MAY 2017 CENTRAL ASIA AT 25: LOOKING BACK, MOVING FORWARD A Collection of Essays from Central Asia EDITORS: Marlene Laruelle Aitolkyn Kourmanova Central Asia Program Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies Elliott School of International Affairs The George Washington University This edited volume includes essays from experts, jour- nalists, and practitioners who work in Central Asia and reflect on what they consider the main successes and failures of these 25 years of national sovereignty, as well as the challenges their societies face in the near and long-term future. ISBN: 978-0-9988143-1-5 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION Marlene Laruelle 5 PART I INDEPENDENCE AND (DIS)INTEGRATION 25 years of Independence in Central Asia: Challenges from the Past Sanat Kushkumbayev 7 Central Asia at 25: Uncertainties of the Quarter-Life Crisis Nargis Kassenova 10 25 Years of Independence—Uzbekistan Mirzohid Rahimov 12 25 Years of Tajik Sovereignty: History and Prospects for Development Guzel Maytdinova 15 25 Years of Independence—Kyrgyzstan Talant Sultanov 19 Central Asia: The Disintegration Theory Farkhod Tolipov 22 Central Asia: The Integration Theory Farkhod Tolipov 25 The Economy of Central Asia in Retrospective, Past, Present, and Future Sobir Kurbanov 29 PART II TRANSFORMED IDENTITIES, TRANSFORMING SOCIETIES On the Question of the Formation and Development of Identity in Kazakhstan and the Central Asia Region Valikhan Tuleshov 32 Kyrgyz Nationalism: Problems of Nation-Building and a Plan for the Future Anar Musabaeva 35 Nation-Building in Kazakhstan Aidos Sarym 43 Objects and Subjects of Gendered Temporalities Diana Kudaibergen 47 One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: 25 Years of Turkmen Women’s Rights Ainabat Yaylymova 48 Uzbekistan’s “Cultural Inheritance” in Constructing “Collective Memory” in the Age of Independence Svetlana Gorshenina 52 The Culture of Kazakhstan: An In-Between Story Aleksandra Tsai 55 Still Post-Soviet: The Challenges of Education in Kyrgyzstan Shairbek Dzhuraev 58 PART III NEW SOCIAL FORCES AT WORK Civil Society in Kyrgyzstan: Paradoxes of Development Aida Alymbaeva 62 Is the Mahalla the Uzbek “Prototype” of a Civil Society? Sanjar Sulton 66 25 Years of Independence: Civil Society and the State in Tajikistan Parviz Mullojanov 69 “We were a little pregnant…” Umed Babahanov 72 Social Media in Central Asia Adil Nurmakov 74 The Return of Islam in Post-Soviet Central Asia: Evaluating the Past, Looking to the Future Alima Bissenova 77 Migration of Central Asians to Russia Umida Hashimova 79 Diasporas of Central Asia in Russia: Historical Perspectives and Modern Development Trends Parviz Mukhamadiev, Davron Mukhamadiev 82 The Uzbek Diaspora in the US Dilorom Abdulloeva 87 PART IV NEW IDEOLOGICAL TRENDS THAT WILL SHAPE THE FUTURE Political Islam in the Central Asian Context: After 25 years of Independence Galym Zhussipbek 90 Eurasianism in Kyrgyzstan Denis Berdakov 96 The Ethno-Religious Identity of Kazakh Youth Bakhytzhamal Bekturganova, Madina Nurgalieva 98 Understanding Illiberal Sentiments Among the Kyrgyz Youth Gulzhigit Ermatov 103 A Long Transformation: Central Asian Countries on the Threshold of Change Kostiantyn Bondarenko 107 INTRODUCTION its institutional design choice (privatizing or not) but Marlene Laruelle, by its access—or lack thereof—to raw materials and to Director, Central Asia Program the rent to be gained from them. The positioning of the Co-Director, PONARS-Eurasia region as a “hub” for big players and regional actors to Associate Director and Research Professor, IERES engage in is a key international drawcard for Central George Washington University Asia: for better or worse, the region sees itself and is seen by others through a geopolitical lens. While in the In the twenty-five years since the collapse of the 1990s Russia, the United States, Turkey, and Iran all Soviet Union catapulted the Central Asian states into vied on the Central Asian scene, today China directs a independence, knowledge of the Central Asian region large part of the action, and new actors such as the Gulf has primarily been produced by US and European countries, South Korea, and Malaysia all have a rising scholars. Russian academic research—so rich during footprint in the region. the Soviet decades—largely collapsed, and has only just Local scholars often express disappointment at the begun to get back on its feet. Japan has emerged as a new lack of regional cooperation and unity. Some discuss hub for state-of-the-art knowledge on the region, but is the disintegration of Central Asia, while others note, still only loosely connected to the main, predominantly more optimistically, the emergence of new trends that, English speaking platforms of exchange and therefore at least partly, reunite the