Tajikistan

Turkestan Album

by Nathan Hamm
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For at least the last seven or eight years, the Prokudin-Gorskii collection of color photos of the Russian empire taken in the early 20th century, gets noticed and reported by journalists, history buffs, and photography enthusiasts. Less well known is that the Turkestan Album, a series of volumes on the people, architecture, history, and economy [...]

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Kazakhstan’s Stability, Central Asia’s Stability

by Nathan Hamm
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Last week, the US Helsinki Commission held a hearing on Kazakhstan’s stability, looking at the violence in Zhanaozen and the recent parliamentary elections and questioning whether or not Kazakhstan is as stable as its government claims. The testimony, which can be found here is interesting and worth taking a look at. Included with the expert [...]

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Charting the Fall of the Soviet Union

by Joshua Foust

My think tank, the American Security Project, has teamed up with The Atlantic to run a 12-article series I edited about U.S. foreign policy 20 years after the fall of the Soviet Union, which happens on Christmas. There have been some really interesting essays in there that aren’t directly relevant to what we write about [...]

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Tajik Photo Set

by Sekundar

The BBC has a very nice photo series up right now called Tajik Village Life. It’s a quick nine, with the obligatory old person looking wistful and remembering the good ol’ days, but the the photos are nice and the scenery stunning.

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Tajikistan at 20

by Christian Bleuer

On September 9th, Tajikistan marks the 20th anniversary of its declaration of independence. What can be said about Tajikistan 20 years after independence? The word ‘survival’ comes to mind first and foremost. Unfortunately, Tajikistan is defined from the outside mostly by its civil war – not by any connection to the Samanid Empire or the [...]

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Central Asia’s Water Woes

by Joshua Foust

We don’t cover it obsessively, but we here at Registan.net have been keeping a wary eye on the deteriorating state of regional water arrangements and conflicts in Central Asia. Just about every author here, from Michael Hancock to Misha, has written at some point about how management issues are sparking worry and have the potential [...]

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Enforcing the Border

by Nathan Hamm

The picture above, from March 2009, shows the border between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan on the western side of the town of Kara-Suu. In fits and starts since independence, Uzbekistan has defined its separation from its neighbors by various means, one of which is quite easily seen above in the form of a deep trench dug [...]

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Chart of the Day

by Joshua Foust
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Going Backward, Into the Future

by Nathan Hamm
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In his overview of Central Asia’s downward slide, Josh closes by saying we could spend plenty of time reflecting on why each country in the region has become less free and/or able to provide basic services to varying degrees. While true that each government is dealing with its own particular problems, there is a common [...]

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Central Asia’s Slow Decline

by Joshua Foust

Despite the boosters out there who think Kazakhstan is on a bright shining path to the future, a number of people seem to be avoiding the spin. Joanna Lillis, for example, is straight up mocking the election observers who say this most recent election was super-awesome. She profiles Daniel Witt, who runs the International Tax [...]

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Tajikistan’s Dead Insurgent Lives Forever Online

by Nathan Hamm

The following is a post submitted anonymously — Nathan After taking serious losses in an ambush and a helicopter crash (possibly shot down), Tajikistan’s security forces played catch-up recently and reigned in some cantankerous insurgents in the Rasht Valley. At the beginning of the year the Tajik government announced that an opposition commander by the [...]

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