Kazakstan and the Rest of Central Asia: Fifteen Shades of Difference

1998 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 573-579 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Rywkin
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Past History ◽  
The Other ◽  
Geographic Position ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Soviet Central Asia ◽  
Central Asian Republics

Kazakstan is both part of former Soviet Central Asia and yet stands apart in many respects. Its geographic position, past history and present development are unique for the area. It is significant that Soviet-era writings treated Kazakstan distinctly from the other four Central Asian republics. This essay is devoted to these differences.

The “Imperial Minority”: An Interpretative Framework of the Russians in Kazakhstan in the 1990s

2008 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sébastien Peyrouse
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Near Abroad ◽  
Political Scene ◽  
Central Asian Republics ◽  
Interpretative Framework

This paper is devoted to the Russian minorities living in Central Asia (nearly 10 million people in 1989, about 5.5 million today), and more specifically to the Russians living in Kazakhstan, who constitute the main Russian minority in the near abroad, apart from Ukraine. Unlike the Russians living in the other Central Asian republics, Russians in Kazakhstan created political parties. Kazakhstan even experienced some significant secessionist trends in the mid-1990s. Today, the political, social and economic situation of the Russian minority is rather different. Since about 2 million Russians have left the country, those who remain have tried to find their niche within the economic growth that Kazakhstan has experienced since the 2000s. The political parties and associations that represented the interests of the Russian minority have largely disappeared from the political scene. The “Russian question” no longer threatens to destabilize the territorial integrity of the country.

scholarly journals A Great Game in Greater Central Asia

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 238-243
Author(s):  
M. H. Glantz
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Aral Sea ◽  
Aral Sea Basin ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Soviet Central Asia ◽  
Great Game ◽  
Central Asian Republics

The region historically referred to as Soviet Central Asia includes the 5 Central Asian Republics (CARs) of the Former Soviet Union (FSU): Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. Their political status changed drastically when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 and they became independent republics. Since the early 1990s, Central Asian leaders have referred on occasion to neighboring Afghanistan as the sixth CAR. In fact, it does occupy 14% of the Aral Sea Basin and its mountains supply about 15% of streamflow to the region’s mighty Amu Darya River that used to flow into Central Asia’s Aral Sea.

Identity-building in Kazakhstan

2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 327-358
Author(s):  
Alin Roman
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
The Other ◽  
Internal Factors ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Central Asian Republics ◽  
Gradual Transformation

"As a young nation that came into existence following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Republic of Kazakhstan undergoes a gradual transformation within its demographics. The issue of national identity within what was once an important and well-integrated part of the USSR continues to draw the involvement of its administrative apparatus that has to find the equilibrium between, on one hand, maintaining national integrity through various mechanisms and, on the other, managing the level of external and internal factors that may lead to the fate of its fellow Central-Asian republics. Keywords: nationalism, populism, Central Asia, statehood, post-Soviet identity"

Christianity and Nationality in Soviet and Post-Soviet Central Asia: Mutual Intrusions and Instrumentalizations

2004 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 651-674 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastien Peyrouse
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
The Other ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Protestant Missions ◽  
Soviet Central Asia

