[lg policy] Kyrgyz Riots Spread in Apparent Ethnic Violence against Uzbeks

Tue Jun 15 14:06:46 UTC 2010

All:

I am attaching an article that appeared in the NYTimes this a.m.,
explaining that the
roots of tension between the Kyrgyz and the Uzbeks are economic
(class-based), rather
than ethnic.  The writer confirms that the two "languages" are
mutually intelligible; I've
always heard that this was  a product of Soviet "divide-and-conquer"
strategies in the region,
designed to control an otherwise unmanageable ethnic group.  I'm told
all the lgs. in the
region, except Tadjik, which is a variant of Persian, are mutually
intelligible, but I'm not sure
if Kazakh is included in this.

HS

June 14, 2010
Kyrgyz Tensions Rooted in Class, Not Ethnicity, Experts Say
By ANDREW E. KRAMER

MOSCOW — The violence that has claimed scores of lives in Kyrgyzstan
is frequently ascribed to ethnic tensions, but regional experts say
the causes are more complex. “I don’t believe in a narrative of
long-simmering ethnic tension,” Alexander A. Cooley, a professor at
Columbia University’s Harriman Institute and an authority on Central
Asia, said in a telephone interview. Indeed, ethnic distinctions
between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz are so slight as to be hardly
distinguishable, Professor Cooley and others say. Both are
predominantly Muslim and they speak a mutually comprehensible Turkic
language.

The most notable distinction, the one that is most responsible for the
animosities that led to the recent violence, Central Asian experts
say, is economic: Kyrgyz are traditional nomads, while Uzbeks are
farmers. That divide has translated today into a wide class
distinction, as Uzbeks have prospered and now own many of the
businesses in southern Kyrgyzstan, which has engendered resentment.
Among the first buildings to burn in rioting over the weekend was the
“People’s Friendship University,” singled out apparently because it
was built with donations by wealthy Uzbek businessmen.

Ethnic Kyrgyz in the south have remained largely loyal to a president
deposed in April, Kurmanbek S. Bakiyev, while ethnic Uzbeks have
supported the new interim government. Mr. Bakiyev, now in exile, has
denied any role in the rioting Uzbeks make up about 15 percent of the
population of Kyrgyzstan, but they constitute a sizable portion of the
population in the south and had made up about half of the residents of
the country’s second largest city, Osh, before the violence
depopulated Uzbek neighborhoods. Sergei Mikheyev, a Central Asia
expert at the Center for Political Technologies, a Moscow research
group, said the basic divide between the groups was still not
sufficient to explain the rioting. Mr. Mikheyev instead blamed the
recent political turmoil.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/15/world/asia/15ethnic.html?ref=world

