Until recently, Aksai, an ethnic Kyrgyz village on the border between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, had seemed so small and insignificant that most cartographers failed to include it on their maps. But now it has become a flashpoint, with a recent standoff there underscoring the potential for interethnic violence along the poorly defined frontier.
Land scarcity in the Ferghana Valley is a growing cause for concern in Kyrgyzstan. The slow governmental response to the long-standing problem means the issue could create a spark that reignites inter-ethnic conflict.
All her life, Feruza dreamed of her wedding day, when, hand-in-hand with her husband-to-be, she would ascend Sulaiman Too, the sacred hill in the center of Osh. A boisterous gaggle of snap-happy friends and a videographer would follow the couple.
Kyrgyzstan’s new government shows little interest in improving inter-ethnic relations, while the international community is slow to learn the lessons of last summer’s violent clashes in southern regions, according to a recently released report on the Osh violence.
Fresh polling data released just days before Kyrgyzstan’s October 10 parliamentary vote suggests that profound sectional differences pose a risk to the country’s post-election stabilization prospects.
Although still basking in the praise the international community has heaped on him for handling the refugee crisis during the June violence in Kyrgyzstan, at home President Islam Karimov is ruthlessly presiding over a wave of trials of journalists and human rights activists who have criticized his regime's suppression of any form of independent civic activity, whether political, social, or religi
Last week, President Islam Karimov came to New York to participate in the UN General Assembly (UNGA). His staff put out the rumor via the semi-official uzmetronom.com that he would meet with President Barack Obama. In the event, another regional leader, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, got to meet with the American president but President Karimov, who is also helping the U.S.
Kyrgyzstan’s upcoming parliamentary vote on October 10 is creating a quandary for the Central Asian nation’s Uzbek minority. Some Uzbek politicians see the elections as an opportunity to try to enhance minority rights.
An OSCE police advisory mission had been expected to be deployed in strife-torn southern Kyrgyzstan by the end of August. But given the Central Asian nation’s muddled political situation, it now looks like the deployment won’t happen until late October, if at all.
