Alexander Sodiqov · September, 2013

Latest posts by Alexander Sodiqov from September, 2013

“You Can Kick Female Flight Attendants” in Kazakhstan

  27 September 2013

A former government official in Kazakhstan recently kicked a female flight attendant, reportedly because she did not speak Kazakh. The story has caused a stir on social media. Blogger Pivovar offers [ru] the most interesting and most widely shared Twitter posts on this incident, such as the one below: Казахстан-2013: бить...

“Fetishization of Somoni” Continues in Tajikistan

  26 September 2013

As Tajikistan's president unveils yet another statue of national icon Ismoil Somoni, blogger Tomiris criticizes [ru] monument monoculture in the country: Don't we have other historical figures to erect statues to? Was Somoni really the only one of its kind? I understand that this fetishization of Somoni is a political...

Busting Myths about Kazakhstan

  26 September 2013

Kazakhstan is not part of the Middle East; Kazakhs do not have Chinese blood in their veins; and not everything about Kazakhstan is bad. Blogger busts (part 1, part 2) [ru] common myths about the oil-rich Central Asian nation.

Tajikistan's Ubiquitous and ‘Irreplaceable’ Leader

  7 September 2013

As in most other Central Asian countries, the portraits of the president are everywhere in Tajikistan. Blogger Rustam Gulov (aka Teocrat) believes [ru] that these portraits serve a political purpose: [The portraits] are all parts of a giant machine designed to convince the people in Tajikistan that this person [the president] is...

“Central Asia is Watching [Syria] Too”

  7 September 2013

As the United States and Russia spar over the way ahead in Syria, the governments in Central Asia are following the situation closely, writes Nathan Barrick on Registan.net: Russia chooses to focus on the perspective that the Syrian government is fighting a battle against Islamic extremists and this message likely resonates...