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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Peace Corps Story

by Michael Hancock-Parmer

Hey all.  Peace Corps‘ 50th anniversary is coming up in 2011.  I wrote a little piece not too long ago that I thought I would share with you.  It’s not too specifically about Kazakhstan, or ever Central Asia, but you still might find it interesting.  Naturally, your feedback is welcome.  For the record, I served [...]

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Tashkent’s head Imam stabbed outside his home

by Noah Tucker
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[Updated 7 August] This story is a week old–I’ve been meaning to post on it for a couple of days, but maybe it’s just as well because the details are still pretty fuzzy. What sources agree on, though is that Imam Anvarqori Tursunov was stabbed outside his home at around 10:30 p.m. on 31 July [...]

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Uzbekistan Protests New Russian Base

by Nathan Hamm
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Uzbekistan is stepping up its criticism of Russia’s plan to open a second military base in Kyrgyzstan, this one to be placed near Uzbekistan’s border in the Ferghana Valley. It has stepped up the rhetoric, claiming that the new base would destabilize the region and provoke extremists. “The implementation of such projects on complex and [...]

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