Academic literature on the topic 'Osh (Kyrgyzstan) – Politics and government'

In this article, we introduce the concept of substate populism to account for dynamics in which populist speech is used to critique national elites for harming the interests of the ‘pure’ local people. We also identify three preconditions for substate populism: decentralisation, preexisting resentment or anxiety, and the capacity to dominate the local narrative. We explore the concept through a comparison of the frames used by Narendra Modi while serving as the chief minister of the state of Gujarat in India and Melis Myrzakmatov while serving as the mayor of Osh, Kyrgyzstan. We demonstrate that in both cases Modi and Myrzakmatov utilised substate populism following deadly ethnic riots to articulate local resentments, maintain popular support, and delegitimise external efforts to promote post-conflict reconciliation. We argue that through eradicating at least one of the three identified preconditions, a national government can undermine substate populism.

In the middle of the XIX century, the territory of contemporary Kyrgyzstan was conquered by the Tsarist Russia. Later, in 1917, as a result of the October Revolution, the Tsarist regime was replaced by the Soviet rule. In the territory of Kyrgyzstan, it was established firstly in the southern and western regions of the country, such as Suluktu and Kyzyl-Kiya, Osh and Talas, where the largest industrial enterprises, mines, railway junctions and most of the workers and soldiers were concentrated. However, already by the mid 1918, the Soviet government managed to spread its power to the entire region of Kyrgyzstan. In 1924, the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, established on April 30, 1918, was reorganized into a new administrative division. As the part of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), on October 24, 1924 the Kara Kyrgyz Autonomous Region was formed. On May 25, 1925 the Kara Kyrgyz Autonomous Region was renamed into the Kyrgyz Autonomous Region. Then on February 01, 1926 it was restructured into the Kyrgyz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. On December 05, 1936 it became a separate constituent republic of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) known as the Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic. Along with other 15 Soviet Socialist states, Kyrgyzstan had been the member of the USSR for about 70 years, from 1919 till 1991. The current paper focuses on the processes of social transformation under the Soviet regime, especially the implementation of class struggle policy and its impact on Kyrgyzstan. In comparison with the interventions from the Tsarist Russia, the social transformation process undertaken under the Soviet system was quite different. In the territory of the Kyrgyz traditional society, the Tsarist Russia made only some social reorganization, but the Soviets brought radical changes in to the socio-political organizations of the Kyrgyz people. The paper seeks to understand how the Soviet Union tried to reconstruct the Kyrgyz society during the 1920s and 1930s. In addition, the paper will analyze the methods and mechanisms of the social transformation processes and the measures used by the Soviet government in their socio-political ‘battles’ against the local elites, and the influence of the new system on the existing socio-economic stratification in the context of the Kyrgyz society. During the Soviet period the prevalent scientific vision about the major historical events of the time was based on the Communist ideology. Therefore, the main aim of the paper is to analyze and describe an objective overview of the history of Soviet class struggle policy. The paper is based on the research of local archival documents, published sources and oral materials.

AbstractFor several years the OSCE has attempted to lobby and forge the political will to develop police reform in Kyrgyzstan. In June 2010 its police did not have the capacity to anticipate and prevent destabilisation and to maintain a neutral position in the management of the interethnic conflict. The fact that ethnic minorities are significantly underrepresented in the police contributed to this. As a result, the population's trust further deteriorated from an already existing critically low level. The then incumbent Transitional Government understood the need to support the police in restoring trust and confidence and hence requested the OSCE's assistance. A special project called the Community Security Initiative was created and a team of 28 international police advisors, supported by 21 local staff, deployed in January 2011 in twelve sensitive police stations including Osh. Using a new approach to communication/interaction these advisors try to change the perception of both the police and the population when addressing and resolving daily security problems in the communities. This requires a new and inventive approach putting peoples' security in the forefront. The main objective of CSI is to support the Kyrgyz Government in three main areas: improving relations between the police and the public, supporting and advising the MOI in respecting police ethics standards including human rights, and providing support and advice in the area of multiethnic policing.

