As Kazakhstan’s annual Eurasian Media Forum opened in Almaty on April 27, officials seemed keen to showcase the Central Asian nation’s qualifications for chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). But civil society activists ended up seizing on the occasion to publicize alleged violations of free speech.
For the leaders of Central Asian states surrounding Kyrgyzstan, the early April upheaval in Bishkek constitutes a nightmare scenario: an angry mob looting the capital, marching on the seat of government and driving an authoritarian-minded leader from power.
The Ferghana Valley, the fertile heartland of Central Asia, looks like paradise at this time of year. Fat-tailed sheep graze on the slopes, green after the winter snowmelt. Boys on donkeys chivvy cattle alongside blossoming fruit trees, and the urban bazaars have their usual bustling air.
With fall fast approaching, the Mongol and Kazakh herders who inhabit this land of craggy peaks, wide valleys and silver blue lakes in the Altay Mountains are on the move, heading for lower pastures until winter sets in. Then they’ll be migrating again: these herders move four times a year, each season shifting to the places their nomadic forefathers have inhabited for generations.
Kazakhstan's port city of Aktau on the Caspian Sea has had some ups and downs in its short history. Founded just half a century ago, it thrived as a center of the Soviet uranium and chemical industries but then plunged into decline amid the economic chaos that accompanied the collapse of Communism.
The women's faces gaze down from the walls, young and old, dark and fair, blue-eyed and brown-eyed. Some look sad, some stoical, some bitter, and some simply confused. These women, who came from all over the Soviet Union, had one thing in common: they had been incarcerated in Stalin's gulag although they were not even suspected of committing an offense themselves.
The glittery city of Astana celebrates its 10th year as capital of the Central Asian country headed by President Nursultan Nazarbayev - the country's first and only leader following its independence from the Soviet Union. In honor of his almost 20 years of leadership, Nazarbayev has been immortalized in museums, music, art and theater.
