On the 14th of June I visited in Berlin a panel discussion of the German Association for Eastern European Studies about the Central Asia strategy of the European Union. Members of the panel were Dr. Manja Hussner, a DAAD teacher from Tashkent, Dr Maksat Kachkeev, a Kirghiz lawyer from
Cologne, and Dr. Jenniver Sehring, „Mrs. Water“ from Wuerzburg. Moderator was Dr. Beate Eschment an editor of the German Central-Asia-Newsletter.

When you are in Central Asia, it always looks like that there are not many Germans around, but Dr. Eschment quoted Gernot Erler that, the Central Asia Strategy is “our child”. Gernot Erler is secretary of state in German Foreign Ministry and one director of the German-Kazakh Association. Dr. Kachkeev, who holds a scholarship of a German university, gave a brief instruction of the law reforms, which are part of the strategy. In late 2008 the EU will start a Human Rights Dialog with Kazakhstan. When he said this, I remembered, how everybody in Iran was frustrated about the dialog there, when I worked in Tehran 2007. I don’t think this will be more as a cover-up for the inactivity of the EU. Further topics will be the reform of the commercial law and the court system, therefore Dr. Kachkeev made it clear what this strategy is all about: Kazakh oil and how to get back the money we paid for this oil. Especially since there will be no mediation-clauses in the future subsoil-contracts of the Kazakh government.

You might have seen posts on Kazakhstan’s art scene by Daniel Gallegos, an American artist who is now in Almaty. I visited Daniel and his colleagues from the Artpologist project Zhanara, Aminatou and Gaisha at Soros Centre for Contemporary Art in Almaty. The project reflects on the transformation of space in Almaty influenced by rapid development and construction, and focuses on artists’ personal work spaces. The incentive for the project was “Love your city. Know your city”, a phrase by Jane Jacobs, an urbanist, and an advocate of knowing the cities, respecting them and understanding how they develop and change.

The group lived in the Center for several weeks, preparing for the exhibit. The location of the center is interesting: next to the wellness centre Luxor, it is surrounded by luxurious villas built by migrant-workers. There is no one in this “VIP-town” apart from workers, guards and artists, reflecting on, as they say, “faceless transformations of the contemporary urban space”.

I took some photos there, amazed by the contrasting views that Almaty offers. If you are in Almaty, don’t miss a chance to visit the exhibition and to speak to guys about their very interesting experiences. The exhibit is opening tomorrow August 14, at 6.30 PM with the presentation of the project and will last until August 25. The address of the exhibit is Dostyq street, VIP-town “Alem-2”, sector 110, block B, tel.: 320-12-03/04.

So, who are the Artpologist group? Meet:

Zhanara Nauryzbaeva, a PhD candidate at Stanford University in the Department of Anthropology, is finishing her field work in Almaty: I am the “anthropologist” in this project, but actually I feel like it’s not that there is a line between an artist and an anthropologist, but like we all have a bit of anthropology in us, in our approaches to life.

Daniel Gallegos is from Oakland, California: I am a painter, illustrator, “artpologist”, somebody who is interested in cities, the way they grow, transform and develop. So that’s why I am part of this project.

Gaisha Madanova, a student of Architectural College, 3rd course: I am interested in this project because it makes me understand how the world transforms and how I am transformed into this world.

Aminatou Echard, Paris: I am making experimental videos, sometimes documentary and now in this project I will do some installations.

About the project

Zhanara: Initially we were fascinated with the artists’ studios, artists who live in Almaty, you know, what amazing and unique spaces those are. (more…)

Adil Nurmakov is a 28-year old political scientist and a journalist from Almaty, who started as a blogger in 2004. He writes his own Livejournal adam_kesher and is a regular author on neweurasia. Recently, Adil wrote an open letter to the mayor of Almaty about the situation with the increasing amount of cars in Almaty and appealing to open the car parks. Adil collected 40 signatures from bloggers, sent the letter signed “the blogosphere” to the mayor’s office with the link to the survey in his blog. He is still waiting for the reaction.

Q: What is a blog and citizens’ journalism for you?
Blog is a hobby that became a functional tool; a simple personal page, now it’s the means to express my opinion and find the like-minded people. I personally think that the citizens’ journalism is one of the ways to start the discussion on certain things, to express your opinion, to make the blogosphere interested and provoke it to discuss the issues of social importance.

Q: What topics are you interested it, how do you choose what to write about?
I am interested in topics, which, as I think, can make a precedent and show a tendency for overall development of the society. It includes politics, democracy, society, business. At the same time I like organizing “flash-mobs” sometimes and post fun surveys, humor and the news of show-business. I have one simple principle – I write about things that I am interested in today.

Q: What does the audience mean for you, do you have any goals when you write about politics and social issues, are you trying to attract people’s attention, appeal to them, propagate something or create a feeling of a community?
To be honest with you, I don’t see blog as a propaganda tool – not because it cannot be one at all, but because it cannot be one in Kazakhstan. There are other channels for that, the more effective ones, and blog is just one pleasant but not irreplaceable addition to them. So far.

