Of national fathers and Russian elder brothers: Conspiracy theories and political ideas in post-soviet central Asia

Russian Review

Volumn 71, Issue 4, 2012, Pages 610-629

  Heathershaw, John ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84865267368     PISSN: 00360341     EISSN: 14679434     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9434.2012.00671.x     Document Type: Review

References (69)

1. Alexei Yurchak, Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More: The Last Soviet Generation (Princeton, 2006), 19.
2. Mark Fenster, Conspiracy Theories: Secrecy and Power in American Culture (1999; rev. ed. Minneapolis, 2008), 10.
3. Andrew Wilson, Virtual Politics: Faking Democracy in the Post-Soviet World (London, 2005), 47.
4. Fenster, Conspiracy Theories, 1.
5. Madeleine Reeves, "States of Improvisation: Border-Making as Social Practice in the Ferghana Valley," paper presented to the annual conference of the Central Eurasian Studies Society, September 29, 2006, pp. 3-4.
6. Farangis Najibullah, Glamorous Oil Tycoon Makes Waves Back Home for Kazakh First Family, Eurasianet, July 20, 2011, also available at http://www.rferl.org/content/oil-tycoon-makes-waves-for-kazakh-first-family/ 24271559.html (last accessed November 11, 2011)
7. Simon Goodley, "Court Documents Allege 'Corrupt'Kazakhstan Regime's Link to FTSE Firms," The Guardian, December 2, 2010, also available at http:// www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/dec/02/kazakhstan-regime-link-to-ftse- firms (last accessed November 11, 2011).
8. Work in the cultural studies tradition has avoided such categorizations. See, for example, Fenster, Conspiracy Theories; and Peter Knight, Conspiracy Culture: From Kennedy to The X-Files (London, 2000). Andrew McKenzie identifies U.S. conspiracy theories as dominated by the threat from within, while Christoph Herzog suggests that Turkish conspiracy theories combine these two dimensions.
9. See McKenzie, "The Transfer of Anti-Illuminati Conspiracy Theories to the United States in the Late 18 th Century," and Herzog, "Small and Large Scale Conspiracy Theories and Their Problems: An Example from Turkey," both in Conspiracy Theories in the Middle East and the United States: A Comparative Approach, ed. Michael Butter and Maurus Reinkowski (Freiburg, 2011), 4-28 and 68-82, respectively.
10. Andrei L'vov, "Svergnutogo Presidenta Kirgizii i ego sem'iu obviniaiut v terrorizme," Komsomolskaia pravda, June 16, 2010, also available at http://kp.by/daily/24507/659035/. (last accessed November 15, 2011).
11. "Vse vokrug smerti diktatora," RusUSA.com, December 21, 2006, also available at http://www.rususa.com/ news/print.asp-nid-23075 (last accessed November 15, 2011).
12. Makhinur Niiazova, "Ubiistvo Sadyrkuova - vremia razbrasyvat kamni?' September 19, 2011, http://www.centrasia.ru/newsA.php?st=1316446380 (last accessed November 14, 2011)
13. Zaiavlenie Politbiuro OND, "Dzhurnalist Gennadii Pavlyuk - Zhertva semeino-klanovoi diktatury Bakievikh," December 20, 2009, http://www.centrasia.ru/newsA.php?st=1261327140. (last accessed November 15, 2011).
14. Akhbar Turajonzoda, Shariat va jomea [Sharia and society] (Dushanbe, 2006). See also Tim Epkenhans, "Defining Normative Islam: Some Remarks on Contemporary Islamic Thought in Tajikistan - Hoji Akbar Turajonzoda's Sharia and Society," Central Asian Survey 30 (2011): 81-96.
15. Taras Kuzio, "Soviet Conspiracy Theories and Political Culture in Ukraine: Understanding Viktor Yanukovych and the Party of Regions," Communist and Post-Communist Studies 44 (2011): 221-32.
16. Shawn T. Lyons, "Where Is the Gold of Amir Said Alimkhan: An Uzbek Metaphor for the Past," Central Asian Survey 14 (1995): 5-16.
17. Rahim Masov, Istoriia topornogo razdeleniia (Dushanbe, 1991).
18. See also Marlène Laruelle, "The Return of the Aryan Myth: Tajikistan in Search of a Secularized National Ideology," Nationalities Papers 35 (2010): 51-70
19. Shodmon Yusuf, Baho-ye Ozodi [The mark of freedom] (Tehran, 1994-95), 70-72, 154. This should be seen in terms of wider Tajik obsessions with external interference by Russia and Uzbekistan, as well as a particular interest in conspiracy theories among the Islamic clergy and the Islamic Revival Party in Tajikistan, including accounts in which the conspirators are Western. For example, a recent story on the Islamic Revival Party's official website arguing that Hitler did not commit suicide and only died in Argentina in 1962.
20. See "Hitler Khudkhushi Nakhardaast," [Hitler did not commit suicide], http://www.nahzat.tj/d-f/siyosat/3768-2011- 10-19-11-03-14 (last accessed November 10, 2011). Thanks to Tim Epkenhans for spotting these cases.
