Kyrgyzstan is a landlocked country in Central Asia, bordering Kazakhstan, China, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The mountainous region of the Tian Shan covers over 80% of the country; Kyrgyzstan is occasionally referred to as “the Switzerland of Central Asia”, as a result, with the remainder made up of valleys and basins.
Bishkek in the north is the capital and largest city, with approximately 900,000 inhabitants. The second city is the ancient town of Osh, located in the Fergana Valley near the border with Uzbekistan, which is the location of the current rioting. The nation’s largest ethnic group is the Kyrgyz, a Turkic people, who comprise 69% of the population. Other ethnic groups include Russians (9.0%) concentrated in the north and Uzbeks (14.5%) living in the south. Small but noticeable minorities include Tartars (1.9%), Uyghurs (1.1%), Tajiks (1.1%), Kazakhs (0.7%), and Ukrainians (0.5%), and other smaller ethnic minorities (1.7%). The population of Kyrgyzstan is 80% Muslim, 17% Russian Orthodox and 3% other. During Soviet times, state atheism was encouraged. Today, however, Kyrgyzstan is a secular state, although Islam has exerted a growing influence in politics.
The Kyrgyz are mentioned some centuries earlier in the Chinese chronicles, particularly in 201 BC under the name Gegun, which is a Mongolian term, and has the singular form “Kyrkun”. The Kyrgyz state reached its greatest expansion after defeating the Uyghur Khanate in 840 A.D. With the rise of the Mongol Empire in the thirteenth century, the Kyrgyz migrated south, but were conquered by Genghis Khan in 1207. In the late nineteenth century, the majority part of what is today Kyrgyzstan was ceded to Russia through 2 treaties between China and Russia in 1876. Soviet power was initially established in the region in 1919. On 5 December 1936, the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic was established as a full republic of the Soviet Union. In 1989 protests flared up against the discriminatory policy of the Soviet government directed at pushing ethnic Kyrgyz inhabitants out of major cities, which could then be occupied by new settlers from Russia and the other Soviet republics According to the last Soviet census in 1989, ethnic Kyrgyz made up some 22 percent of the residents of Frunze (Bishkek), while more than 60 percent were Russians, Ukrainians, and people from other Slavic nations. Kyrgyzstan was the most Russified republic in the Soviet Union, according to the census, as more than 36 percent of all Kyrgyz citizens said Russian was their first language.
In June 1990, ethnic tensions between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz surfaced in the Osh Oblast, where Uzbeks form a majority of the population. Violent confrontations ensued, and a state of emergency and curfew were introduced. Order was not restored until August 1990. In December 1990, the Supreme Soviet voted to change the republic’s name to the Republic of Kyrgyzstan. On 21 December 1991, Kyrgyzstan joined with the other four Central Asian Republics to formally enter the new Commonwealth of Independent States. Kyrgyzstan gained full independence a few days later on 25 December 1991. The following day, 26 December 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to exist.
The tensions that had been simmering in the Central Asian State of Kyrgyzstan, since April this year after the ouster of former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev has finally erupted in the form of full scale violence. Several instances of ethnic violence in Central Asia during the past 20 years are indirectly attributed to borders drawn between Soviet republics by communist dictator Josef Stalin. Historians say those borders were created on purpose to divide and conquer ethnic groups by pitting them against one another. Many Uzbeks and interim Kyrgyz President Rosa Otunbayeva are blaming the latest round of unrest on ousted Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, whose base of support was in southern Kyrgyzstan. Ms. Otunbayeva says his motive is to disrupt a constitutional referendum on reducing presidential powers scheduled for later this month. The violence that has erupted between the ethnic groups of Uzbeks and Kyrgyz people, has taken a toll of more than 100 deaths and over 1600 injured. Both the US and Russia maintain air bases in Kyrgyzstan. In northern Kyrgyzstan we find the Manas Air Base which is used in the supply line for a large portion of the supplies and troops between the US and Afghanistan. Occasionally there is a ground supply route through the Khyber Pass to Afghanistan, but this is closed periodically as it is vulnerable to attack. It was closed seven times last year. The Manas air base is therefore a critical doorway to the Afghan corridor. Without it, the Americans would be restricted in attempting to continue their engagement. Since U.S. President Obama decided to expand the war in the Afghan theatre, its importance has sharply increased. Russian air base in Kyrgyzstan, the Kant Air Base, makes Kyrgyzstan one of the few countries with the distinction of being a home to both superpowers. News that “United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself” is likely to affect the fate of Kyrgyzstan too. The previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium — are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe. An internal Pentagon memo, for example, states that Afghanistan could become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium,” a key raw material in the manufacture of batteries for laptops and BlackBerrys.
