Archive of Christian Bleuer

I am currently a PhD candidate at the Australian National University.

Christian has written 22 articles at Registan.


Tajikistan News and Blogs

by Christian Bleuer

Hi everybody, I’m building an online research portal for Tajikistan. It’s sure to bring me fame, money and widespread international praise, I’m sure. At the moment it’s about one-third finished. But I’m not too sure I have a full idea of all the blogs and news websites available. Could those of you in the know [...]

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What of Kyrgyzstan’s Ethnic Uzbeks?

by Christian Bleuer

For those of you new to this whole Kyrgyzstan thing, there was a very unfortunate episode in June 1990 in and around the city of Osh in southern Kyrgyzstan (or rather the Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic). Hundreds were killed, several times that were badly injured, women were raped, houses were burned, etc… It was one [...]

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Afghan Refugees in Tajikistan

by Christian Bleuer

Aside from RFE/RL there is little non-Central Asian or non-Russian reporting from Central Asia. But on occasion, Al Jazeera English makes a foray into the area. Recently they filed a report from Vaghdad, Tajikistan (they pronounced it like Baghdad in Arabic). A quick look at the mountains and the general location given lets us know [...]

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Tajikistan’s Unlikely Street Protests

by Christian Bleuer

About a week ago I was asked if I would be following Tajikistan’s parliamentary elections. I didn’t see the point, as the outcome was known before the actual election. But others paid more attention to the actual process and this week we have the even more predictable international reaction to the government’s solid win. The [...]

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A variation on the “angry Muslims” theme

by Christian Bleuer

Hi, my name is Christian Bleuer. You may know me from such blogs as Ghosts of Alexander and The Complex Terrain Lab. I’m now too busy to keep up with my own blog, and I want to write more on north of the Amu Darya issues. So I thought Registan.net would be a nice home [...]

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Turkemenistan: Real Street Battle. Imaginary Islamists?

by Christian Bleuer

The information is very, very sketchy at the moment. But according to BBC, Associated Press, and others, there was an overnight battle between government forces and “Islamic Militants” in the capital of Ashgabat. Apparently the gun fight lasted quite a while and approximately 20 policemen were killed in the battle. It appears that the original [...]

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Lightness Versus Darkness

by Christian Bleuer

Mr. Foust has just below posted an entry picking on Laura King of The Los Angeles Times. Yes, the LA Times is a waste of paper and when I was last there in January I had to go to a chain bookstore to find a New York Times. Reading the entry reminded me of a [...]

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The Return of Rashid

by Christian Bleuer

Whether you like it or not, Ahmed Rashid is making his return to Central Asia. His previous contributions to the “better” understanding of Central Asia include The Resurgence of Central Asia: Islam or Nationalism? and Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia. I consider them unwelcome additions to the “literature” on the region; [...]

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Tajikistan in the New Central Asia – Book Review

by Christian Bleuer

Please forgive me for reviewing a book that was published two years ago. But very few books are published on Tajikistan. That means you may have to go back a few years when discussing published works on Tajikistan. The book, Tajikistan in the New Central Asia: Geopolitics, Great Power Rivalry and Radical Islam by Swedish [...]

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Central Asia’s Seaport: Gwadar or Chabahar?

by Christian Bleuer

Both Iran and Pakistan have developed strategies to create strong economic and transport ties with Central Asia and beyond. Anchoring these strategies are two new seaports: Gwadar in Pakistan and Chabahar in Iran. Spreading out from these ports are existing or planned transportation infrastructure that leads into their respective country’s economic center and importantly for [...]

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