· February, 2014

Stories about Central Asia & Caucasus from February, 2014

Kazakhstan's Charyn Canyon

  28 February 2014

Sergei Terekti presents [ru] a photo essay about his recent trip to Charyn Canyon, Kazakhstan's own smaller version of the Grand Canyon in the United States: The main canyon is about 150 kilometers long; the Charyn River crosses it. Multiple gorges, valleys, and smaller canyons surround the Charyn Canyon. One of the main...

Women Out For The Evening Risk Arrest in Turkmenistan

  28 February 2014

The Vienna-based opposition blog Chronicles of Turkmenistan reports that police in northern Turkmen town of Dashoguz raid cafes and restaurants in search of women out for the evening. According to the blog, single ladies and women dining without their husbands are taken to police stations. Chronicles of Turkmenistan alleged back in...

Tajikistan's Tastiest Blogs

  21 February 2014

There are three blogs in Tajikistan that are a must read for anyone interested in Tajik cuisine. Tajik Restaurant [Tarabkhonai Tojiki] [tj] shares cook-it-yourself videos and recipes of popular Tajik dishes. Suhailo's Cooking Diary [Daftari pukhtu-pazhoi Suhailo] [tj] teaches its readers to bake pastries popular in the country. Finally, Osh...

Kyrgyz MPs Explain Themselves Over a Prayer Room in Parliament

  21 February 2014

The recent opening of an Islamic prayer room in the Kyrgyz parliament has triggered a heated online debate about the boundaries between the state and religion in the Central Asian country. Responding to criticisms, MPs designed and circulated among journalists and bloggers a six-page document suggesting that prayer houses in...

Soviet-era Monuments and Slogans in Tajik Capital “Should Stay”

  19 February 2014

Over the last two decades, the authorities in Dushanbe have dismantled most of the Soviet-era monuments and huge political slogans on rooftops which had all been an important feature of the cityscape before 1991. However, as Radio Ozodi reports [tj], Tajikistan's capital has preserved a handful of Soviet statues, slogans, and signs...

An “Increasingly Uncertain” Future for Central Asia's Fergana Valley

  12 February 2014

On the Caravanistan blog, Cycloscope writes about radioactive landfill sites in the Fergana Valley, a region “absurdly divided between Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan”: Unaware of the dangers of radioactivity, the locals take the equipment in the old abandoned mines and sell them as scrap, risking not only their own lives...

Tajik Team at Olympics Opening Ceremony Included a Russian “Tourist”

  11 February 2014

Following the Olympics opening ceremony, many people in Tajikistan were shocked to find out [ru] that one of the individuals who walked into the ceremony in Sochi alongside Tajik athletes under their nation's flag had little to do with the country. Vladimir Vladimirov, a Russian entrepreneur and member of a municipal...

Tajik Bloggers Ask to Meet With President

  10 February 2014

Every year, the president of Tajikistan meets with selected members of the national intelligentsia in Dushanbe, in late March. These meetings normally feature long speeches by the president followed by endless praise of his work and his answers to carefully scripted questions from the audience.  As the authorities begin [ru]...

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.