region, such as economic does not—yet—influence the broader picture. China, complementarity. Several scholars mention the revival India, Iran, and Turkey all have great specialists working of a kind of Turkic unity feeling among younger on the region. Yet, with the potential exception of India’s generations: contrary to narratives in the early 1990s, scholars, these specialists tend to work individually, where Turkicness was linked to a possible project of without producing a distinct “school of thought.” More regional integration, contemporary calls to Turkicness striking still is the lack of Central Asian voices to be do not necessarily imply a regional dimension but heard in the West. Particularly in the United States, instead an anti-Russian identity project associated the influence of Central Asian scholars is limited a with state nationalism. mere handful of renowned academics from the region, The second part looks at the transformation of often from Soviet generations. This state of affairs is identities and societies in their “post-Sovietness.” The nonetheless changing thanks to the rapid organization search for a national ideology has been a crucial element of a new generation of transnational scholars who are of state policy for the last quarter century. Such policy generating knowledge that is largely detached from has to accommodate not only ethnic diversity but also national contexts, and who are either “Westerners” based an even greater divergence of historical memories as in Central Asia or Central Asians based in the “West,” well as often conflicting interpretations about what while all prefer patterns of academic “nomadism.” comprises a nation’s “essence.” National ideology To reflect on a quarter century of independence, contributes to the structuring of a dual process of we have decided to give the floor exclusively to local retraditionalization and modernization. As the Central voices. In the following pages, Central Asian scholars Asian states are historically new, their developing express what they consider the main successes and nationhood has been closely interlinked with state- failures of these 25 years of national sovereignty, as building; difficulties in governance and institution- well as the challenges their societies face in the near building have contributed to challenging the state- and long-term future. sponsored narrative on the nation. If Central Asian public policies have been obsessed with promoting The first part of the book insists on three critical “national culture,” their upshot has been ambiguous. The elements of the last 25 years: processes of integration of image of culture has tended to become frozen, a static the new states into the international scene; an ideology expression of an inheritance, a legacy, or a patrimony that absolutizes the sovereignty acquired in 1991 as the instead of being a living reflection of society. Added to quintessence of national achievement; and, domestically, this is the challenge of education in the whole region: a political path that is shaped by presidentialism and a the collapse of Soviet welfare drastically impoverished fear of pluralism of opinions, which all these countries primary and secondary education, with long-term see as a threat to their stability and essence. implications that we are still unable to measure. While These scholars also mention the difficulties higher education appears to be in better shape and more involved in setting up a functional market economy: globalized, it remains plagued by endemic corruption each country’s economic path has been shaped not by and diminishing academic standards. 5 The third part looks at the new social forces at The fourth part looks forward and investigates the work. Key here is probably labor migration. Migration new ideological trends that will shape Central Asian has dramatically changed the socioeconomic landscape countries, or at least some of them, in the future. Political of many rural regions, and provincial and capital cities pluralism still may be late to arrive on the Central Asian in Central Asia. It has also drastically modified the scene, Kyrgyzstan excepted, but ideological pluralism is relationship of Central Asian countries—especially already present in different layers of society, especially Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan—to Russia, increasing among the younger generations. Several trends and their need for regional integration and free population their social bearers can be identified: some call for movement. But the current “diasporization” of Central public space and public morality to be regulated by Asian societies extends beyond mere labor migration to Islamic norms (whatever that may mean in terms of Russia. It also includes a growing globalization of the interpreting Islam,