This article is investigating physiological childbirth statistics and obstetric service in Osh, Kyrgyzstan during the 2016 to 2021 years. Statistical analyses revealed several patients’ admissions with their hospital stay days for the period from 2011 to 2020 in all departments. Growth in the population analyzed according to Kyrgyz Republic National Statistical Committee; due to spread of coronavirus infection COVID-19 pandemic and the government declared an emergency in certain territories in the Kyrgyz Republic, from March 31 to May 21, 2020, activities of public service centers and registry office by Government Registration Service were delayed. Conclusions: Quality provision in medical care is vital for both women and newborns and for a minority who experience complications in maternity service. Some statistical analyses revealed that average absolute birth number reduced by 92 births and births number variation analysis in Osh oblast for 2016 to 2021 years showed that in the 2021 year total birth number was 29902 and 31000 in 2020, which can be explained by COVID – 19 infection influence on the population. Number of births registered as 182.971 and the average annual number of births was 30.495. Keywords: physiological childbirth, obstetric service, statistical analysis, Kyrgyz Republic National Statistical Committee, birth analysis, COVID 19

Purpose – This paper is one of the first attempts to explain the local dynamics of the 2010 ethnic riots in Kyrgyzstan. No scholarly work has attempted to systematically analyze the 2010 ethnic violence and its local dynamics on the neighborhood scale. The purpose of this paper is to shed light on this gap by analyzing neighborhoods’ responses to the emerging violence in the city of Osh. In order to do this, the author compares two typical neighborhoods in Osh, one violent and the other non-violent, with different spatial structures and built environments that demonstrate/represent similar dynamics of riots in many other neighborhoods. Design/methodology/approach – The empirical findings of this paper are based on the ethnographic fieldwork the author carried out in 2010 and between 2012 and 2014. During nine months (in total) of the author’s ethnographic fieldwork, the author conducted around 60 semi-structured interviews in Osh city mainly with community leaders. In the author’s interview sampling, the author used two approaches: the snowball method and geographically/territorially representative sampling. Findings – The author argues that among other factors, a particular type of public space provides favorable conditions for riot occurrence or non-occurrence. For example, in Osh, such places as areas around the central bazaar and densely populated multi-story building complexes were especially riot-prone. By contrast, residential areas with individual-unit houses and low residential mobility represented communally private spaces with more easy riot-control. In addition, some residential areas implemented strategies such as physical self-isolation to avoid violence. By restricting freedom of movement and erecting improvised barricades, the residents of such neighborhoods created a temporally new space with its own rules and interethnic cooperation. Originality/value – This paper suggests new insights in the analysis of riots by connecting theoretical categories and concepts of space provided by scholars of contentious politics and applying them to the case of the 2010 ethnic riots in Osh city. By analyzing riot dynamics on the neighborhood scale, this research contributes to the understanding of the spatial dynamics of ethnic riots.

Uzbekistan played an important role during the June 2010 interethnic violence in South Kyrgyzstan by tightly controlling borders, allowing thousands of Kyrgyzstani refugees to cross into Uzbek territory, assisting in the shipment of international humanitarian assistance to Kyrgyzstan, and collaborating with the osce in the investigation of the causes of the violence. What explains Uzbekistan’s approach to the unrest in South Kyrgyzstan? Some scholars suggest that Uzbekistan’s response was shaped largely by external actors such as Russia. Others posit that domestic pressures account for the response. This article advances an alternative explanation: Tashkent’s response was largely a result of a consensus achieved at two levels: international and domestic. In explaining the impact of domestic level, the article emphasizes the role of bureaucratic politics—competition among various government agencies.

