Oleg Antonov and I ran yesterday's declaration recognizing
#Luhansk
with the 2008 one recognizing South Ossetia through a plagiarism checker. Here is the result:
Only two regions in Central Asia have constitutionally-mandated autonomous status: Karakalpakstan in Uzbekistan and Mountainous Badakhshan Autonomous Region in Tajikistan. Both regions have seen brutal crackdowns on protests in the past two months
Hearing unconfirmed reports from sources in Tajikistan that the country's Alfa Group, the special forces of the GKNB, are at Aini airbase poised to fly to Kazakhstan to aid the government
Just because a few Tajiks have been involved in terrorism globally in recent years does not mean that all Tajiks are potential threats. 99.98% of the population did not mobilize to Syria and the online terrorist channels I track have a few dozen to low hundreds of followers
It's official! I am delighted to have won a
@DoDMinerva
grant for a 3 year project on hierarchy and resilience in international relations, with a focus on Central Asia, with
@yuvalweber
& Marlene Laruelle.
@BushSchoolDC
will release a video of us talking about the grant tomorrow
We're excited to announce that IERES Director Marlene Laruelle,
@yuvalweber
and
@EdwardLemon3
have been awarded a grant from
@DoDMinerva
! Read more about their project, “Conceptualizing Hierarchy and Resilience in Great Power Politics,” here:
For the past six months I have been working on a new non-profit focused on Central Asia, the Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs
@OxusSociety
. We plan to become a hub for research, debate and scholarship on Central Asia. We will launch on September 28.
A thread about Oxus:
Founded in 2020, the Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs is a DC-based non-profit organization dedicated to fostering academic exchange between Central Asia and the rest of the world.
We will launch on September 28
Today I lost the person who made me who I am today. The most courageous woman I know, who kept laughing and smiling right to the end. Here she is as I will always remember her, the life and soul of the party, dancing away at Navruz celebrations in Shahrtuz, Tajikistan in 2012
So I used a plagiarism checker to compare legislation on extremism in Russia (2002), with Tajikistan (2003), Kyrgyzstan (2005), Kazakhstan (2005) and Uzbekistan (2018).
While I am quoted here, I don't agree that Tajikistan has become a "breeding ground" for terrorists. A tiny minority were recruited and played an outsized role in IS ops, but framing the country as a hotbed is misleading and feeds into the xenophobia now being spread in Russia
One of the most well-respected NGOs in Tajikistan shuttered, hundreds arrested and dozens dead. The casualties of Tajikistan's authoritarian consolidation continue to mount
A decade ago I ran 260 miles over nine days from St Andrews to Uig on the Isle of Skye in memory of my best friend Haris who tragically died. Looking back, as someone who now struggles through a ten mile run, I can't believe I did it
Officially, 12% of Uzbekistan's population, 30% of Tajikistan's and 11% of Kyrgyzstan's population live in Russia. These figures keep rising. Remittances make up around 1/3 of Kyrgyz and Tajik economies.
Quite possibly the favorite photo I have taken. My climbing partner Charlie in an exposed position on the first accent of a 5,200m peak on the Kyrgyz-Chinese border in 2011. We would summit after this and then began an epic descent, arriving back 28 hrs after leaving base camp
While the threat within the country has been minimal, Tajikistan had the third highest per capita recruitment to Syria in the world, it's citizens took on key roles in IS and have been involved in attacks or foiled plots in Iran, Afghanistan, Germany and Turkey this past year.
There was no genocide of Russians in Tajikistan during the Civil War (1992-1997). Most Russians left as a result of the fighting and independence, but there was no targeting of ethnic Russians.
There is a specific hatred towards Tajiks in Russia. Many Z Telegram channels already remind the "genocide" of Russians in 90s in Tajikistan. This is an old conspiracy theory popular among Russian nationalists
I am delighted that together with Oleg Antonov, Bo Petersson, and Olena Podolian, I have won a three-year grant from the Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies for a project entitled "Authoritarian Policy Transfer in Post-Soviet States"
Read and learn about the changing attitudes towards Russia in Kazakhstan from
@barometer_ca
data!
Many thanks to the
@ForSetGe
Fellowship Program, the great team of
@Vlastkz
, and
@PaoloBottleneck
for their support in writing this material!
