Kyrgyzstan
MP Kamchibek Tashiyev is one of the most known faces among the 120 in the parliament. His ascend to and presence in power has been controversial ever since he was appointed an emergencies minister by President Bakiyev in 2007. Some say his business — a chain of petroleum stations — helped him to first become an MP and then a minister, whereas other point to the fact that Bakiyev and Tashiyev are fellow-townsmen. He again rose to power after his former boss fled and has so far been known more as a boxer, not an MP. Read the full story »
Briefly, it occurs to me that Roza Otunbayeva should take the upcoming presidential election in late 2011 as an opportunity to improve Kyrgyzstan’s image abroad, especially in the United States, by holding free and fair elections. The reason is because Kyrgyz politicians aren’t wrong to worry about a negative image of their country: the two violent coups gave a very bad impression in the American press.
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.
On June 16, 2011, the Kyrgyz parliament passed a bill that bans the Ferghana Information Agency’s web site (better known as Ferghana.ru) in Kyrgyzstan. Article 30 from the conclusion of the Kyrgyz parliament’s independent commission into the ethnic violence of 2010 proposes:
“Ministry of Culture and Information, Ministry of Justice and Prosecutor General’s Office of the Kyrgyz Republic to take measures on banning Ferghana.ru web site in in the informational space of the country.”
As neweurasia reported earlier, on June 9 the parliament’s commission on last year’s tragic events in the South came up with a proposal to ban for “subjective information on June 2010 clashes. Tokon Mamytov, the head of the parliamentarian commission, wrote:
“The proposal to ban the Ferghana.ru web site was among the proposals that will be included in the final report of the commission on investigation of the April, May and June events of 2010. In the justification of the proposal it is said that this internet resource publishes subjective information on June 2010 clashes,”
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.”
Editor’s note: To commemorate the June 2010 events in Osh, neweurasia is re-publishing this brief but sad photo essay by Samat, which he published during the height of the violence.
I took these photos only a month ago. It’s heartbreaking to think about what has happened to this city in so short a time. If you want an idea about how multiethnic this city once was, read this article by Hamid Tursonov:
Ethnic mixing is nothing new in Osh. Kyrgyz historians believe that the country’s second-largest city is 3,000 years old. Certainly, it is the most ancient in the Ferghana Valley, the geographical basin crisscrossed by the borders of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. And, like the Ferghana Valley, Osh has always been a meeting point for civilizations and nations.
The variety of peoples here has always been exotic, even if one does not believe the Osh residents who claim that the ancient Jews came here. Myth or no myth, though, the people of Osh are clearly proud to think that King Solomon and his army camped in the area. They call the mountain around which Osh nestles either Solomon’s Mountain (the Kyrgyz name) or Solomon’s Throne (the Uzbeks’ choice).
… What was a multiethnic city is now a largely bi-ethnic one, populated mostly by Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbeks. Figures can be misleading – Osh’s mayor, Jantooro Satybaldiev, puts the population at 300,000 people; unofficial sources say it has 450,000 people – but they still tell a clear story. Ethnic Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbeks each now account for 44 percent of the total population. The remaining 12 percent are primarily Russians, Tajiks, Tartars, Kazakhs, and Koreans.
Kyrgyz parliament’s commission on last year tragic events in the south of the country brought out a proposal to ban Fergana Information Agency’s web site for “subjective information on June 2010 clashes, Kyrgyz Telegraph Agency (KyrTAG) reports.
“The proposal to ban Ferghana.Ru web site was amongst all the proposals that will be included in the final report of the commission on investigation of the April, May and June events of 2010. In the justification of the proposal it is said that this internet resource publishes subjective information on June 2010 clashes,” Tokon Mamytov, head of the parliamentarian commission, said without mentioning the name of the MP that initiated the proposal.
According to Vesti.kg, it’s Ar-Namys party’s represenatatives’ initiative to ban Fergananews.com web site. Vesti.kg reminds MPs that that’s the correct title of the web site, and not its old name — not Fergana.ru. Read the full story »
Screen capture from video of unrest in Osh from neweurasia's Mirsulzhan Namazaliev.
Editor’s note: It has been one year since the terrible events in southern Kyrgyzstan, particularly Osh. neweurasia’s Marat reviews what he sees as a year of avoidance and wrongful finger-pointing. “I believe [reconciliation efforts] will not work until someone legibly explains the disproportion in the numbers between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz of those killed, raped, shot, tortured, convicted and forced to flee,” he says. “I’m sorry, but my countrymen must confront this fact.”
That the June 2010 events would leave a deep scar on Kyrgyzstan’s face was clear from the very first days after the clashes, no matter who started it and who responded. But it was not clear how neighbors — far and near — would respond to it.
The first response was Tashkent’s permission to let tens of thousands of ethnic Uzbek refugees fleeing rape, arson and killings to enter Uzbekistan for a brief period of time. Then came a statement from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and later from Moscow, the “verdict” of which — “it is Kyrgyzstan’s internal affair” — dashed the last hopes people had that the superpowers would intervene and put an end to the atrocities.
After the initial “fog of war” settled by early July, the power centers in Osh and Bishkek sent contradicting messages. While one side would blame the ousted president and his supporters for staging an “act of revenge” for his eviction from power, nationalist figures put the blame squarely on shoulders of “separatist Uzbek” citizens of Kyrgyzstan. Most of the blame was (remains) advanced against the self-exiled business figures of Uzbek ethnicity.
But if there is one thing politicians in both power centers agree upon, it’s that everyone else but themselves are guilty. For some reason, nobody talks about the dire economic situation in the region where unemployment is high; nobody talks about the tensions that were present between the two ethnic groups; nobody talks about how the government has mismanaged the national economy or how local officials mismanaged interethnic relations.
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: Too often among Kyrgyzstan’s impoverished people, love and marriage are used as tools of social and economic leverage. neweurasia’s Kamilla recounts the struggles of Alaigul, raped by her uncle and twice married, once by bride-kidnapping, arranged by her parents so as to pay for their debts, and once by deception, as a man sought revenge against another woman. Tragically, Alaigul was blamed for the crimes committed against her. Translated from Kamilla’s post (RUS). The image above is a screen capture from Petr Lom‘s film Bride kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan, which we at neweurasia recommend our readers to watch.
It is finally summer, the end of the semester. After all this urban mess, you want to get away to anywhere rural — fresh air, serenity, nothing to bother about. While visiting my relatives in the countryside, I met a young 19-year old girl, a neighbor of mine, whom I shall call Alaigul. She told me her life story, which literally made me shake. For personal reasons she asked me to change the original names.
“I finished the ninth grade of school in the village and dreamt of leaving for a city to enter pedagogical university and become a teacher. I naturally love children; I guess that’s because I grew up in a family with many children, wherein the oldest ones had to take care of their younger siblings while the parents were working. We lived very poor, hardly managing to survive on the money my parents could earn. We’ve always been short of money.
RSS Feeds
Podcasts
Recent Comments