· February, 2013

Stories about Central Asia & Caucasus from February, 2013

Kazakhstan to ‘Work Closely’ with Bloggers

  23 February 2013

Marat Tazhin, a senior government official in Kazakhstan ordered [ru] yesterday the creation of a database of the most popular bloggers and moderators of major social media networks in the country. He also ordered state-run media and press services of key ministries to “work closely” with the bloggers and use their...

MDG Consultations Held in Tajikistan

  23 February 2013

Blogger Teocrat calls [ru] on Tajikistan's young people to contribute to public consultations on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The aim of the consultations is to review progress towards the MDGs and hear from people what they think should come after 2015, the deadline set for achieving the Goals. Many users...

Journalist's Stabbing a ‘Warning’ for Tajik Opposition

  20 February 2013

A Tajik journalist and critic of the regime is in hospital after being stabbed in Moscow. The netizens in Tajikistan have little doubt that the attack on the journalist was politically motivated and that it was a taste of things to come in the months leading to presidential elections due in November.

Horse is ‘Normal Meat’ in Kazakhstan

  16 February 2013

Here in Kazakhstan, especially by Kazakhs, horse is considered to be a normal meat/edible flesh, in the same way as chicken, beef or fish is. Although horses bred for eating are treated very differently, and indeed look different, to those destined for racing or transport on the steppe, a horse is just another animal that serves a purpose.

Tajik Civil War ‘Will Continue’

  16 February 2013

Unless ALL the sides [that fought against each other in the 1990s] admit their fault and say, "Yes, we did kill, we did start the conflict," the civil war will continue... It looks like we are ashamed of admitting that we are all to blame for the bloodshed.

Lies, Damned Lies, and Turkmen Statistics

  16 February 2013

When it comes to statistics, the Turkmen government remains committed to the time-honored Soviet principles of book-cooking, data fudging and avoiding the uncomfortable truth at all costs. 'Good' statistics, such as the rising grain harvests, are triumphantly covered by state-run media, while bad news are never reported.

Praising Lenin in Tajik Poetry

  11 February 2013

Glorifying Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the Bolshevik Revolution, was a popular theme in Soviet literature. Kimiyoi Saodat (The Chemistry of Happiness) blog traces [tj] the Lenin-praising tradition in Tajik poetry, from the prominent poets of the Soviet period to some contemporaries. More than two decades after independence, debates persist about...

Open Access and the Complexity of Digital Rights

  6 February 2013

How do ways of thinking change through time and space? Today, this problem concerning the way the human intellect works is compounded by a new method of transmission - digital. Open Access are calling for free availabilty of digitised publications from publicly-funded scientific research.

About our Central Asia & Caucasus coverage

Nurbek Bekmurzaev
Nurbek Bekmurzaev is the Central Asia editor. Email him story ideas or volunteer to write.

Arzu Geybullayeva
Arzu Geybullayeva is the South Caucasus editor. Email her story ideas or volunteer to write.