Рассматриваются проблемы проведения земельно-водной реформы на юге Кыргызстана в 1927-1928 годах. Отмечается, что аграрный вопрос еще не был решен в первые годы советской власти. Главной задачей советской власти было изъятие земли, сельскохозяйственного инвентаря и других имуществ у крупных землевладельцев, и обеспечение ими безземельных и малоземельных крестьян. В южных районах Кыргызстана крупные землевладельцы (16,8% всех хозяйств) сосредотачивали в своих руках более половины всех земель (52,2%), свыше трети рабочего скота и инвентаря (39,8% и 35,2% соответственно). Для исполнения земельной реформы в южных волостях была проведена подготовительная работа и статистическо-экономическое обследование. Во время проведения реформы возникли различные формы протеста, конфликты со стороны крупных землевладельцев, русских кулаков. В результате реформы в Ошских и Джалал-Абадских кантонах было ликвидировано 278 крупных байских, 219 крупных торговых и других нетрудовых, и ущемлено 3447 хозяйств. Отмечается, что земельно-водная реформа явилась предпосылкой к проведению коллективизации сельского хозяйства. The problems of land and water reform in the south of Kyrgyzstan in 1927-1928 are considered. It is noted that the agrarian issue has not yet been resolved in the early years of Soviet power. The main task of the Soviet government was to seize land, agricultural implements and other property from large landowners and provide them to landless and land-poor peasants. In the southern regions of Kyrgyzstan, large landowners (16.8% of all farms) concentrated in their hands more than half of all land (52.2%), more than a third of working livestock and equipment (39.8% and 35.2%, respectively). For the implementation of the land reform in the southern volosts, preparatory work and a statistical and economic survey were carried out. During the reform, various forms of protest arose, conflicts on the part of large landowners, Russian kulaks. As a result of the reform in the Osh and Jalal-Abad cantons, 278 large bai, 219 large merchants and other non-working households were liquidated, and 3447 households were infringed. It is noted that the land and water reform was a prerequisite for the collectivization of agriculture.

As refugee flows have increased, western attitudes towards them have become conflicted. Attitudes towards refugees in non-western and in Muslim nations are rarely studied, though these nations accept most refugees. This study of attitudes towards refugees among tertiary students in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), Lebanon, Russia and Kyrgyzstan used Appraisal and content analysis frequencies and co-frequencies. Results showed that the Lebanese realised greater affect, possibly due to their experience of refugees. More generally, nationality shaped attitudes more than religion, tertiary students favour technocratic solutions by government actors despite realistically estimating the challenge, and while students critically analyse the problems created by refugee inflows, they retain a nativist stance and seem unaware of the optics and politics of this stance.

Background and context: Breast cancer takes the first place among the cancer diseases in the Kyrgyz Republic. Almost 40% of breast cancer cases are detected in the advanced III and IV stages. Specialized oncology services for cancer patients are available in two oncology centers in the Kyrgyz Republic. One is in Bishkek (capital of the country), and another is in Osh (the second large city). However, medical services provided by the government are limited to the surgery, particularly, with mastectomy. Radiotherapy is not available because of deterioration and breakdown of equipment. Mandatory Health Insurance Fund does not cover chemotherapy cost for cancer patients, and patients pay out of pocket. Kyrgyz National Essential Drug List does not include many vital antineoplastic agents recommended by WHO. The absence of essential antineoplastic agents in National Essential Drug List negatively affects medicine registration and procurement, makes them unavailable, inaccessible and unaffordable in Kyrgyzstan. Advanced breast cancer patients cannot plan their upcoming expenses. Many patients can´t finish the full course of treatment. Ergene is the only organization in Kyrgyzstan that advocates and provides technical assistance to the Oncology Institute and the Ministry of Health to improve access to oncological drugs for the treatment of breast cancer. Aim: Improve access to oncology medicines and treatment of patients with advanced breast cancer. Strategy/Tactics: Ergene team accessed National Essential Drug List (EDL) and selected available oncology drugs. Then the experts compared available oncological drugs from the National EDL and oncology drugs from the WHO list. Together with oncologists, experts analyzed the availability of essential drugs for advanced breast cancer and identified missing drugs to be included in National EDL. These drugs are trastuzumab, anastrozole, paclitaxel, and gemcitabine. Program/Policy process: The team of experts calculated the cost of treatment of breast cancer regimens including therapy with trastuzumab and started negotiations with Mandatory Health Insurance Fund (MHIF) for chemotherapy treatment coverage. The policy makers agreed that the cost of basic chemotherapy regimens is affordable for insurance coverage (adriamycin cyclophosphamide-245 USD, cyclophosphamide methotrexate fluorouracil - 390USD, fluorouracil adriamycin cyclophosphamide -426 USD). However, the cost of monotherapy regimen is more expensive (capecitabine, docetaxel -2400 dollars) and requires additional financial resources. Outcomes: MHIF will include coverage of essential AC, FAC, and CMF regimens for women with breast cancer and will consider partial coverage of trastuzumab and several monotherapy regimens. What was learned: Chemotherapy regimens cost calculation is an integral part of advocacy and policy work. It helped to negotiate chemotherapy treatment insurance coverage for women with breast cancer.

