ETHNICITY AND POWER:RELATIONS BETWEEN THE CENTRAL ASIAN STATES

Year 1997, Volume: 2 Issue: 1, 0 - 0, 01.03.1997

Nadir Devlet

Abstract

In the former USSR, the peoples of various ethnic backgrounds were and still are divided into different administrative categories. After the Moscow coup in the end of 1991 the former union republics of the USSR became automatically independent. In other words, there was no serious struggle or wish for independence, and independence was given by Moscow to these republics, perhaps faster than they themselves would have sought it.1 As readers may recall, in the beginning the Bolsheviks kept the former tsarist structure in Central Asia. The steppe region became the Kirghiz or Kazakh Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic ASSR , and the Turkistan region became Turkistan ASSR. Both were subjects of Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic RSFSR . In 1924, the Turkistan ASSR was divided into Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, and both given the status of union republic. Tadjikistan was created as an autonomous republic of Uzbekistan. Kirghizstan which belonged to the former Turkistan ASSR became an autonomous region and was incorporated into the RSFSR. After two years Tadjikistan became also an union republic and the Hojent region of Uzbekistan was transferred to Tadjikistan. The Kirghiz or more correctly the Kazakh ASSR had an autonomous status and belonged to the RSFSR until December 1936. Furthermore, the Kirghiz ASSR gained its union status in the same year. Karakalpakstan which belonged to Kazakhstan was transferred in 1936 to Uzbekistan with the status of ASSR.2 All these political decisions were taken by Moscow without any regard to the local people. In other words all these Central Asian republics are artificial creations. This can be easily recognised when travelling through these countries. Even the highways of these regions were not built according to the national borders. This shows that when Moscow created these new borders it didn't take any geographical, historical or demographic realities in consideration.

References

• 1 Fuller, G.E. (1992), Turkey Faces East, Santa Monica, p. 36.
• 2 Devlet, N. (1993), Ça¤da_ Türkiler (Contemporary Turkic Peoples), _stanbul, pp. 307, 323, 345 and 363.
• 3 Rumer, B.Z. (1989), Soviet Central Asia: A Tragic Experiment, London, p.18.
• 4 Turkic and Muslim population in the Russian Federation (Calculation for 1997)
• 5 Republic Population ('000)
• 6 Republic Local pop. % Russian %
• 7 People Population Republics % in the rep.
• 8 Foltz, R. (1996), 'The Tajiks of Uzbekistan', Central Asian Survey, Vol. XV, No. 2, June, p. 213.
• 9 Gündüz, L. (1993), Türk Cumhuriyetlerinin sosyo-ekonomik transformasyonu ve piyasa ekonomisine geçi_ süreçleri (The Socioeconomic Transformation of the Turkish Republics and the Introduction of the Market Economy), master thesis, Marmara University, Banking and Insurance Institute, Istanbul, p. 10.
• 10 Mornie, S. and Whitlock, E. 'Central Asia and Economic Integration', RFE/RL Research Report, Vol. 2, No. 14, pp. 34-35.
• 11 ‘Ekonomicheskie Problemy mezhnatsional’nykh otnoshenij v SSSR na sovremennom etape’, Voprosy Ekonomiki, No.5, 1985, p.14.
• 12 op. cit., p. 23.
• 13 Devlet, op. cit., p. 127.
• 14 Tishkov, V. (1994), 'The Nature of Ethnic Conflict', Social Sciences, Vol. XXV, No. 1, p. 41-42.
• 15 op. cit., p 43.
• 16 op. cit., p. 43.
• 17 Bozda¤, A. (1991), 'Konfliktregion Kirgizien: Dynamik und Eskalation der blutigen Zusammenstösse 1990', Orient, Vol. XXXII. No. 3, p. 368.
• 18 op. cit., p. 365.
• 19 Halbach, U (1994), 'Islam und Nationalstaat in Zentralasien', Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, Vol. XXXVIII/XXXIX, No. 193, p. 13.
• 20 'Inter-ethnic Relations: Kazakh-Russian Tense Relations', Central Asia Brief, Vol. 10, No. 6, June 1994, pp. 11-12.
• 21 'Inter-ethnic Tensions Rise in Kazakhstan', RFE/RL Research Report Supplement, Vol.3, No. 15, 1994, p. 9.
• 22 Fuller, G. (1994), 'Central Asia: The Quest of Identity', Current History, Vol. 93, No. 582, April, p. 146