It’s been more than two years now that neweurasia has been around the Central Asian blogosphere - high time to write a Happy Birthday note! Thanks to all of our readers, contributors and supporters for making this project come this far! Check out the first post on the homebase and click around to see where it all started.

To let you know where we’ve been coming from, we actually need to rewind to 2004, when Chris Schwartz and Ben Paarmann founded Thinking-East - neweurasia’s predecessor website. With a focus on news and analysis generated by people from the ground, we have shed light at under-reported issues and given space to young and bright minds from day one.

Concentrating on the strengths that our website showed when reporting on Central Asia and the Caucasus, neweurasia was the logical continuation. Blogs quickly became our preferred medium - since they meant less editing and quicker and more direct publishing. We went live in the summer of 2005, with all country blogs operational later that year.

neweurasia wouldn’t be around today without the many and mostly “Western” volunteers who helped to set up the website in the beginning: Their help and sharp pens quickly turned neweurasia into one of the most visited blogs on the region. This group included Claire, Katy, Marianna, Peter, Rico, James, Neil, Jeremy, Nick to name but a few. (more…)

Humour is, it seems, a constant presence in life even in the most dire situations. As neweurasia’s latest cross-blog survey shows, humour in Central Asia takes many forms and expressions, though, as might be expected, political satire features prominently.

Over on the Kazakhstan blog, Adam kicks off the survey with an article looking at popular jokes and anecdotes in Kazakhstan (ENG, RUS). Meanwhile on the Kazakh-language blog, Askhat interviews humorist and blogger tehosyndrom, who believes the internet is the only place left that is free of an official presence (KZ). Askhat has also has photographic evidence of people’s efforts to fulfil President Nazarbaev’s development strategy “Kazakhstan 2030″ (KZ). Also, although not technically part of the survey, Kamneed’s latest Friday Photo is worthy of a mention for the bizarreness of the photos that will raise a smile with anyone acquainted with everyday life in Central Asia (RUS - but pictures don’t need translating).

Moving south to Kyrgyzstan, Asel introduces the phenomenon of internet humour, noting how political humour has become increasingly popular after the events of March 2005 and the so-called Tulip Revolution (ENG). Mirsulzhan continues the theme with a clip from Video.kg showing how popular culture references are used to create political satire, in this case targeting well-known politicians including President Bakiev and ex-speaker Omurbek Tekebaev (RUS).

Unsurprisingly given the political situation in Uzbekistan, satire very much of the laughter through tears sort is the order of the day. Kamron looks at possible scenarios for Uzbekistan’s future up to 2015 as a logical but ridiculous extension of reforms that are currently being discussed (RUS), while Erkin considers the Uzbek elections experience from the point of view of a young farmer (UZ) Feministka takes an ironic look at what would happen if men and women swapped places (RUS), and Zingy recounts an encounter with a fortune teller in Jizzak region (ENG).

On the Turkmenistan blog meanwhile, Abdulgamid chooses a different target for his sharp satire in the form of a review of the infamous film “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan”. With arguably as many jokes and certainly as much innuendo as the film itself, Abdulgamid argues that the film has made us all look like fools - or, to use a more entertaining image from a Russian idiom, “has hung a noodle over everybody’s ear”. See if you agree (RUS, ENG).

Finally, our Tajik bridge blogger Vadim writes about Hoja Nasridin, also known as Afandi, and shares some stories about this well-known figure (ENG), while Roma reckons that no-one laughs like the Tajik do (RUS).

Ivar Dale’s articles on Kyrgyzstan have been published on the Kyrgyz page already. Now, Ivar has visited Uzbekistan, and while the following article is also available on the Uzbek blog, we thought such a long and exclusive piece also deserves highlighting here on the homebase. Enjoy!

‘For lust of knowing what should not be known, we take the Golden Journey to Samarkand’, wrote the poet James Elroy Flecker. And indeed, there was a time when you could learn a secret or two before the Emir of Samarkand gouched your eyes out and threw you to the hounds. In Islam Karimov’s Uzbekistan, however, you’re lucky to come away having learnt the name of James Belushi’s third wife.

To be a tourist in Uzbekistan is to ride the silk highway from one historical wonder to the next, from the architectural oohs of Samarkand to the archaeological aahs of Bukhara. These once foreboding places now offer streamlined pleasures for hordes of Western pensioners, merrily tailing the guiding umbrella up front. People seem to go about their daily business with a smile, ice cream is plentiful and the roads are wide and windy. The authorities are doing such a good job at keeping reality hidden from visitors, you could be forgiven for not realizing that Uzbekistan is one of the world’s most repressive regimes.

That is, of course, unless you’ve taken the bother of at least looking up your destination on the internet before leaving. But then again, maybe better not. Uzbekistan tends to get real creepy on you once you look behind the facade.

Continue reading on our Uzbek blog…

First off, thanks to all those of our readers who took the time to fill in our survey. The three lucky winners have been notified and the gifts are on their way. The feedback we received from you guys was great and it helped us to define more clearly what we are about and where are heading towards in the future.

The second bit of news: Even if you’re not a Kazakh speaker, check out neweurasia’s first-ever podcast on our Kazakh language blog. Askhat, the blog’s editor, interviewed Özgecan, one of our volunteer contributors on the English Kazakhstan blog.

Мы на neweurasia рады быть вашим мостом в блогосферу Центральной Азии и предоставлять вам репортажи из первых рук и аналитические материалы из региона.

Мы хотим постоянно улучшать наш блог - поэтому мы будем благодары, если вы выделите пять минут своего времени на заполнение этого опроса.