21. This conspiracy theory offers the following items of evidence: anti-Bakiev television documentaries shown on Russian channels widely available in Central Asia; reports of Russians distributing guns from vehicles parked near Bishkek's central square; and the phone conversation which took place between interim leader Otunbaeva and Premier Putin just hours after she took power. See, for example, Bek Orozaliev and Aleksandr Gabuev, "'My Bakieva ne raz preduprezhdali': Rossiia priznala sverzhenie presidenta Kirgizii ran'she chem on sam," Kommersant, April 9, 2010, also available at http://www.centrasia. ru/ newsA.php?st=1270789440. (last accessed November 15, 2011). In the manner of similar conspiracy theories about the Russo-Georgian War of August 2008 see the essay in this volume by Richard Sakwa.
22. Farangis Najibullah, "Tajikistan: 'Disappearance' Of President's Brother-In-Law Sparks Rumors," RFE/ RL, May 15, 2008.
23. Vadim Sadonshoev, "Tajikistan: The Power of Gossip," Global Voices Online, May 22, 2008, http://globalvoicesonline.org/2008/05/22/ tajikistan-the-power-of-gossip/ (last accessed March 30, 2008). Some of the more prominent websites to include postings were UzMetronom.com, Ferghana.ru, and ariana.su.
24. Najibullah, "Tajikistan: 'Disappearance'"; "Tadzhikistan: Po nepodtverzhdennym dannym, ubit vliiatel'nyi banker Kh. Sadullaev," Ferghana News, May 9, 2008, also available at http://www.fergananews.com/news. php?id=9117. (last accessed November 15, 2011).
25. Farangis Najibullah, "Tajikistan: Plot Thickens around Banker's Disappearance," RFE/RL, June 5, 2008, also available at http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1347814.html. (last accessed March 30, 2010).
26. Najibullah, "Tajikistan: 'Disappearance.'"
27. "'Pokhoronennyi' riadom SMI Khasan Asalullozoda (ziat E. Rakhmona) zasvetilsia na TV," June 3, 2008, http://www.centrasia.ru/newsA.php?st= 1212484380 (last accessed November 15, 2011).
28. These include the cases of Rakhat Aliev (former son-in-law of Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbaev), Mansur Maqsudi (the former son-in-law of Uzbek President Islam Karimov), and in Tajikistan the less wellknown case of Yormuhammad Gulov (the ex-husband of Rahmon's daughter Tahmina). For some discussion of these cases see, Farangis Najibullah, "Central Asia: Ambition Often the Downfall of Powerful Presidential Relatives," Eurasianet, May 31, 2008, also available at http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/ articles/eav053108.shtml (last accessed March 30, 2010).
29. Shirin Akiner, "Prospects for Civil Society in Tajikistan," in Civil Society in the Muslim World: Contemporary Perspectives, ed. A. B. Sajoo (London, 2002), 149-95
30. Muriel Atkin, "Tajikistan: A President and His Rivals," in Power and Change in Central Asia, ed. Sally N. Cummings (London, 2001), 97-114
31. Colette Harris, Control and Subversion: Gender Relations in Tajikistan (London, 2004)
32. John Heathershaw, Post-Conflict Tajikistan: The Politics of Peacebuilding and the Emergence of Legitimate Order (London, 2009), 83-85
33. Sophie Roche, "Domesticating Youth: The Youth Bulge in Post-Civil War Tajikistan" (Ph.D. diss., Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, 2009).
34. Heathershaw, Post-Conflict Tajikistan, 69, 81.
35. Patrick Frost, "Ambition Is Dangerous in Central Asia," Foreign Policy Association, July 10, 2008, also available at http://foreignpolicyblogs. com/2008/07/10/ambition-is-dangerous-in-central-asia/ (last accessed January 5, 2010)
36. Patti McCracken, "Tajikistan," International Press Institute, February 4, 2009, also available at http://www.freemedia.at/archives/singleview/ article/tajikistan.html (last accessed January 5, 2010).
37. Bruce Pannier, "Death of Prominent Tajik Highlights Instability in Central Asia's Southeast," RFE/RL, July 14, 2009, accessed March 20, 210, http://www.rferl.org/content/Death-Of-Prominent-Tajik-Highlighting-Instability- In-Central-Asias-Southeast/1776540.html.
38. "Mirzo Ziyoev: 'Ia sleduiu za bogom, I on sam mne velit . situatsiia v Tavildare vo tselom spokoinaia,'" May 29, 2009, www.centrasia.ru/newsA. php?st=1243544340 (last accessed June 10, 2010).
39. Alexander Sodiqov, "High-Profile Death Raises Questions in Tajikistan," Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst, August 19, 2009.
40. "Late Tajik Minister's Group Charged with Plotting Breakout," RFE/RL, December 15, 2009, also available at http://www.rferl.org/content/Late- Tajik-Ministers-Group-Charged-With-Plotting-Breakout/1904781.html(last accessed October 20, 2011).
