Central Asia - General Discussion Thread

Ah. Any idea who the successor is supposed to be? If there is no clear one, this might cause a powerful shock to the other authoritarian regimes in the area.

Hopefully not his family or backers.

It was going to be his eldest daughter once upon a time, but a couple of years ago got placed under house arrest for being too power hungry (she was given a portion of the official economy and thought it wasn't enough...she wanted it all). She has accused nearly everyone in the inner circle of trying to get rid of her so I doubt any of them would put her back in a position to gain power. She might become a factor if and only if there is a civil war or breakdown in order (and thus an opportunity for her to leave house arrest). Otherwise she is sunk.

Other daughter reportedly does not seek power (she is a diplomat) but is a possible kingmaker.

Constitutionally, the head of the parliament is now acting president until elections are held within three months. No one expects him to be much of a player (but then no one ever expected the lowly general secretary to rise above his station either), so not much is known about him.

The two major factions seem to be led by the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister. I forget who is who, but each guy has the backing of rival clans (apparantly of major importance in Uzbekistan and the Turkestan region as a whole) in Tashkent and Samarkand. One is mildly (emphasis on mildly) pro-Western (he was a former development bank head), the other is just as much of a thug as Karimov, but without the late dictator's smarts.

The guy who is truely kingmaker though is the head of the internal security services, who reportedly has no interest in ruling himself.

There is a lot of intelligence interest in this, for Russia because they need Uzbekistan to remain a bulwark against extremists (and generally maintain stability, with a stretch goal of maybe getting someone less mercurial to Russian interests), for the US due to Uzbekistan bordering Afghanistan, China for both reasons, in addition to economic interests, India and Pakistan for the same reasons as the US,...

The country is probably crawling with spooks at the moment, anyone wanna try and find a diplomatic list and play a game of "find the spy"?

edited 4th Sep '16 4:07:24 AM by Silasw

Where does one get such a list? Because that sounds fun.

The British one is available online, I used to get an out of date copy from my MEP. They're normally called a "Diplomatic list", the one for London is available online and I belive that at least US, Canadian and Serbian ones are also. I'll do some digging and try and find more but here's the London one.[1]

Hello, part Uzbek person here. This thread seems to be dead, and I'm looking for a ways to revive it.

Anyways, does anyone have news on the successor yet? I'm doing my best trying to follow the news from where I live, and practically nothing has come up yet.

(By the way, most Mongolians do not consider Mongolia to be in Central Asia, they consider it to be in the Northern Asia region.)

Shavkat Mirziyoyev was sworn in last year December. Got 89% of the vote.

Mongolia is usually considered a East Asian country instead of a Central or North Asian country in the West. Russia is typically considered the only North Asian country in the West.

edited 11th Jan '17 8:57:46 AM by Bat178

https://ph.news.yahoo.com/airport-kazakh-capital-renamed-president-053900123.html

Looks like Astana Airport is officially going to be named after Nursultan Nazarbayev.

I find it kinda strange that while South Asia is sometimes considered part of the Far East, Central Asia isn't. They have a lot of Mongolian influence in their cultures and share a lot of history with them, are heavily connected to China, Russia and Mongolia, and the people resemble those from the Far East.

Welcome to the sheer arbitrary cultural, political, and racial divides of Asia. South Asia, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, East Asia, Russia...

As for Central Asia...it probably has something to do with the fact that the countries' names end with "-stan". That, and the fact that Central Asia doesn't really have a shared national identity of its own due to being pulled in all directions by the likes of Russia, China, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India and the United States.

edited 28th Jun '17 7:54:08 PM by M84

It's not because of the "-stan", considering Afghanistan and Pakistan are both parts of South Asia and are thus sometimes considered parts of the Far East along with the rest of South Asia.

edited 28th Jun '17 8:03:48 PM by FireCrawler2002

Again, it's pretty arbitrary. Whether or not they are thought of as part of South/East/both Asia largely depends on when it's politically convenient.

From the first post of this thread:

"...Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. It may also include Afghanistan, China, Iran, Mongolia, Pakistan, Russia and India..."

It's really arbitrary.

edited 28th Jun '17 8:16:56 PM by M84

It's not that arbitrary: OP weirdness besides, central asia has usually been synonymous with Turkestan (which is to say the former Soviet -stans, Xinjiang, and parts of Afghanistan). Afghanistan is the only country that can lay claim to both south and central asia. Pakistan and India are very cut and dry south asia.

Siberia/North Asia/Asian Russia can also be considered Central Asian culturally, similar to Xinjiang.

edited 29th Jun '17 8:51:06 PM by FireCrawler2002

Siberia is usually just lumped as "polar region" more than "Asian".

And, culturally... it does have way more in common with Sami, Karlian and Ainu cultures (including the whole "getting suppressed" bits) than what is traditionally thought of as "Central Asian". <_<

Polar Euroasiamerica: doing its own damn thing for over 10 000 years, thank you!

The Turkmen government made an anti-ISIL video featuring the president and the Army.

He's still less crazy than the last one.

Siberia, hmm? You mean the culture of the natives? Because the Russian culture is generally European-leaning in both Western and Eastern parts of the country.

Kyrgyzstan bucks the central Asian trend for rigged elections

The gist of it is that Kyrgzstan might actually have an election where the outcome isn't a staged Foregone Conclusion. In other words, it's an actual democratic election.

edited 12th Oct '17 6:43:40 AM by M84

Kyrgyzstan has always been the most democratic of the countries in Central Asia, ever since 2005, when they overthrew the Soviet-era apparatchik president otherwise common to the region.

An none of the big neighbours took issue?

Russia only cares that they aren't used as a cat's paw for another power (hence the forced closure of the Manas Air Base the US used to use for logistics into Afghanistan). Kazakhstan is effectively suzerain of Kyrgyzstan, so as long as the Kyrgyz don't go against Astana, they don't care. China doesn't care because the alternative, in their view, is worse.

The Uzbeks and Tajiks have problems with Kyrgyzstan over territory, so they don't care what type of government. The enemy is the enemy,

Gulnara Karimova is sent back to prison for violating her house arrest terms such as using the internet and leaving the apartment block.

Her Swiss attorney is protesting the arrest now.