Kazakhstan

Abai – the Historical Figure

by Michael Hancock-Parmer
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Registan Bloggers Michael Hancock-Parmer and Christopher Schwartz have teamed up to write about Abai Kunanbaiev (or, if you prefer, Abay Kunanbayev). A force of nature in the Republic of Kazakhstan, he was similarly popular in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. Born Ibrahim, he took Abai (“careful”) as his takhallus (تخلص), or pen-name. He is most [...]

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Some History

by Michael Hancock-Parmer

In an effort to clear my brain while I construct some kind of cogent argument about the depth and nature of the relations  between Kazakhs and Cossacks in the middle of the 19th century, I will share some choice citations from the works I’ve been reading. I understand that I’m dropping these into a blog [...]

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Kazakhstan In English News

by Michael Hancock-Parmer
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Dear England, How are you these days? How’s the old fighting spirit? Don’t lose sight of your superiority over the rest of the messy world! You know you’re the beacon to which the rest of us so-called English Speakers look. I understand that such responsibility leaves little room for mirth, but perhaps you could try [...]

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Some Quick Observations on Islam and Opposition in Kazakhstan

by Wendell Schwab

Some opponents of the current Kazakhstani government held a demonstration over the weekend, after which some of their leaders were imprisoned. I will leave it to others to discuss the implications of this particular protest. However, because the “Arab Spring frame” for protests in Kazakhstan endures, and because Muslim reformists have been particularly successful in [...]

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Desert Floods

by Michael Hancock-Parmer

The Syr Darya is a mighty river. It may seem small in comparison to the larger regional river, the Amu Darya, and naturally also to those familiar with larger rivers in areas with more rainfall – like here in the US with the Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, etc. Let all of that be as it may [...]

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Cossacks and Kazakhs

by Michael Hancock-Parmer

In many respects the history of Soviet and Russian Central Asia is a military history and, as such, a history of the Cossacks. The Cossacks by the time of the conquest of Central Asia were already an indispensable part of the Russian military force. Only the Cossacks, it seems, were able to push into and [...]

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Kazakhstan needs religious patriots! (And already has them.)

by Wendell Schwab

Last week, Kazakhstan’s Vice Prime Minister Erbol Orynbaev told the board of the Ministry of Education and Science that the country’s schools have a vital assignment: to prevent “ideological extremism” – presumably the type of extremism that led to the criminal acts done in the name of Islam in western Kazakhstan and Taraz last year – by [...]

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Patronage Networks and Reformist Islam in Kazakhstan

by Wendell Schwab

One of the more amusing news stories to come out of Kazakhstan last week detailed the insertion of a Kazakhstani senator’s visage into a painting of the apostles greeting Jesus in a Russian Orthodox church.  While this could be viewed as a human-interest story to be placed in the same section as a waterskiing squirrel, it [...]

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Kazakhstan’s Elections: Aspirations for Democracy amidst Expectations of Paternalism

by Alima Bissenova

The background to the January 15 Kazakhstan’s parliamentary elections has been most unfavorable. The image of stability that Kazakhstan’s government had carefully cultivated over the years has been tarnished with the outbreak of violence in an oil town of Zhanaozen. In neighboring Russia, on which Kazakhstan depends both culturally and politically, dozens of thousands of [...]

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Book Review: A Small Key Opens Big Doors

by Michael Hancock-Parmer
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Chen, Jay, ed. A Small Key Opens Big Doors. 50 Years of Amazing Peace Corps Stories, Volume Three: The Heart of Eurasia. Travelers Tales: Palo Alto, 2011.336 pages, includes Foreword, Preface, Introduction, Acknowledgments. Disclosure: Jay Chen is a friend and fellow Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV). We served in the same group in Kazakhstan starting in [...]

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