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Kyrgyztan Country Profile Central Asia Executive Summary Series KYRGYZTAN COUNTRY PROFILE The Program for Culture & Conflict Studies Naval Postgraduate School Monterey, CA Material contained herein is made available for the purpose of peer review and discussion and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of the Navy or the Department of Defense. 1 Program for Culture & Conflict Studies at Naval Postgraduate School The Naval Postgraduate School’s Program for Culture and Conflict Studies (CCS) supports the mission of Combined Joint Task Force Afghanistan commands and the International Security Assistance Force. CCS serves as a reference for mission commanders, policy makers, analysts, non-governmental organizations and the general public on issues pertaining to South and Central Asia. Our program provides a variety of information products via our team of American, Afghan and Central Asian experts, through field research, conferences and analysis. This paper on Kyrgyzstan provides a broad reaching, but detailed analysis of human, structural and cultural issues affecting security and development in that country. Part of our Central Asia Executive Summary Series, the profile on Kyrgyzstan provides significant and needed context to the overall international strategy in South and Central Asia. CCS Central Asia Executive Summary Series CCS seeks to further the education and discussion of issues pertaining to culture and conflict in South and Central Asia. CCS disseminates scholarly essays and executive summaries that attempt to contribute to the creation of a more stable environment in the region. These papers identify and discuss contemporary and interdisciplinary issues that affect US national security interests including politics, economics, ethnographic intelligence, culture, geostrategic interests, national and local development methods, regional and cooperative security, terrorism, and tribal relations. CCS papers are written by faculty and staff members of the Naval Postgraduate School, alumni, or by individual contributors. These papers are disseminated online and can be downloaded free of charge at www.nps.edu/programs/ccs/ The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Naval Postgraduate School, the Department of the Navy or the Department of Defense. We invite comments and questions and ask that you send them to: Professor Thomas H. Johnson Naval Postgraduate School 1411 Cunningham Road, GL-319 Monterey, CA 93943 Email: [email protected] Submit questions/comments online: https://my.nps.edu/web/ccs-staging/contact-us Phone: 831-656-3190 2 REPUBLIC OF KYRGYZSTAN (Kyrgyz Respublikasy in Kyrgyz) Short Form: Kyrgyzstan State Emblem: National Flag: Source: Lonely Planet, http://www.lonelyplanet.com/maps/asia/kyrgyzstan/ Material contained herein is made available for the purpose of peer review and discussion and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of the Navy or the Department of Defense. The appearance of external hyperlinks does not constitute endorsement by the United States Department of Defense, the United States Department of the Navy and the Naval Postgraduate School of the linked web sites, or the information, products or services contained therein. 3 KYRGYZSTAN Table of Contents LOCATION .................................................................................................................................... 5 CAPITAL ........................................................................................................................................ 5 INDEPENDENCE FROM THE USSR .......................................................................................... 6 TERRITORY .................................................................................................................................. 7 SIGNIFICANT TOPOGRAPHIC FEATURES ............................................................................. 7 WEATHER ..................................................................................................................................... 7 PUBLIC HOLIDAYS ..................................................................................................................... 8 LANGUAGES ................................................................................................................................ 8 LITERACY ..................................................................................................................................... 8 HEALTH FACILITIES ................................................................................................................ 10 POPULATION/DEMOGRAPHIC DATA ................................................................................... 11 HUMAN TERRAIN ..................................................................................................................... 12 RELIGION/SECTS....................................................................................................................... 16 ADMINISTRATIVE SETUP ....................................................................................................... 17 POLITICAL LANDSCAPE ......................................................................................................... 20 FOREIGN MILITARY BASES ................................................................................................... 29 SECURITY SITUATION ............................................................................................................. 32 4 LOCATION A combination of the Turkic words "kyrg" (forty) and "-yz" (tribes) with the Persian suffix "- stan" (country) creating the meaning “Land of the forty tribes”; the name refers to the forty clans united by the legendary Kyrgyz hero, Manas. Kyrgyzstan is a landlocked country located in Central Asia: north of Tajikistan, east of Uzbekistan, west of China, and south of Kazakhstan. Kyrgyzstan means a land of Kyrgyz (Stan – land). Fifteen years ago the country was actually referred as the “island of democracy” and “Switzerland of Asia.” This has all changed over the last decade or so. CAPITAL Capital city Bishkek (called Frunze during the Soviet era) is located in the north, in the Chuy valley near the Kyrgyz-Kazakh border, at an altitude of approximately 800 m (2624.67 feet), on the edge of the Ala-Too range, which is an extension of the Tien Shan mountain range. Bishkek is the largest city in the country with a population of 937,400.1 Manas International Airport in the outskirts of Bishkek was home to the U.S. air base established in December 2001 to support the Operation “Enduring Freedom” until June of 2014. Bishkek is also the administrative capital of Chuy Province. Bishkek, before becoming a capital city, was a fortified Silk Road stop on the caravan route under the Uzbek khans of large Quqon Khanate. It was then turned into a Russian garrison when Tsarist troops occupied the region in 1862. A large influx of ethnic Russians and later Slavs during the Russian and Bolshevik occupations developed the city and named it Peshpek. With about 70 percent of the population represented by Russians and Slavs the city lacked indigenous historic attributes or traditional architecture making it more of a Russian and Soviet city. The city was later given the name Frunze after Mikhail Frunze, the Bolshevik troop commander of the Eastern Front, who ordered the onslaught of thousands of local people who supported the resistance. Commander Frunze was born in Peshpek, the city that ironically was named in his honor in 1926. Kyrgyz’s gratitude to the Russians, who gave pastoral nomadic Kyrgyz tribes and juz (traditional cast-based clans) independence from Uzbek Quqon Khanate and then statehood within the Soviet Union, is expressed by preserving Soviet period monuments : the Mikhail Frunze Museum, the Monument to the Martyrs of Revolution (in commemoration of Kyrgyz women who supported the Bolshevik regime and organized the local mobilization in support of Red Army) built during the Soviet period, the Lenin Statue on Ala-Too Square in downtown Bishkek, which was moved 1 As 2015, according to Government statistics, see http://stat.kg/en/statistics/download/operational/219/ 5 recently to a less prominent place, still surprise tourists and please old residents of the capital. Many street names and locations also bear Soviet heritage. INDEPENDENCE FROM THE USSR August 31, 1991 is celebrated as Independence Day. Present day Kyrgyzstan was formed by the Bolsheviks in 1924, first as Kara- Kyrgyz (Kara means black) Autonomous province of the Russian Federative Socialist Republic after the area was conquered by the Red Army in 1918. In 1926 it became Kyrgyz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and only in late 1936 was given the status of a full-fledged republic. Map of Kyrgyzstan Source: Geology.com, http://geology.com/world/kyrgyzstan-satellite-image.shtml 6 TERRITORY Total: 198,500 sq km (slightly smaller than South Dakota) Water: 7,200 sq km Land: 191,300 sq km Border length with China: 858km Border length with Uzbekistan: 1,099 km Border length with Kazakhstan: 1,224 km Border length with Tajikistan: 870km SIGNIFICANT TOPOGRAPHIC FEATURES Mountain ranges cover over 93% of the country. The Tian Shan (in Chinese means Heavenly Mountains), Pamir and Alay Mountain Ranges constitute most of Kyrgyzstan’s landscape. The country is rich in lakes, rivers, and glaciers which provide abundant water resources for the country. Lake Issyk Kul
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