Результаты опроса помогут нам получить данные о наших читателях, и узнать, как мы можем улучшить нашу деятельность, чтобы обогатить ваш опыт прочтения нашего блога.

Если вы укажите адрес своей электронной почты, вы сможете принять участие в розыгрыше призов.

Первый приз - годовая подписка на ТОЛ, второй - книга Кристофера Роббинса “In Search of Kazakhstan: The Land that Disappeared”, и третий - оригинальный саундтрек Далера Назарова к фильму Luna Papa.

Ваши личные данные являются конфиденциальными и не разглашаются третьим лицам.

Пожалуйста, примите участие в нашем опросе!

The survey is now closed. Thanks to those who took the time to answer our questions. We will contact the winners of the prizes directly in a few days.

We at neweurasia are happy to be your gateway to the Central Asian blogosphere and provide first-hand reporting and analysis from the region.

We constantly want to improve our website – and we would appreciate if you can take a few minutes to answer our survey questions.

The survey will help us define our readership better, know how we can enrich our activities and improve your experience while reading us.

If you choose to give us your email address at the end of the questionnaire, you will be entered into a prize draw.

The first prize is an annual TOL subscription, the second prize Christopher Robbins’ In Search of Kazakhstan: The Land that Disappeared, and the third prize Daler Nazarov’s original soundtrack to Luna Papa.

Your personal data will be handled confidentially and will not be shared with any third parties.

Our friends at Transitions Online have launched their extensive new blog network - TOL Blogs. True to their motto, the blogs cover a lot of issues related to Central and Eastern Europe. Of special interest to neweurasia readers will be Steady State (blogging the unresolved conflicts in post-Soviet space) and The Armenian Patchwork (blogging, yes, on Armenia).

Along with the launch of TOL’s blogs, we at neweurasia have now decided to “downsize” our operations: From now on, all Caucasus-relevant posts will appear here on the homebase - as we hope to continue to cover events in this region on a sporadic basis. The irregular postings on our Caucasus blogs, however, don’t justify having dedicated sites for each country.

Also, we’ve been busy tweaking the layout of our blogs, but before we’ll relaunch later this year, we’ll have some updates installed on all our blogs reflecting what’s already new on the Kazakhstan and Tajikistan blogs - author’s archives, better search functions, etc. Big props go out to Ollie for implementing these changes.

Last but not least, we are always looking for contributors on neweurasia. If you have something to say about any of the Central Asian countries and want your thoughts published on a website that draws more than 100,000 unique visitors a month, don’t hesitate to drop us a line. You’ll be set up with login data in no time!

- The Management

As I stood guilty of not writing anything new for the latest neweurasia regional survey, I thought it would be a neat idea if one could print out all articles from one document and take it to one’s favourite armchair. This PDF makes sure that you don’t miss a single (English-language) article of our survey. I plan to make this a permanent feature now that the template is set.

Welcome to neweurasia’s latest regional survey - and as usual we’re glad to have many of our bloggers write about one specific topic. This time around, we’re looking at some of the various minorities in Central Asia. Unity in diversity seems to be the motto then, as not a lot can be more multi-faceted than a survey on the region’s rich ethnic tapestry.

Without further ado, then, let’s have a look at what’s been written by our authors all around our blogs:

We’re especially grateful to the two external bloggers who have contributed to this survey:

Russian-Germans in Tajikistan: J. Otto Pohl traces the little-known history of the Russian-German minority in Tajikistan over the 20th century.

Of Minorities and Their Warlords: Josh Foust casts some light at Afghan warlords that from the 80’s onward established their own ethnic enclaves.

Up in Smoke: Ted Callahan, Research Fellow at the AUCA, provides are rare glimpse into the little-known Afghan Pamirs and the Kyrgyz communities dwelling this remote stretch of land.

Perceptions of Identity - Luli in Samarkand: Nafisa dares to violate taboo: she visits the Luli, Central Asian Romas, whose community has been marginalised in her hometown of Samarkand.

“We’re all in the same boat now”: Claire is concerned that the socio-economic situation in Kyrgyzstan will aggrevate interethnic tensions.

Ethnic Kyrgyz in Tajikistan: Vadim climbs to high altitude and introduces Tajikistan’s Kyrygz living in the harsh conditions of the Pamirs.

We Are Different, Yet Together: Tolkun Umaraliev reports from his hometown Osh, where Uzbek-Kyrgyz relations have been difficult in the past. Ways to improve the situation might be found in neighbouring Uzbekistan

Evolving as a minority – Russians in Kyrgyzstan: Yulia gives her sobering comment on the state of the ethnic Russians in Kyrgyzstan, many of whom will certainly leave the country in the future.

Russian-Germans from Kazakhstan returning home: Back in 2006, Ben posted two stories about the fate of those Russian-Germans who have returned to their ancestral homeland (Post 1 - Post 2).

Contributions in Russian:

Chechens in Kazakhstan: Adam provides an insight into the history and status of the Chechen community in Kazakhstan.

Street as a school for Luli children: An anonymous author from Uzbekistan tells how it is to be a Luli child in Uzbek society.

Russians in Uzbekistan: Girl of the Sand speaks about those few Russians left in Uzbekistan. She says that there is an increasing nostalgia about everything Russian as a result.

Due to a conference on Blogging in Kazakhstan and the wider region plus some outreach parts of the neweurasia crew undertook, the website did not get updated as often as we would have liked over the past weeks.

As for the findings of the conference, we will post some summarising remarks here within the next week - but make sure to check out Tolkun’s and Mirsulzhan’s posts for their respective takes on what has been talked about in Almaty.

In the light of the recent idleness, something we cannot stress too often: If you’re interested in writing for neweurasia, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.