Kyrgyzstan

The agreement between Kyrgyz and Tajiks-sealed by the embrace between Žaparov and Rakhmon-affects as much as 1,000 kilometers of border and and comes after discussions and clashes dating back to the twentieth century, when both states were under Moscow's control. As recently as three years ago, armed clashes had occurred with several casualties on both sides.

Every year a festival is dedicated to the kalpak, the typical white double-pointed headdress of the Kyrgyz people. Its shape is reminiscent of the snow-capped peaks of the country's mountain ranges. A symbol of dignity, wisdom and honour, according to tradition it cannot be thrown away or even donated or sold to others: it can only be passed on to one's descendants.

The company Yandex has increased the percentages for taxi drivers, and has stifled all the other players in the market for the transport of people and goods (including Uber) in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The measures launched by the local antitrust agencies have been ineffective.

In view of the 2026 elections, the only Central Asian country without a ruling dynasty is discussing a new change to the voting system. Each voter would be given the opportunity to choose three candidates in their constituency to ‘vote for people and not for parties’.

From Kazakhstan to Tajikistan, procedures have been adopted throughout the region to change the spelling of surnames by eliminating the patronymic forms imposed during tsarist and Soviet domination, in order to recover Turkic or other ethnic roots. However, only a few personalities have taken this step, perceived by many as an unnecessary complication.

With Russia's doors increasingly closed, many workers from the region have left for South Korea. But Central Asians seeking prospects in Western countries are also increasing, often ending up as victims of unscrupulous exploiters. Turkey as an intermediate destination where they stay for a few years hoping then to reach Europe or America.

After lengthy debates, the Žogorku Keneš has approved at first reading a measure that, in the name of the fight against extremism, has aroused not a few perplexities within the religious communities. Among the new provisions is a ban on missionaries of any denomination going around preaching in homes according to their own inspiration. And in religious training institutes, students who have not completed 11 classes of compulsory schooling may not be accepted.

From Tajikistan to Kyrgyzstan former leading politicians are on trial on charges of high treason just because they were identified as possible alternatives to ‘dynastic’ successions. While in Kazakhstan on trial is a group that allegedly ‘menacingly’ planned to storm the presidential palace with a tractor and a cannon loaded with potato fragments.

The gigantic Manas logistic-commercial centre in the village of Leninskoe, which the Chinese are building not far from Biškek, is a candidate to become a fundamental junction (and alternative to the Russian route) for trade between East and West. With Kyrgyz Prime Minister Žaparov having already dubbed it the ‘great seaport’ of a landlocked country.

Public schools at all levels, from kindergartens to universities, are growing in the countries of the region. And in several cases it is the state itself that is stimulating investors with the aim of modernising the education and training system.

Istanbul presses for the strengthening of the ‘Turkic world’, rejecting ‘Eurocentric’ descriptions of the region. But Tajik historian Kamoluddin Abdulloev objects: ‘Iran would have just as many arguments to assert its historical influence. In a land where the phases of Mongol domination and the spread of Islam have led to divisions and recompositions between Shiites and Sunnis.

From Kazakhstan to Uzbekistan, new regulations are lengthening the time it takes to obtain citizenship, with tough tests of knowledge of the local language to discourage Russian relokanty. In Turklmenistan, citizenship is almost impossible to obtain without Turkmen kinship, but ‘ius soli’ is still in force for children of foreign parents.