The five Central Asian Muslim republics (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan) count many Christian—Orthodox, Catholic, Armenian and Protestant—minorities. Unlike the religious communities in the Near and Middle East, most Christians in Central Asia consist of Slavic/European minorities (Russians, Germans, Poles, Armenians, Greeks, etc.), which came in the area during the Russian colonization in the eighteenth-nineteenth centuries. The main traditionally Christian nationalities living in Central Asia are Slavs and Germans. Today, Russians are mainly present in Kazakhstan (4.5 million), in Kyrgyzstan (600,000) and in Uzbekistan (at least half a million). There are only several tens of thousand Russians in Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. Like Russians, the number of the other Slavic nationalities has considerably decreased in Central Asia since the last three decades. There are 50,000 Ukrainians in Kyrgyzstan, 500,000 in Kazakhstan and about 100,000 in Uzbekistan. Byelorussians number 111,000 in Kazakhstan, and about 20,000 in Uzbekistan. According to the 1999 census, there are only 47,000 Poles in Kazakhstan. Today there are 353,000 Germans in Kazakhstan, 21,000 in Kyrgyzstan, and less than 8,000 in Uzbekistan, and their community is nearly nonexistent in Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. Other nationalities are also present in the Christian communities, though more modestly: among them, Koreans (about 160,000 in Uzbekistan, close to 100,000 in Kazakhstan in 1999), Greeks (10,000 in Uzbekistan), Tatars (248,000 in Kazakhstan) as well as Armenians (there remained 40,000 Armenians in Turkmenistan in 1995, with 42,000 in Uzbekistan today). Armenians have only one cult building in Samarkand. Moreover, after the fall of the USSR, more and more natives have been converted to Christianity: many—especially Protestant—missions, are now acting among Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Uzbeks, etc.

Epilogue

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eren Tasar
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
State Policies ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Soviet History ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Soviet Legacy ◽  
To Come ◽  
Soviet Central Asia ◽  
Central Asian Republics ◽  
Post Soviet Period

Dramatic changes took place in the religious sphere during the tumultous final years of Soviet history. Shamsuddin Boboxonov’s unprecedented ouster as mufti in 1989 offered a preview of the confusion that was to come: SADUM’s disintegration into national muftiates for each of the five Central Asian republics took place rapidly, in a climate of ethnic conflict. Though the Central Asian muftiate ceased to exist in 1991, the precedents established by the CRA-SADUM alliance continued to shape relations between Islam and the state in the post-Soviet period. In one important respect, however, those relations have departed dramatically from the Soviet legacy: now that the independent republics have abandoned communism and atheism, little incentive exists for a moderate line toward religion. This explains why state policies toward religion in post-Soviet Central Asia became more repressive after the collapse of the USSR, not less.

scholarly journals DYNAMICS OF INTEREST IN CENTRAL ASIA

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-107
Author(s):  
Muhammad Ayaz Khan ◽  
Sajid Hussain ◽  
Abdur Rehman
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
The Other ◽  
Energy Resources ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Strategic Location ◽  
The World ◽  
Strategic Policies ◽  
Central Asian Republics

This research is an endeavour to examine the dynamics of interest determining the complex political situation in Central Asia. These states have come into being from the trauma of freedom and became the master of their own destinies. The region has energy resources which attract the other countries of the world to get access to them. Many world countries such as Pakistan, Iran, India, China, U.S. and Russia have economic, political and strategic interests in the region. Its geo-strategic location makes it difficult for the Central Asian Republics to ignore it. The article concludes that only culture and history cannot be a bank on for the improvement of cooperation among the nations, but new strategic policies and the dynamics of the modern geopolitical world must be kept in mind while formulating a policy to follow the economic targets.

Central Asia in Context of Afghan Situation

2011 ◽  
pp. 3-16
Author(s):  
I. Labinskaya
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
The Political ◽  
Academic Council ◽  
Political Sciences ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Central Asian Republics

The session of IMEMO academic council in December 2010 discussed the problems of Central Asia in the context of the Afghan situation. In her keynote report D. Malysheva, doctor of political sciences, pointed at the increased attention to Central Asia by regional and international players. This is explained by the new and extremely worrying situation in neighboring Afghanistan. There is a prospect that NATO will lose the war in Afghanistan and that the coalition troops will be withdrawn from that country. In its turn, this generates a threat of Taliban’s return to power in this country. Thus, we cannot exclude the political upheavals in the Central Asian republics that will inevitably affect Russia's interests. The discussion highlighted Russia’s stable interest to Afghanistan both politically and economically.

