· December, 2013

Stories about Central Asia & Caucasus from December, 2013

Search Engine Suggests Kazakhstan is a “Satan's Den”

  24 December 2013

Popular web search engines often have bizarre autocomplete suggestions. Kazakhstani blogger Fyodor Kovalyov writes [ru]: Сейчас решил узнать о наиболее значимых событиях уходящего года, произошедших в разных городах Казахстана, и пришёл в тихий ужас – если верить поисковой системе Yandex.kz, то мы живём, как минимум, в логове сатаны! I have just...

In Tajikistan Protest Occurs Online

  14 December 2013

While many people in Tajikistan are unhappy about the country's dire economic situation and political leadership, public protest is rare in the country. The fear of inevitable punishment by the state, the weakness of political opposition, and the memories of the 1992-1997 civil war make the likelihood of mass protest...

VIDEO: Young Men Are Forced to Join Army in Tajikistan

  14 December 2013

As Tajikistan's military faces a struggle to get enough volunteer conscripts, recruitment officers often rely on illegal practices in drafting military-age men into the army. One of the most common among such practices is “oblava” which involves “military press gangs making sweeps of city streets, bazaars and bus stations, rounding up...

Czechoslovakia's Architectural Heritage in Kyrgyzstan

  14 December 2013

Karina Ditkovskaya writes [ru] about a unique architectural heritage left by volunteer construction workers from Czechoslovakia in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan: In the 1920s a commune of volunteers from Czechoslovakia built a whole district of Bishkek. Now, after almost one hundred years, this area of Kyrgyzstan's capital city stands out due...

Ukrainian TV Show Angers Tajiks

  10 December 2013

A popular Ukrainian travel series has recently aired an episode about Tajikistan. Many Tajikistanis then turned to social media to curse the video.

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.