On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 6:58 AM, Jeremy Graves <jayrkirk42 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> I admit to having no insignificant amount of ignorance of the facts in this
> particular case, but your point here:
> I know I have read that back in
> time a bit all the -stan countries were more or less of the same
> ethnicity, speaking more or less (closely?) related languages until
> they met up with the Russian strategy of  divide and conquer.  The
> Russians deliberately standardized the dialects into as far apart as
> possible languages and encouraged competition and paranoia between the
> various  new polities."
> doesn't sound quite right to me. I mean, whether or not the languages are
> related, I doubt they are closely related, because given enough time and
> isolation of various groups, that's how language change works (and that's
> something I can claim to know something about). It's my understanding that,
> in fact, this area of the world is one of the most linguistically diverse.
> I do know that Kyrgyz, Uzbek and Kazakh are Turkic languages, with their
> respective -stan countries, whereas Pakistan has numerous languages, many of
> which are Indo-Iranian, but whose individual similarities may vary quite a
> bit, and there are smaller groups of completely unrelated languages.
> http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=PK
> Afghanistan is also the home of numerous Indo-Iranian languages, but has
> several smaller groups of various languages from various families. There are
> also a few Turkic languages represented
> there. http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=AF
> Turkmenistan and Tajikistan are similar, though Turkmenian is Turkic and
> most of the widely spoken languages in Tajikistan are Indo-Iranian.
> The point is, as far as linguistic diversity (which should reflect ethnic
> diversity), these "-stan countries" exhibit some of the greatest on the
> planet. Even though there is a majority of Indo-Iranian languages, the
> differences between them can be as great as the difference between Spanish
> and French, which are by no means mutually intelligible. And these are
> broken up by a strong number of Turkic languages, which are not even
> Indo-European!
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Christina Paulston <paulston at pitt.edu>
> To: Language Policy List <lgpolicy-list at groups.sas.upenn.edu>
> Sent: Mon, June 14, 2010 6:39:48 PM
> Subject: Re: [lg policy] Kyrgyz Riots Spread in Apparent Ethnic Violence
> against Uzbeks
>
> Maybe someone can explain this to me.  I know I have read that back in
> time a bit all the -stan countries were more or less of the same
> ethnicity, speaking more or less (closely?) related languages until
> they met up with the Russian strategy of  divide and conquer.  The
> Russians deliberately standardized the dialects into as far apart as
> possible languages and encouraged competition and paranoia between the
> various  new polities.  I understand the present conflict, part of
> Russian strategy, but I get confused about ethnicity.  Don't they more
> or less look the same?  How do they know who is who without speaking?
> Another kind of shibboleth?  Or is it national conflict and the press
> gets it wrong?  Help ! Christina
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Jun 13, 2010, at 5:26 PM, Harold Schiffman wrote:
>
>> Kyrgyz Riots Spread in Apparent Ethnic Violence against Uzbeks
>> By MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ
>> Published: June 13, 2010
>>
>>
>>
>> Zarip Toroyev/Associated Press
>>
>>
>> Related
>> Times Topic: Kyrgyzstan The official death toll from four days of
>> clashes neared 100 people, though the unrest seemed so widespread that
>> the figure is likely to go far higher. Reports from the region said
>> bands of ethnic Kyrgyz were seeking out Uzbeks, setting fire to their
>> homes and killing them.
>>
>> Thousands of Uzbeks have fled to the nearby border with Uzbekistan,
>> and the authorities were said to have lost control of Osh,
>> Kyrgyzstan’s second largest city.
>>
>> On Saturday, the fragile Kyrgyz provisional government asked
>> neighboring Russia to send in peacekeeping troops, but Russia, which
>> has a small military base in the north and has been a political patron
>> of this former Soviet republic, said only that it would consider the
>> request.
>>
>> .
>>
>> “The situation in the Osh region has spun out of control,”
>> Kyrgyzstan’s acting president, Roza Otunbayeva, said Saturday.
>> “Attempts to establish a dialogue have failed, and fighting and
>> rampages are continuing. We need outside forces to quell
>> confrontation.”
>>
>> A spokeswoman for President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia said that no
>> decision on providing military aid would be made until at least
>> Monday, when Russia will consult with other members of the Collective
>> Security Treaty Organization, a regional security alliance of former
>> Soviet republics.
>>
>> “A decision about deploying peacekeeping forces to Kyrgyzstan can only
>> be made collectively with all members of the C.S.T.O.,” the
>> spokeswoman, Natalya Timakova, said Saturday evening. She also said
>> that Russia was continuing to ship humanitarian assistance, including
