This area was the site of clashes between ethnic Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbeks in 1990, and again in 2010; these are some of the most telling examples of interethnic tensions in the region’s recent history. [...] The only non- authoritarian (albeit unstable) exception is Kyrgyzstan which is, however, still rather distant from fulfilling most of the criteria of a mature democracy, with the place of the Uzbek minority posing perhaps the most significant question of its democratic principles. [...] The first concerns intra-regional dynamics: can the recent political thaw in Uzbekistan result in a bilateral Kyrgyz–Uzbek solution to the complex situation of each country hosting a significant minority of the other’s co-ethnics? A very cautious optimism would not be entirely unjustified, considering the recent progress on the demarcation and delimitation of the shared border. [...] The author’s extensive fieldwork in Turkey, where the diaspora is largely composed of refugees, leads her to conclude that the intensification of China’s repressive policies in XUAR in recent decades, combined with the victims’ vivid memories of such practices, has led to a generalized hardening of the diaspora’s position vis-à-vis its former host state. [...] This importation of ready-made solutions did not succeed in Kyrgyzstan for a number of reasons, including insufficient financial resources for Kyrgyz institutions and their consequent lack of capacity, the implementing actors’ superficial understanding of external diversity management frameworks which bore little connection to the social reality on the ground, and the prevalence of ethnic approach.
- Pages
- 5
- Published in
- Germany