This book is a collection of essays written by a variety of experts on Turkey and social movements and provides a critical analysis of the role of the Gülen Movement (GM)—or Hizmet (“service”), as it is referred to by its adherents—in the coup attempt which was undertaken by one or more factions of the Turkish armed forces in July 2016. Edited and contributed to by M. Hakan Yavuz and Bayram Balci, this work began at a conference in October of 2016, where these experts gathered to discuss the coup itself as well as its implications and ramifications. The chapters in the book all build off of each other to some degree, with earlier chapters covering the history of the GM and the ways in which it has acquired influence both in Turkey and abroad; the coup and structural factors both within Turkish society; and the GM alliance with the Justice and Development Party (AKP) led by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the current president of Turkey. Later chapters expand in scope, covering the foreign policy implications of the coup both for Turkey and the United States, where Fethullah Gülen, the eponymous leader of the movement, resides today. Several chapters engage the state of the scholarship on the GM itself, effectively unpacking the ways in which the organization has actively co-opted academia by offering paid trips to Turkey, publishing non-peer-reviewed material, and funding conferences which avoid critical analysis of the GM. In the introduction Balci and Yavuz discuss the history of the Turkish state, giving particular focus to the place of religion under Kemal Atatürk; the pair discusses how the Turkish concept of secularism hews much more closely to the Jacobin tradition than the Anglo-American understanding. This is quite important as the alliance between the AKP and the GM (following Turkish elections in 2002 wherein the AKP swept to power) rested on a shared desire to overthrow the Kemalist conception of secularism, which seeks to dominate religion and prevent its expression in the public sphere. The book’s first chapter, written by Yavuz, charts the GM’s development over time, enumerating three key stages in its history. The first was that of a loosely bound religious network, encouraged by their leader to do good works; the second marked the expansion of the GM both within and outside of Turkey as an education-providing and media powerhouse; the third saw the GM create a parallel state structure in Turkey, which was mobilized to further increase the movement’s power throughout the 2000s and this current decade, most famously during the coup itself, though a variety of other incidents are discussed here and throughout the book. The next chapter details the coup itself, giving background which is necessary to understand the rest of the work and underlining four key junctures which put Turkey on the path to the July 15th event. The chapter’s author, Mujeeb R. Khan, notes that the structure of Turkish institutions (particularly its version of secularism), the continued domination of the Turkish deep state following the introduction of multi-party elections several decades ago, the neo-liberal opening Turkey experienced in the 1980s, and the rise of the AKP in the early 2000s all played integral roles in the rise of the GM and, eventually, the coup. Yavuz collaborated with Rasim Koç to write the third chapter, which examines the relationship between the GM and Erdoğan’s AKP (beginning with the unspoken alliance between the two which started after AKP’s 2002 electoral victory and whose disintegration led to the coup) as well as foreign policy consequences it had for Turkey. Chapters 4 and 5, written by Michael A. Reynolds and Kiliç Kanat, examine the coup, including the factors and events which led to both its occurrence and its failure. Kanat’s examination of why the coup failed is particularly interesting; he compares and contrasts the failure with previous successful coups which occurred in Turkey during the mid- to late-twentieth century. The next chapter, written by Caroline Tee, returns specifically to the topic of the AKP-GM relationship, digging deeply into the events which caused what on the surface seemed like a natural alliance to fracture and, during 2016, turn upon itself. Sabine Dreher’s chapter follows Tee’s, and is one of the most theoretical in the book, as it places the GM in the contexts of neoliberal