41. "Tajikistan - Former UTO Commander Ziyoev Killed," U.S. Embassy Dushanbe cable, July 14, 2009, as published by Wikileaks, available at http://wikileaks.ch/cable/2009/07/09 DUSHANBE845.html (last accessed October 20, 2011).
42. See International Crisis Group (ICG), Tajikistan: The Changing Insurgent Threats (Bishkek/Brussels, May 24, 2011), 4, also available at http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/asia/central-asia/tajikistan/ 205-tajikistan-the-changing-insurgent-threats.aspx (last accessed November 15, 2011).
43. "State Committee for National Security Defends Civilization," U.S. Embassy Dushanbe cable, December 9, 2009, as published by Wikileaks, http://wikileaks.ch/cable/2009/12/09 DUSHANBE1433.html (last accessed October 20, 2011). See also ICG, Tajikistan, 4.
44. Sodiqov, "High-Profile Death." See also my interview with Alexander Sodiqov, Dushanbe, 5 April 2010.
45. Rukhshona Ibragimova, "IMU Continues to Threaten Central Asia," Central Asia Online, February 18, 2010, http://www.centralasiaonline.com/ cocoon/caii/xhtml/en-GB/features/caii/features/main/2010/02/18/feature-02 (last accessed April 15, 2010).
46. Rukhshona Ibragimova, "IMU Might Be Using Tajikistan to Enter Other Countries," Central Asia Online, June 29, 2010, http://centralasiaonline. com/cocoon/caii/mobile/en-GB/features/caii/features/main/2010/06/29/ feature-03 (last accessed July 14, 2010).
47. Ibragimova, "IMU Might Be Using Tajikistan."
48. Ibragimova, "IMU Continues to Threaten Central Asia."
49. See Ahad Djakhongirov, "Tadzhikistan: Kto v istinnikh pokroviteliakh IDU?" August 19, 2009, http://uzmetronom.com/2009/08/19/centrasiaru- tadzhikistan-kto-v-istinnykh-pokroviteljakh-idu.html (last accessed July 13 2010)
50. Heathershaw, Post-Conflict Tajikistan, chap. 6.
51. For a discussion of the constitutive power of the geopolitical idea of "the Heartland" see Anita Sengupta, Heartlands of Eurasia: The Geopolitics of Political Space (Lanham, MD, 2009).
52. Richard Hofstadter, "The Paranoid Style in American Politics," in The Paranoid Style in American Politics and Other Essays, by Richard Hofstadter (London, 1966).
53. Fenster, Conspiracy Theories; Knight, Conspiracy Culture.
54. Jack Bratich, Conspiracy Panics: Political Rationality and Popular Culture (New York, 2008).
55. Alexander Dunst, "Ordinary Paranoia: Rethinking (American) Conspiracy Studies," in Conspiracy Theories in the Middle East and the United States, 212.
56. See also Fenster, Conspiracy Theories; Knight, Conspiracy Culture; and Jodi Dean, Aliens in America: Conspiracy Cultures from Outerspace to Cyberspace (Ithaca, 1998)
57. Sarah Kendzior, "Digital Distrust: Uzbek Cynicism and Solidarity in the Internet Age," American Ethnologist 38 (2010): 559-75.
58. "Koogang! Adiletsiz biiliktin arty" [Scandal! The injustice of government], DVD, part 1 (2011).
59. James C. Scott, Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts (New Haven, 1990). Scott suggests that it is in authoritarian settings where the hidden transcript is most common. In parts of the Middle East such as Lebanon and Iran, and sectarian communities within the United States, this does seem to be borne out. See Schirin Fathi, "From Mosaddeq to HAARP," and Andre Sleiman, "Zionising the Middle East," both in Conspiracy Theories in the Middle East and the United States, respectively.
60. Harris, Control and Subversion; Erica Marat, National Defenders; Chad Thompson, "Epistemologies of Independence: Technology and Empire in the Post-Soviet Borderlands. Social and Political Thought" (Ph.D. diss. Toronto, York Univeristy, 2010).
61. For a discussion of the prevalence of the idea of the "near abroad" in Russian foreign policy see Anna Matveeva, "Return to Heartland: Russia's Policy in Central Asia," International Spectator 42 (2007): 43-62.
62. John Heathershaw, "New Great Game or Same Old Ideas? Neo-Sovietism and the International Politics of Imagining 'Central Asia,'" in The CIS: Form or Substance? ed. David Dusseault (Helsinki, 2007), 236-68.
63. See Kendzior, "Digital Distrust," 562 (on Uzbekistan)
64. Yael Navaro-Yashin, Faces of the State: Secularism and Public Life in Turkey (Princeton, 2002).
65. David Lewis, The Temptations of Tyranny in Central Asia (London, 2008), 124, 266.
66. Roy Allison, "Virtual Regionalism, Regional Structures and Regime Security in Central Asia," Central Asian Survey 27 (2008): 198.
67. John Heathershaw, "Tajikistan's Virtual Politics of Peace," Europe-Asia Studies 61 (2009): 1315-36.
68. See, respectively, Laura Adams, The Spectacular State: Culture and Identity in Uzbekistan (Durham, NC, 2010)
69. Heathershaw, Post-Conflict Tajikistan; Lewis, The Temptations of Tyranny; and Allison, "Virtual Regionalism."