Q: I remember that Irina Yasina (Open Russia) said at the blogging conference in Moscow that the protest in Russia goes online, in the digital space, because people are afraid to go protest on the streets. You did not agree with her, why?
Transferring the protest online is a big achievement of the current Kremlin regime. (more…)

Yuri Mizinov is a founder and an editor of Zonakz.net, an online newspaper, previously known as Navigator. Zonakz.net is planning to launch blogs on their site, and Yuri Mizinov agreed to comment on blogs and citizen media for neweurasia.

Q: What is a blog for you?
The definition of a blog is well-known. But for us it has additional features. Blog is the source of information that passes by the professional journalists. Also, the blogs give the readers an opportunity to speak openly about any issues, including those that are a taboo for mass media. We plan opening a blog section on Zonakz.net next week, and the blogs would be possible to open only with the editor’s permission. This would be a specific feature of our blogs. We will open blogs for famous people and those of our readers who can express themselves in a coherent way. Thus, we would like to limit the useless part of blogging (as we think) and making reading of the blogs a really interesting experience

Q: What is the state of citizen journalism in Kazakhstan?
I actually prefer the term “people’s journalism”. I think that people are ready to share the information in the Internet in Kazakhstan. There are two problems though: first, the Internet is still expensive and its penetration in Kazakhstan leaves much to be desired. The second problem is that people are afraid to write online, even anonymously. They are scared that the special services can track them down and apply violence to them. Especially after the recent announcement by the general prosecutor that the bloggers are responsible for the distribution of unchecked information of insulting character and the information, that, as the prosecutors think, incites the inter-ethnic hatred. This fear is definitely being spread by someone, but really, it is just physically impossible to control everything that is being said in the Internet. It would require half of the country sitting in front of their computers and tracking down the IP addresses, it is just not possible. (more…)

Cross-posted on Global Voices

Kazis Toguzbayev is a Kazakhstani journalist/blogger, who was sued for insulting the honor and the dignity of the president in January 2007 when he uploaded two articles on a group blog KUB.kz. Kazis is 59, married and has grandchildren. He is a colonel of the Ministry of Defense of Kazakhstan in reserve and a pensioner for 10 years now. We spoke about the lessons that he learned after the trial and about the citizen journalism in Kazakhstan.

Q: What is blog and citizen journalism for you?
A: It’s a possibility of free self-realization.

Q: Why did you decide to write the articles, which, as you might have known, will get you in trouble?
A: In this case not my mind, but my feelings lead me. I would not have been able to exist if I did not write and upload these articles. Not writing them would be worse than being punished for it. In other words, I could not have been silent.

Q: What topics are you most interested in, how do you choose what to write about?
A: I quite like philosophical topics, like the religions and issues of ethnicity. Unfortunately, the Kazakhstani publications do not yet accept the conceptual and reasonable discussion on these topics. In my case I could say that my topics have chosen me. Because I have soul as well, and it cannot accept and not answer to what is going on. I personally felt that when Altynbek Sarsenbayev (Kazakhstani opposition politician) was murdered and when the authorities tried to hide the truth about his murder, I was being murdered too. I felt like I was being killed too – though I am alive, I felt like I was being buried alive.

Q: Do you think your case has helped to attract the attention to the freedom of speech in Kazakhstan? (more…)

Kazakhstan’s players celebrate their victory against Serbia

For the first time since joining the UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) in 2002, Kazakhstan claims competitive victory: its team defeated the Serbian with 2:1 in Group A. It was also the first time the Kazakhstan team scored at home in a European qualifier. It is a surprising victory, as Serbian team was team A’s favourite, and previously Kazakhstan has only won once when it played against Armenia in 2004, out of 25 friendly and competitive international games against UEFA member associations. It used to show better results in AFC (Asian Football Confederation), when it was defeating Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, thus the transfer was criticised.

Rakhat Aliyev, the President of Kazakhstan Football Federation, was the one who transferred the Kazakhstan team from AFC to UEFA. After a long series of dissapointments, the team finally shows the results, thus the transfer to a stronger league is paying off. Kazakhstan Today published a quick interview with Rakhat Aliyev, who is indeed very happy about Kazakhstan’s victory: (more…)

Translation of Adam’s post from Russian-language neweurasia Kazakhstan.

According to the news reports, between 18 and 19 of March, there has been a conflict among the locals in Malovodnoe. The conflict became violent and resulted in the death of three people from gun wounds, five people were injured and taken to the hospital in a very bad state; the house and a car belonging to the parties to the conflict were burnt down. Reports vary as to the number of people who took part - from several to two hundred of young people.

The additional police forces were brought to Malovodnoe, security measures enforced, the criminal case initiated. “It is possible that the conflict is interethnic”, - added a source in the police, commenting for Interfax.

The very first reports were talking about the conflict between the “people from Caucasus” and Asians, apparently, between the Chechens, living in Almaty suburbs, and Kazakhs. However, the first official commentary - from the head of the press-service for MIA Bagdat Kozhakhmetov - did not only deny the possibility of a “conflict on interethnic, religious basis”, but also warned journalists against overblowing the issue and drawing premature conclusions. (more…)