Stories about Central Asia & Caucasus from November, 2013
VIDEO: Kazakh Students Sing Love Songs for President
After a massive rally in which some 3,000 students expressed their love for Kazakhstan's president, netizens compare the country to North Korea.
Uzbekistan's “Twitter Warrior” Gulnara Karimova Is Back
After disappearing from Twitter yesterday, Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of Uzbekistan's “enduring dictator“, has returned to the micro-blogging service. In a flurry of angry tweets, Gulnara is blaming [ru] her mother for using intimidation and arbitrary arrests against her colleagues, allies, and business partners. Gulnara also suggests that her mother is...
Gulnara Karimova Ends Provocative “Twitter War” in Uzbekistan
Uzbek president's glamorous daughter has deactivated Twitter account she used to expose power struggles in Uzbekistan and feuds within the first family.
As Twitter Use Rises in Tajikistan, Who Should You Follow?
Although Twitter's popularity in Tajikistan still lags far behind that of Odnoklassniki or Facebook, the number of Tajikistani voices on the social network is rising. Nilufar Shukrikhudo observes: It makes me quite happy to see twitter gain momentum in #Tajikistan. I've been waiting for a while for that to happen. —...
“I have Dreams of My Own”: Revolting Against Patriarchy in Kazakhstan
A Kazakhstani blogger writes [ru] about her transformation from a “wife and mother”, the role that the patriarchal society reserves for women, to a “free woman”. She calls the process a “revolution in my head”: And then I realized it… I have dreams of my own, the dreams that have little...
Kazakhstan's Facebook Rival Groups Members by Tribe
How do you create a social networking platform that would be popular in society dominated by Facebook and Odnoklassniki? In Kazakhstan, the answer is tribe. Rulas [Kazakh for “tribemate”], a new social network that has already attracted several thousand members, groups users according to their clans and tribes. Although tribal identities...
Soviet Environmental Posters
Skyfall presents [ru] a collection of environmental posters from the Soviet period. The blogger who often writes about environmental problems in Kazakhstan and some of his readers are nostalgic about the “environmental education and awareness-raising programs” of the Soviet era. Below are some of the posters collected by the blogger:
Kazakhstan's “Bilingual” Currency Turns Twenty
Kazakhstan has recently marked the twentieth birthday of the national currency, the tenge. Blogger Serikzhan Kovlanbayev presents [ru] a brief history of the tenge, showing how it has changed since 1993 and what is unique about it: A unique thing about the Kazakhstani currency is that it is “bilingual”, that is,...
Social Media in Tajikistan's Election: A “Milestone” or Just “Noise”?
There was an unprecedented amount of social media buzz around the recent presidential polls in Tajikistan. There is little agreement, however, about whether the buzz made any real difference.
Tajikistan: The Elections Boycott That Wasn't
During the months leading to Tajikistan's presidential polls, the idea of a boycott of the elections was popular among social media users. Why has the boycott not happened?
Tajik Elections Debate: Either Rahmon or “Cannibalism”
Prior to Tajikistan's presidential elections, the website of the opposition Islamic Revival Party (IRPT) published a story titled “Will Emomali Rahmon Remain President or Not?” [tj]. The story drew hundreds of comments, triggering a heated debate between those who thought it was time for the incumbent president to step down and...
Tajikistan Votes in “Imitation” of Presidential Elections
Today's elections in Tajikistan will extend the two-decade-long presidency of Emomali Rahmon for another seven years. The vote does not have even a modicum of suspense.
Life in Kyrgyz Prisons Through Camera Eyes
Photographer Eric Gourlan spent over a month in prisons in Kyrgyzstan, documenting the life of both inmates and guards. Photographs he took there provide a rare “view from the inside” the country's prison system. Kloop.kg publishes some of the remarkable photos that are now displayed at a museum in Bishkek. The documentary...
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