and globalist theory, and notes internal contradictions within the movement itself. She considers how the global goals of the organization—the eradication of ignorance through educational work, the alleviation of poverty through private enterprise run by movement members, and the hosting of intercultural and interfaith dialogue— stand at odds with the nationalist project of the GM in Turkey, where movement members attempted to seize control of the state they had been infiltrating for some time as opposed to working outside of it. Balci wrote the eighth chapter, which deals with the GM movement’s presence in former Soviet satellites, namely Georgia, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. Following the coup attempt in 2016, the Turkish government pressured all of these states to shut down any GM movement activities within their countries, which was difficult as the GM provided excellent education to the children of elites in these nations. He then charts the differing reactions of the states mentioned above. The ninth chapter, by David Tittensor, turns to the structure of the GM and how secrecy and hierarchy play crucial roles in it, a reality which is often denied by the majority of scholarship—though he and other contributors to the work might dispute the use of the term “scholarship”, or at least qualify it. He does end his chapter with a criticism of the theory that GM members were key leaders of the coup, a conclusion which is at odds with that of most other contributors to the volume. The tenth chapter, by Yavuz Çobanoĝlu, provides insight into the role of women in the GM, criticizing some of Gülen’s writings and detailing the experiences of female students living in GM dormitories in Turkey, an experience that many of the women surveyed found to be repressive. Kristina Dohrn’s contribution outlines the activities and role of the GM movement in Tanzania, which, similar to Balci’s chapter, deals with repercussions of the coup and examines potential paths forward for the GM outside of Turkey. The work’s final chapter, written by Joshua Hendrick, is about how the GM presented itself as a “good” Islam in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, during a period in which the West writ large was searching for a “modern” version of the religion which it could champion in opposition to extremism. He effectively critiques the idea that religion itself can be good or bad, and rightly puts the onus on the actors themselves. The book ends with a postscript which examines the four major theories about how the coup may have come to pass, and comes to the conclusion that GM members were central and sole actors in the coup, which was in all likelihood approved by Gülen himself. This work does an excellent job of unpacking the GM and its various religious and political facets, even for the relatively uninitiated reader, and pushes back strongly against what it identifies as the prevailing anti-Erdoĝan Western narratives about the coup, which try to shift blame away from the GM and onto the shoulders of other actors, including the AKP leader. Particularly interesting is the book’s criticism of GM-sponsored scholarship, which is cited as one of the primary ways in which the GM has ingratiated itself worldwide, as it frames the group as “good” Islam. The work refrains from being speculative but does examine possible futures for the GM, mostly outside of Turkey, as the country’s government has gone to extreme lengths to uproot the movement in its homeland—lengths that the authors do rightly criticize as going too far, if somewhat tepidly at times. The US-Turkey relationship as it relates to the GM issue, specifically hisresidence in the US, is also examined in some depth and leads a student of either Islam in the US or the country’s politics to wonder if the GM has successfully insinuated itself into any institutions here, as it has done in Turkey. The author of this review once believed that Erdoĝan may have permitted or even been behind the coup attempt as a vehicle to consolidate power, but the evidence and arguments presented by the authors of this work have swayed his point of view; the GM was almost certainly responsible for the coup attempt, and it seems likely that Gülen himself gave his blessing to the members of his movement who carried it out. Grant MarthinsenMA, Center for Contemporary Arab StudiesGeorgetown University