The scale of the economic disruption in Central Asia from Russia's invasion of Ukraine remains unclear. But the latest World Bank projections are grim reading. Remittances sent from Kyrgyz migrants expected to fall by 33% and to Tajikistan by 22%
This is the daughter of the Tajik president (a soon to be hereditary regime) giving her credentials to the queen (head of a much longer-standing hereditary regime) today as incoming Tajik ambassador to the UK today
Tajikistan sending a high-level delegation to Washington next week to meet with IMF, World Bank, USG to ask for assistance as sanctions cause economic downturn in the country, according to Tajik ambassador
A college called Alabuga Polytechnic in Yelabuga Special Economic Zone is actively recruiting Central Asian and African girls as young as 15 to study. When they arrive, they are forced to make Shahed drones to be used in Ukraine
A whopping 79% of Kyrgyzstan's and 56% of Tajikistan's laws are identical to the Russian law (compared with 4% for Kazakhstan, 5% for Uzbekistan).
#authoritarianlearning
In 2018, my uncle decided to interview my mother about her life and memories. At the time, I wasn't happy; she had a brain tumor and I didn’t want to confront her mortality. But now I can listen to hours of my beloved Mum reminiscing about her life
At the request of
@minervaknecht
, here is a list of travelogues through Central Asia, focused on the early Soviet, Tsarist and pre-Tsarist periods. This is no way a full list, just some of my favourites.
State media in Tajikistan publishes article claiming that "The history of mankind shows how the Tajik people [...] are privileged (superior) compared to the past pages of the history of the Kyrgyz people."
Today I am thinking of the two most important women in my life. My mother, who bequeathed the money that allowed us to start Oxus & would have loved how we have brought people together. My wife Eve (whose birthday it is today) who came up with the idea & helped us make it happen
Western governments have pumped hundreds of millions of $$$ in security assistance into Tajikistan. Not only has it been used to keep the authoritarian regime in power and kill civilians, Tajikistan's government routinely blames the West for destabilizing it. Time for a rethink
Two days after collapsing with seizures due to her brain tumor, my mother is still taking Monty Python’s advice. I know no one who is as quietly strong and determinedly positive as Mrs Lemon!
Today, we launched
@OxusSociety
. But it is also a special anniversary for me personally. Ten years since I first moved to Tajikistan, and it happened by accident...
Having worked on this with
@Jardine_bradley
&
@natalielhall94
for many months, I am excited about the publication of our new report, the first to compile data on all known cases of transnational repression against the Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities by the Chinese government
Next week, partnership with
@UyghurProject
, we will publish a groundbreaking report on the Chinese government's targeting of Uyghur and other Turkic minorities abroad, documenting 1,577 cases of detention and rendition in 28 countries since 1997
Once again the government of Tajikistan invokes emergency to block internet in Khorog, making it difficult for anyone outside to know what is going on. Alarming times in the Pamirs
Have a summary of the new strategy for Central Asia and am struck by how little new is in here: sovereignty, terrorism, connectivity, Afghanistan, human rights and development
Not a good look. Outgoing EU representative to Tajikistan fawns all over the president's son in law, who happens to be connected to grand corruption and money laundering for the country's kleptocratic elite
Nine years ago this month
@drgarethmottram
, Charlie Evans, Hannes Grunberg and I made the first accent of this 5,200m mountain on the Kyrgyz-China border. We named it Egemendeluk (Эгемендүүлүк) or Independence. Happy Independence Day to Kyrgyzstan 🇰🇬!!
Thankful to
@IWPR
for the opportunity to discuss the crisis in Belarus. I hope that our peaceful resistance can inspire people around the globe to value democracy where they have it and to fight for it where they lack it.
@cabarasia
Read the full speech: .
It was my pleasure to be a reviewer for Joldon Kutmanaliev's book-length study of the 2010 ethnic violence in the south of Kyrgyzstan 🇰🇬. I highly recommend reading it!
The solution to the conflict: the Kyrgyz side need to "take time off from other activities to study the history and destiny of the Tajik nation." This kind of nationalistic and chauvinistic discourse is deeply harmful!