Reading Central Asia and the New Global Economy is a must for anybody who professes an interest in this particular region. The book does a superb job at exploring two themes - the dissimilarity among the Central Asian republics on the one hand, and the region's lack of a sustainable economic framework on the other.
Since the 1991 Soviet collapse, religious leaders in the region have voiced concern over deteriorating social values in their communities, linking the moral decline with the post-Soviet penetration of Western pop culture and vices. They consider the spread of HIV as perhaps one of the most tangible signs of the population's spiritual degeneration.
"Our museum is sustained almost entirely by the enthusiasm of its employees," says Marinitza Babanazarova, the director of the museum. "They are dedicated to art."
It's a strange sensation when a book written in French and translated into English resonates with the Russian literary tradition. In Chienne De Guerre, as in some of the best Russian literature from Akhmatova to Solzhenitsyn, the writer exposes the nation's suffering.
"What you are witnessing is the explosion of a free medium in a closed society," said Ufuk Guldemir, whose site, Haberturk (www.haberturk.com), has become the standard bearer of the news portals.
A 1600 year old statue of a sleeping Buddha - uncovered by archeologists from the former Soviet Union 35 years ago and never before seen by the outside world - will soon be on display in Dushanbe, the capital of the Central Asian Republic of Tajikistan.
Crimean Tatars have been the traditional Muslims of the lands of today's Ukraine for six hundred years. Their "Khanat" state lasted for centuries. It is well-known that they had been decimated and deported by Stalin in 1944 and were allowed to return only after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
What happened? The Aral Sea disappeared. Forty years ago, the Aral was the fourth-largest lake in the world. Today the sea, which straddles the border between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, has shrunk by half, creating a vast toxic desert. The Aral and the area around it have suffered an almost complete ecological collapse, devastating the region known as Karakalpakstan.
On March 21, Kyrgyz citizens had the chance to set aside their concerns and celebrate the spring holiday, Norouz. Christoph Schuepp, who lives and works in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, documented the holiday. A selection of his images comprise this EurasiaNet photo essay.
According to government officials, the extra preparation time will allow citizens to take full advantage of the autumn for harvesting, fattening livestock, and preparing feed--with the hopes that the extra work will help the Mongolian people make it through the winter without the major livestock losses and starvation that have plagued the country for the last two years.