This would considerably alter the exit plans of USA and the Kyrgyz imbroglio needs to be watched closely as both the US and Russia have so far made little or no efforts to stop the rioting calling it an internal matter of the Kyrgyz people. Perhaps there is more than what meets the eye in the current situation.
Bishkek in the north is the capital and largest city, with approximately 900,000 inhabitants. The second city is the ancient town of Osh, located in the Fergana Valley near the border with Uzbekistan, which is the location of the current rioting. The nation’s largest ethnic group is the Kyrgyz, a Turkic people, who comprise 69% of the population. Other ethnic groups include Russians (9.0%) concentrated in the north and Uzbeks (14.5%) living in the south. Small but noticeable minorities include Tartars (1.9%), Uyghurs (1.1%), Tajiks (1.1%), Kazakhs (0.7%), and Ukrainians (0.5%), and other smaller ethnic minorities (1.7%). The population of Kyrgyzstan is 80% Muslim, 17% Russian Orthodox and 3% other. During Soviet times, state atheism was encouraged. Today, however, Kyrgyzstan is a secular state, although Islam has exerted a growing influence in politics.
The Kyrgyz are mentioned some centuries earlier in the Chinese chronicles, particularly in 201 BC under the name Gegun, which is a Mongolian term, and has the singular form “Kyrkun”. The Kyrgyz state reached its greatest expansion after defeating the Uyghur Khanate in 840 A.D. With the rise of the Mongol Empire in the thirteenth century, the Kyrgyz migrated south, but were conquered by Genghis Khan in 1207. In the late nineteenth century, the majority part of what is today Kyrgyzstan was ceded to Russia through 2 treaties between China and Russia in 1876. Soviet power was initially established in the region in 1919. On 5 December 1936, the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic was established as a full republic of the Soviet Union. In 1989 protests flared up against the discriminatory policy of the Soviet government directed at pushing ethnic Kyrgyz inhabitants out of major cities, which could then be occupied by new settlers from Russia and the other Soviet republics According to the last Soviet census in 1989, ethnic Kyrgyz made up some 22 percent of the residents of Frunze (Bishkek), while more than 60 percent were Russians, Ukrainians, and people from other Slavic nations. Kyrgyzstan was the most Russified republic in the Soviet Union, according to the census, as more than 36 percent of all Kyrgyz citizens said Russian was their first language.
In June 1990, ethnic tensions between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz surfaced in the Osh Oblast, where Uzbeks form a majority of the population. Violent confrontations ensued, and a state of emergency and curfew were introduced. Order was not restored until August 1990. In December 1990, the Supreme Soviet voted to change the republic’s name to the Republic of Kyrgyzstan. On 21 December 1991, Kyrgyzstan joined with the other four Central Asian Republics to formally enter the new Commonwealth of Independent States. Kyrgyzstan gained full independence a few days later on 25 December 1991. The following day, 26 December 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to exist.
The tensions that had been simmering in the Central Asian State of Kyrgyzstan, since April this year after the ouster of former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev has finally erupted in the form of full scale violence. Several instances of ethnic violence in Central Asia during the past 20 years are indirectly attributed to borders drawn between Soviet republics by communist dictator Josef Stalin. Historians say those borders were created on purpose to divide and conquer ethnic groups by pitting them against one another. Many Uzbeks and interim Kyrgyz President Rosa Otunbayeva are blaming the latest round of unrest on ousted Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, whose base of support was in southern Kyrgyzstan. Ms. Otunbayeva says his motive is to disrupt a constitutional referendum on reducing presidential powers scheduled for later this month. The violence that has erupted between the ethnic groups of Uzbeks and Kyrgyz people, has taken a toll of more than 100 deaths and over 1600 injured. Both the US and Russia maintain air bases in Kyrgyzstan. In northern Kyrgyzstan we find the Manas Air Base which is used in the supply line for a large portion of the supplies and troops between the US and Afghanistan. Occasionally there is a ground supply route through the Khyber Pass to Afghanistan, but this is closed periodically as it is vulnerable to attack. It was closed seven times last year. The Manas air base is therefore a critical doorway to the Afghan corridor. Without it, the Americans would be restricted in attempting to continue their engagement. Since U.S. President Obama decided to expand the war in the Afghan theatre, its importance has sharply increased. Russian air base in Kyrgyzstan, the Kant Air Base, makes Kyrgyzstan one of the few countries with the distinction of being a home to both superpowers. News that “United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself” is likely to affect the fate of Kyrgyzstan too. The previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium — are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe. An internal Pentagon memo, for example, states that Afghanistan could become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium,” a key raw material in the manufacture of batteries for laptops and BlackBerrys.
This would considerably alter the exit plans of USA and the Kyrgyz imbroglio needs to be watched closely as both the US and Russia have so far made little or no efforts to stop the rioting calling it an internal matter of the Kyrgyz people. Perhaps there is more than what meets the eye in the current situation.
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