>> medicine, to Kyrgyzstan.
>>
>> It remained unclear what started the violence, which threatens to
>> undermine the already fragile provisional government that took power
>> in April after rioting deposed the country’s president. The interim
>> government has never fully established control in parts of the south,
>> where supporters of the ousted president, Kurmanbek S. Bakiyev, have
>> frequently clashed with those loyal to the new government.
>>
>> The country is host to an important United States military base on the
>> outskirts of the capital, Bishkek, that is used to support the NATO
>> mission in Afghanistan.
>>
>> On Saturday, heavily armed gangs battled on the streets of Osh,
>> burning and looting as they rampaged through the city.
>>
>> “It was raining ash the whole afternoon, big pieces of black and white
>> ash,” said Andrea Berg, a Human Rights Watch employee holed up her
>> apartment in the city. “The city is just burning. It’s totally out of
>> control.”
>>
>> The rioters at one point commandeered two armored personnel carriers
>> from troops stationed in the city, said Timur Sharshenaliyev, a
>> spokesman for the government there. Soldiers were able to take only
>> one back.
>>
>> The provisional government passed a decree giving the police and
>> soldiers permission to open fire on rioters to prevent attacks on
>> civilians and government buildings, according to a statement on the
>> government’s Web site.
>>
>> The authorities also ordered a partial mobilization of military forces
>> throughout the country, suggesting the government feared the spread of
>> violence to other regions. Soldiers with automatic weapons gathered at
>> the Bishkek airport early Sunday morning awaiting transport to Osh,
>> some downing a few vodka shots before they set off.
>>
>> Yelena K. Bayalinova, a spokeswoman for the Kyrgyz Health Ministry,
>> said Saturday that in addition to the killings, nearly 1,000 people
>> had been wounded, most with gunshot wounds.
>>
>> The recent politically inspired clashes in the region have reopened a
>> historic ethnic fault line, with gangs of heavily armed Kyrgyz youths
>> clashing with members of the region’s sizeable Uzbek minority. Much of
>> Mr. Bakiyev’s base in the region, his ancestral home, is Kyrgyz, while
>> many Uzbeks support the new government.
>>
>> Mr. Sharshenaliyev, the government spokesman in Osh, said on Saturday
>> that the military had opened a corridor to allow Uzbek women, children
>> and the elderly to escape across the border, though he said he did not
>> know whether Uzbekistan was prepared to receive them. The Associated
>> Press reported that several children were killed in a stampede at one
>> border crossing.
>>
>> Uzbekistan said it was “extremely alarmed and concerned” about the
>> situation. The Uzbek Foreign Ministry said in a statement that
>> violence against Uzbeks was being carried out in a manner calculated
>> to provoke ethnic conflict.
>>
>> The Kremlin said that Mr. Medvedev spoke Saturday with the presidents
>> of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan about the violence. Russia also sent a
>> plane to Kyrgyzstan to provide humanitarian aid and medical
>> assistance, as well as to evacuate the wounded.
>>
>> Russia and the United States have in recent years been jockeying for
>> influence in Kyrgyzstan, and deploying soldiers there could help
>> solidify Russia’s foothold. Russia has frequently chafed at the
>> American military presence in what it considers its sphere of
>> influence.
>>
>> Russia appeared to support the protest movement that led to Mr.
>> Bakiyev’s ouster, and it has sought closer relations with Kyrgyzstan’s
>> new authorities.
>>
>> Officials of the provisional government frequently travel to Moscow
>> for talks with high-ranking Russians, including Mr. Medvedev and Prime
>> Minister Vladimir V. Putin.
>>
>> Under Mr. Bakiyev, the Kyrgyz government appeared to favor the United
>> States. Mr. Bakiyev incensed the Kremlin when he reneged on a tacit
>> agreement to close the American base in exchange for more Russian aid.
>>
>> The provisional government took control after riots forced Mr. Bakiyev
>> from power on April 7. In those riots more than 80 people were killed
>> when the police and presidential guards opened fire on demonstrators,
>> who had gathered in Bishkek to protest government corruption and
>> rising utility prices.
>>
>> The new government, though unelected and made up of an uneasy alliance
>> of political forces, quickly established control over the capital and
>> the north of the country, but not in the south.
>>
>> The south of Kyrgyzstan is part of the Ferghana Valley, a fertile
>> strip of land that has a long history of interethnic strife and
>> includes parts of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Similar violence between
>> Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in Osh in 1990 left hundreds dead and only abated
>> when the Soviet government sent in troops.
>>
>>
>> Clifford J. Levy contributed reporting from Moscow.
>>
>> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/world/asia/14kyrgyz.html?hp
>>
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-- 
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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