scholarly journals ROADS OF CENTRAL ASIA. THE NEW INTERNATIONAL TRANSIT PROJECTS

2020 ◽  
pp. 51-60
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Borisova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Western China ◽  
State Budget ◽  
Mountain Ranges ◽  
Relevant Today ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
International Transport ◽  
Political Background ◽  
Central Asian Republics

The development of international trade implies the use of the territory of Central Asia as a transit zone, through which the routes China–Europe, China – the middle East should be laid. The existing communication capabilities are not enough, so new directions are being developed (Railways “China–Kazakhstan – Turkmenistan–Iran”, “Turkmenistan– Afghanistan–Tajikistan”, ”China–Kyrgyzstan–Uzbekistan”; multimodal transit corridors” Lazurit”,” TRANS – Caspian international transport route”; such highways as “Western China– Western Europe”). However, paved roads, both rail and road, do not always meet expectations in terms of the volume of cargo passing through them (projects “China – Kazakhstan – Turkmenistan – Iran” and the Lapis lazuli corridor). Their loading is delayed “until better times” either due to the unstable political background, or due to the lack of necessary commodity flows in both directions. In some cases, there is a lack of political will to make appropriate decisions. Finished projects are unprofitable. None of the international transit projects announced or even completed over the past 20 years through the Central Asian republics has been fully operational. Meanwhile, international transit allows not only to fill the state budget, but also to solve issues of internal connectivity of territories. This task is most relevant today for Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, which have become hostages of their own geography, with localities separated by impassable mountain ranges.

Intraseasonal Teleconnection between the Summer Eurasian Wave Train and the Indian Monsoon*

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (15) ◽  
pp. 3751-3767 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qinghua Ding ◽  
Bin Wang
Keyword(s):  
High Pressure ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Summer Monsoon ◽  
Indian Summer Monsoon ◽  
Wave Train ◽  
Intraseasonal Variability ◽  
The Other ◽  
Vertical Shear ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Northeastern Atlantic

Abstract This study investigated the most recurrent coupled pattern of intraseasonal variability between midlatitude circulation and the Indian summer monsoon (ISM). The leading singular vector decomposition (SVD) pattern reveals a significant, coupled intraseasonal variation between a Rossby wave train across the Eurasian continent and the summer monsoon convection in northwestern India and Pakistan (hereafter referred to as NISM). The wave train associated with an active phase of NISM rainfall displays two high pressure anomalies, one located over central Asia and the other over northeastern Asia. They are accompanied by increased rainfall over the western Siberia plain and northern China and decreased rainfall over the eastern Mediterranean Sea and southern Japan. The circulation of the wave train shows a barotropic structure everywhere except the anomalous central Asian high, located to the northwest of India, where a heat-induced baroclinic circulation structure dominates. The time-lagged SVD analysis shows that the midlatitude wave train originates from the northeastern Atlantic and traverses Europe to central Asia. The wave train enhances the upper-level high pressure and reinforces the convection over the NISM region; meanwhile, it propagates farther toward East Asia along the waveguide provided by the westerly jet. After an outbreak of NISM convection, the anomalous central Asian high retreats westward. Composite analysis suggests a coupling between the central Asian high and the convective fluctuation in the NISM. The significance of the midlatitude–ISM interaction is also revealed by the close resemblance between the individual empirical orthogonal functions and the coupled (SVD) modes of the midlatitude circulation and the ISM. It is hypothesized that the eastward and southward propagation of the wave train originating from the northeastern Atlantic contributes to the intraseasonal variability in the NISM by changing the intensity of the monsoonal easterly vertical shear and its associated moist dynamic instability. On the other hand, the rainfall variations over the NISM reinforce the variations of the central Asian high through the “monsoon–desert” mechanism, thus reenergizing the downstream propagation of the wave train. The coupling between the Eurasian wave train and NISM may be instrumental for understanding their interaction and can provide a way to predict the intraseasonal variations of the Indian summer monsoon and East Asian summer monsoon.

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