The shifting identities and loyalties in Kyrgyzstan: The evidence from the field

Nationalities Papers

Volumn 28, Issue 2, 2000, Pages 343-349

  Elebayeva, Ainura ^a   Omuraliev, Nurbek ^a   Abazov, Rafis ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ETHNIC CONFLICT; ETHNICITY; LANGUAGE; MIGRATION;

KYRGYZSTAN;

EID: 0033916464     PISSN: 00905992     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/713687466     Document Type: Article

References (16)

1. Inter-ethnic conflicts on the communal level between the Kyrgyz and Tajiks in 1989 and the Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in 1990 led to numerous casualties. For details, see Rafis Abazov, "Central Asian Conflicting Legacy and Ethnic Policies: Revisiting a Crises-Zone of the former USSR," Nationalism and Ethnic Policies, Vol. 5, No. 2, 1999, pp. 62-90.
2. Martha Olcott, "Central Asian's Catapult to Independence," Foreign Affairs, Summer 1992, pp. 108-130.
3. The authors have no intention of discussing in detail the Soviet and post-Soviet concepts of ethnicity in Kyrgyzstan. For details of the debates on this issue, see Ainura Elebayeva, ed., Razvitiye mezhnatsional'nykh otnoshenii v novykh nezavisimykh gosudarstvakh Tsentralnoi Azii (Development of Inter-ethnic Relations in the Newly Independent States of Central Asia) (Bishkek: Ilim, 1995). See also the view of President Akayev in "President Kyrgyzstana vystupaet za ravnopravnoe razvitie vsekh natsyi," Delovoi Mir, 21 December 1993.
4. The authors have no intention of discussing in detail the Soviet and post-Soviet concepts of ethnicity in Kyrgyzstan. For details of the debates on this issue, see Ainura Elebayeva, ed., Razvitiye mezhnatsional'nykh otnoshenii v novykh nezavisimykh gosudarstvakh Tsentralnoi Azii (Development of Inter-ethnic Relations in the Newly Independent States of Central Asia) (Bishkek: Ilim, 1995). See also the view of President Akayev in "President Kyrgyzstana vystupaet za ravnopravnoe razvitie vsekh natsyi," Delovoi Mir, 21 December 1993.
5. For the official position of the government and the President, see the speeches by President Akayev in Slovo Kyrgyzstana, 4 December 1992 and 30 March 1999.
6. On such scenarios, see Boris Rumer, "The Gathering Storm in Central Asia," Orbis, Vol. 37, Winter, 1993.
7. For the text of the Law on Languages, see "Zakon Kirgizskoi SSR 'O gosudarstvennom iazyke Kirgizskoi SSR," Sovetskaya Kirgizia, 29 September 1989, pp. 1-2. The Law was supplemented by a Resolution which gave clear deadlines for implementing the Law on Languages in the Republic. For the positions of the various ethnic groups and political parties on the issue, see Ainura Elebayeva and Michael Gubouglo, eds, Grazhdanskiye dvizheniya v Kyrgyzstane (Civil Movements in Kyrgyzstan) (Moscow: TsIMO, 1991).
8. For the text of the Law on Languages, see "Zakon Kirgizskoi SSR 'O gosudarstvennom iazyke Kirgizskoi SSR," Sovetskaya Kirgizia, 29 September 1989, pp. 1-2. The Law was supplemented by a Resolution which gave clear deadlines for implementing the Law on Languages in the Republic. For the positions of the various ethnic groups and political parties on the issue, see Ainura Elebayeva and Michael Gubouglo, eds, Grazhdanskiye dvizheniya v Kyrgyzstane (Civil Movements in Kyrgyzstan) (Moscow: TsIMO, 1991).
9. Slovo Kyrgyzstana, 5 January 1995.
10. Article 5 of the first Kyrgyz Constitution, adopted in May 1993 and later amended in 1996, provides the Russian language the status of the "language of interethnic communication" and the Constitution guarantees that there should be no discrimination of the rights of citizens on language bases. See Article 5, in Konstitutsia Kyrgyzskoi Respubliki (Bishkek: Uchkun 1996), pp. 57-58.
11. The population of the study covered the adult population of the capital city, Bishkek. The sample size and proportional representation were determined according to the official demographic statistical data published by the National Statistical Committee (see Demograficheskiy spravochnik (Bishkek: National Statistical Committee, 1997). A covering letter highlighted the significance of the study and gave instructions how to fill in the questionnaire. The questionnaire had 12 questions. It was distributed and collected personally in Bishkek by a group of research fellows from the Centre for Social Research with the help of university students in June-July 1997. The researchers received back and considered valid for further analysis around 92% of the questionnaires. The study sample consisted of Kyrgyz (34.5%), Russians (47.3%), Ukrainians (4.35%), Tatars (2.4%), Uigurs (2.1%), Kazakhs (1.7%), Koreans (1.7%) and others; 46% males and 54% females. Full description of the research is available upon request from the Centre for Social Research, Academy of Science, Bishkek, the Kyrgyz Republic.
12. Graham Smith, Vivien Law, Andrew Wilson, Annette Bohr and Edward Allworth, Nation-Building in the Post-Soviet Borderlands: The Politics of National Identities (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 5-6.
13. The suggested answers were as follows: (1) citizen of Kyrgyzstan; (2) citizen of the world; (3) citizen of the Soviet Union; (4) don't know; (5) other.
14. In May-June 1990, discord between local communities of Kyrgyz and Uzbeks turned into disastrous turmoil in the Kyrgyz provincial town Uzgen, and spread to the region's administrative centre, Osh (both are very close to the border with Uzbekistan). This created instability in both Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. The conflict was based on this communal disagreement, rather than on political or religious differences. It was the bloodiest event that occurred at that time, with official estimates of 220 dead and 1, 000 hospitalised (unofficial estimates gave 600-1, 200 as killed during the turmoil). Fears that such events might happen again existed throughout the 1990s.
15. See, for details, National Human Development Report of the Kyrgyz Republic (Bishkek: UNDP, 1996, 1997, 1998).
16. Ainura Elebayeva, ed., Razvitiye mezhnatsional'nykh otnoshenii v novykh nezavisimykh gosudarstvakh Tsentralnoi Azii (Development of Inter-ethnic Relations in the Newly Independent States of Central Asia) (Bishkek: Ilim, 1995), pp. 246-247.