Defence date: 29 September 2017
Examining Board: Dr. Donatella Della Porta, Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (Former EUI Supervisor); Dr. Oliver Roy, European University Institute; Dr. David Waddington, Sheffield Hallam University; Dr. Mark Beissinger, Princeton University
The paper attempts to explain the following question: why ethnic violence and riots broke out in some neighborhoods but not in others? It contributes to our understanding of communal violence and ethnic conflict with a novel approach that will widen our perspectives on the relationship between ethnic politics and security studies at local level (micro-spatial scale). While other works try to explain ethnic violence at highly aggregated national or regional levels, this dissertation analyzes the problem at neighborhood scale. To analyze the spatial variation in violence and peace, this research employs the concepts of security dilemma and pact-making that are usually used in international relations and security studies. I would like to show that theoretical insights drawn from international relations and security studies literature can be applicable not only to the analysis of inter-state wars and civil wars but also to the analysis of local dynamics of ethnic violence and interethnic peace at disaggregated spatial scale such as ethnic communities based in one town or in one neighborhood. I compare violent and non-violent neighborhoods in Osh city across different dimensions. The main argument of this research is the following. The spatial variation in violent and non-violent outcomes across towns and villages and urban neighborhoods, districts, and blocks within these towns can be explained to the great extent by the presence and absence of intragroup policing and non- aggression intergroup pacts among village- and neighborhood-scale subgroups of both ethnic communities. In-group policing, a concept advanced by Fearon and Laitin (1996) is a crucial mechanism for understanding ethnic violence and peace in southern Kyrgyzstan. By itself, effective in-group policing – even in the absence of a non-aggression pact with out-group members – increases the likelihood of peaceful outcome or significantly decreases the possibility of intensive violent outbreaks in respective localities. Intracommunal policing is a necessary condition for the efficient intercommunal pacts as strong in-group policing establishes firm discipline and order within community and signals to an out-group about the credible commitment to the terms of a pact. On the other hand, intercommunal pacts reduce uncertainty and lessen fears (McFaul 2002, 217) by re-embedding trust and re-assuring in peaceful intentions between residentially-segregated Uzbek and Kyrgyz communities. However, whether intergroup pacts and in-group policing are successful depends also on several contingent and structural factors and the spatial environment of neighborhoods.
Chapter 6 ‘Spatial security during ethnic riots in Osh : how spatial factors and the built environment affect the local dynamics of violence and neighborhood security' of the PhD thesis draws upon an earlier version published as an article 'Public and communal spaces and their relation to the spatial dynamics of ethnic riots : violence and non-violence in the city of Osh' (2015) in the journal ‘International journal of sociology and social policy’

Central Asian states are often labelled as failing states by Western scholars because of their inability to overcome the patrimonial clan politics that appears rife throughout the government and societal institutions. Arguing that entrenched patronage networks lead to a corrupt and weak state, many theorists lament the persistence of clan networks in Central Asian states. Should these institutions be viewed in such a negative light? This thesis will explore a possibility that clans, i.e. the vibrant solidarity groups which exist in Central Asia, could be a positive influence in stabilizing the state and managing societal pressures as the post-Soviet republics of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan continue to negotiate the current process of transition.

The chapter explores the securityscapes of individuals from the Uzbek minority in the city of Osh in southern Kyrgyzstan. In 2010 Osh was shook by violent ethnic clashes between Kyrgyz and Uzbek residents, which claimed several hundred lives. The contribution asks how the everyday security practices of Uzbeks have changed ever since. It installs its focus on Uzbek catering sector. The chapter demonstrates how Uzbek owners of cafés and restaurants hide any markers that would give away their ethnic identity, including the names of their businesses or the dishes offered there. In highlights the importance of 'food politics' in the ongoing ethnic conflict and the Uzbek securityscapes in Osh.