreover, the conception will have a serious negative impact on Kyrgyzstan’s foreign policy. It will feasibly complicate relations with the international organizations (primarily the ones dealing with human rights), with donor organizations and other partners. As a rule, developed democracies and international organizations avoid collaborating with nationalistic political regimes and do not support them. In practice this would stand for a drastic decrease in foreign grants, loans and humanitarian aid, in all sorts of diplomatic and economic limitations.
Difficulties in joining the Customs Union will certainly emerge. The Kyrgyz citizens, who work and have a long-term residence abroad, will have all kinds of problems as well. A new wave of publications will appear in foreign media about serious problems in interethnic relations in Kyrgyzstan, about Kyrgyz nationalism and anti-democratic discriminatory ethnic political course.
Finally, the second possible consequence can be that the parliament rejects the Ata-Jurt’s Conception and approves the document taken at the Seventh Kurultai of the Peoples’ Assembly of Kyrgyzstan. I believe this is the most expedient and correct outcome of the current political conundrum.
Neweurasia: Why previous strategies for adjusting interethnic relations have not been efficient and led to armed conflicts instead?
Previous conceptions and programs used to be of declarative and not practical nature. This eventually led to serious problems in the interethnic sphere such as rapid increase in nationalistic moods.
Neweurasia: Your recommendations for stabilization of post-conflict interethnic relations?
Politicians have to approve and realize the long-term ethno-linguistic politics, which is based on the development and preservation of multi-cultural values, on the provision of real equality among different ethnic groups. These measures will eliminate the main causes and conditions that have been the case last year and will not allow for the emergence of the next ethnic conflict in future.
Photograph by Flickr user korafotmoragana (CC-usage).
Editor’s note: From 2008 to 2010, the US government spent $16 million for its USAID Judicial Reform Assistance Project (JRAP). According to neweurasia’s Emerson, the project appears to have been “a complete failure”. “The only accomplishments I’ve been able to determine with empirical certainty have been a few amendments to laws and the provision of some personal computers to Kyrgyz officials,” he writes.
The US government has spent millions of American taxpayers’ money to reform the judicial system of the Kyrgyz Republic to combat corruption and increase judicial independence. While the intentions are certainly noble, my own informal research strongly suggests that the project has been a complete failure.
From 2008 to 2010, the US government spent $16 million for its USAID Judicial Reform Assistance Project (JRAP). According to a 31 May, 2011 USAID report made available via Scribd, the program’s goals were three-fold: “1) judicial reform; 2) law enforcement reform; and 3) criminal justice reform”. The report acknowledges a general lack of success:
“The law enforcement and criminal justice reform components, under JRAP, faced many challenges and were far less successful than the judicial reform component. Judicial reform activities have resulted in increased alignment of judicial processes with international standards; however, the legal structures for judicial appointments and trainings were altered by the new 2010 constitution.” (p. 3)
It goes on to detail the failures, including even those in judicial reform pre- and post-revolution (pp. 4 – 15). My own prognosis is more abysmal. The only accomplishments I’ve been able to determine with empirical certainty have been a few amendments to laws and the provision of some personal computers to Kyrgyz officials.
The “Island of Democracy” in Central Asia is still in the midst of typhoons and rainstorms hitting it every five years. Although believed to be more advanced in terms of democratic norms when compared against neighbors, on Monday, 20 June 2011, a news agency reported the Foreign Policy magazine and Fund for Peace found Kyrgyzstan as the most inefficient country among the post Soviet countries. Ironically, one of the post-Soviet countries that received perhaps the largest amount of U.S. support, Georgia, was ranked in the 40s – democracy is either bad for ex-Soviet countries or the evaluating agencies thought dictatorship is still far more efficient in this part of the world. By the way, according to Deputy Prime Minister Atakhanov ranks 164 out of 187 countries in anti-corruption efforts. One then unintentionally wants to ask whether it is better to live in a “Continent of Non-Democracy” that is not about to disappear under water. Read the full story »
The view over the river through the broken window panes of a burnt out choixona in Osh bazaar. Photograph by neweurasia's Mary Pole (CC-usage).
Editor’s note: With five formal inquiries into the violence that erupted in southern Kyrgyzstan last year, one would think that some kind of consensus would be emerging about what exactly happened. However, according to the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR)’s Dina Tokbaeva, “all the investigative work done to date has tended to confirm existing prejudices rather than encourage a desire to learn new facts and take alternative views on board, with a view to building reconciliation.” Re-published from IWPR at the request of Dina.
Now that not one but five formal inquiries have filed reports about the causes of ethnic violence in southern Kyrgyzstan last year, one would think a generally-agreed version of the truth would be starting to emerge.
Yet the Central Asian nation seems further away than ever from reaching a common understanding of what happened, who was behind the violence, and what it means for the future of the country.
Few people have read the published findings of the various inquiries, and most have instead seen only the highly-charged media reports about them. Biased readings of the reports are of more than academic importance, since are already colouring the political debate ahead of a presidential election set for October. (For an example of this, Kyrgyzstan Debates Rival Ethnic Policies.)
The result, analysts say, is that all the investigative work done to date has tended to confirm existing prejudices rather than encourage a desire to learn new facts and take alternative views on board, with a view to building reconciliation.
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.]
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