Articles

Decolonisation and Adaption for the Future: Language Politics in Kazakhstan

Image via Wikimedia Commons Driving down any street in Astana, Kazakhstan’s new, hyper-futuristic capital city, you may be surprised to note the total absence of any Russian-language signage. In fact, insofar as whoever is in charge of Kazakh road marking is concerned, English takes precedence over Russian, with Latin script transliterations of placenames sitting under…
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Trading Places: The Rise of China in Kazakhstan

Image: Richard Hagues via Flickr The power dynamic in Central Asia is shifting due to Kazakhstan’s changing economic and cultural relations with both Russia and China. Historically, Kazakhstan has maintained close ties with Russia, underlined by substantial trade and cultural affinity. However, due to the war in Ukraine, Kazakhstan is moving away from long-standing Russian…
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A Taboo: Why the Civil War is not Remembered in Tajikistan’s Art

Farrukh Negmatzade, ‘Women behind trees’ (Image: Redwood Art Group via flickr) In modern-day Tajikistan, artists choose to celebrate the natural beauty of Tajikistan and the richness of its traditions. With very few exceptions, contemporary Tajikistan artists rarely touch upon the complicated topics of the past and sensitive matters of the present. Most crucially, there are…
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‘The Age of Maturity for the Turkmen Spirit’: The Ruhnama and identity production in post-Soviet Turkmenistan

Photograph: Beth via Flikr. Towering above Ashgabat’s Independence Park is a ten-metre monument of the Ruhnama: the magnum opus of Turkmenistan’s first president, Saparmurat Niyazov.1 Translated into English as ‘Book of the Soul’, it has gripped the country’s social, political, and intellectual life for nearly two decades, encapsulating the personality cult constructed by Niyazov in…
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Turkic Winds of Change: How Kazakhstan and Türkiye are Forging a New Strategic Partnership

Photograph: Ninara via Flikr In September this year, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan travelled to Astana, the gleaming capital of the Kazakh steppe which has come to embody the ambition of the country’s leaders for the future. To many, a Turkish minister in a Central Asian city may seem to represent a relatively minor act…
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In Conversation with Polina Ivanova and Mehdi Hesamizadeh

I met historian Polina Ivanova and artist Mehdi Hesamizadeh in Yerevan, Armenia in January 2020 when I travelled there to participate in Mejlis Institute’s Persian Language and Cinema Winter Programme. Mejlis Institute was launched by Polina and Mehdi in 2019 as a non-profit organisation with the aim to bring to life the premodern meaning of…
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Kushtdepdi of the Turkmen and Its Origins

I heard singing with the distinct “hu hu” breathing pattern, and instantly, a small circle of people gently formed in the middle of the crowd in the courtyard of the groom’s house. The people in the circle—children and adults—danced around the circle stamping their right foot on the ground, and afterwards, jumping up and throwing…
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‘Where the Wind Blew’ – with art against nuclear weapons

The Central Asia Forum team attended the screening this September of the documentary ‘Where the Wind Blew’ by famous British director Mr Andre Singer, at the First President Foundation Office in London. The event, organised by Kazakhstan’s First President Foundation in the UK, honoured the International Day against Nuclear Tests, which marks the closing, in…
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Language policy in Central Asia

The language policies of the Central Asian republics since their independence have needed to respond to linguistic complexities that emerged during the period of colonisation by Russia. These issues include the development of local languages as languages of administration and education, the ethnolinguistic profile of the region, the impact of the Russian language on local…
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Why can you buy German bread in Kazakhstan?

A story of mass movements throughout Central Asia, by Nikolai Klassen. Not only is Russia a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma: fragments of the puzzle are also replicated and recapitulated throughout Central Asia, with the five ‘stans’ all bearing idiosyncrasies that point to a past as rich and unpredictable as the present.…
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Creative Bishkek: Rafael Vargas-Suarez

Vargas-Suarez Universal , is a contemporary artist based between New York and, for the last three years, Bishkek
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Review of Overcoming a Taboo: Normalizing Sexuality Education in Kazakhstan

Recent reports show the rates of child abandonment as a consequence of unwanted teenage pregnancies are alarmingly high in Kazakhstan. This problem along with other sexual health problems could be the result of a number of factors, including the lack of effective sexuality education programs in the school curriculum that would shape young people’s sexual…
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Creative Bishkek: Group 705

For the latest interview in the Central Asia Forum’s Creative Bishkek series; meet Group 705; Kyrgyzstan’s answer to the Situationist International. Marat Raiymkulov is a Kyrgyz artist who has been involved in Bishkek-based art collective Group 705 since its inception in 2005. Drawing on an absurdist philosophy, the group is primarily concerned with animation, drawing,…
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Creative Bishkek: Ulan Djaparov

CAF interviews Ulan Djaparov, the godfather of contemporary art in post-Soviet Bishkek.
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Creative Bishkek: Chihoon Jeong

‘I saw Bishkek as an unfilled linen canvas; one that I wanted to paint on’. Chihoon Jeong is a South Korean entrepreneur based in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. His Korean chicken restaurant Chicken Star has quickly established itself as a creative hub in the city, with regular cultural events and local art on the walls (including works…
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