Bluegrass to solve Ganci Airbase woes

The Big Hillbilly Bluegrass Band will play at Bishkek’s main ex-pat bar on Tuesday. Their regular gig is at Madam’s Organ in D.C., which besides being know as one of the best bars in town was also Euan Blair’s favorite hang out while an intern in Congress. Clearly this means the Big Hillbilly’s have some [...]

Central Asian Failed states

From our newest contributor, Shannon Hiller:
The third annual Failed State Index, produced jointly by a The Fund for Peace and Foreign Policy magazine, came out with mostly depressing news. The index ranks 177 states on 12 indicators, meant to asses their “vulnerability to violent internal conflict and societal deterioration.” The 2007 report includes data [...]

Got Kymyz? | Drinking in Central Asia

Without question the world’s finest alcoholic dairy product, kymyz is a toothsome brew of fermented mare’s milk, and the intrepid inebriate who finds himself in these far reaches would be a fool not to embark on a kymyz-tasting tour.
A colorful, practical guide to drinking Kymyz in Kyrgyzstan. (Don’t be alarmed by its source : The [...]

Bishkek Manas base | Get your aspersion on!

Posted yesterday at Jamestown, an intriguing response from US Embassy officials to three Eurasia Daily monitor articles about recent Kyrgyz opposition to the Ganci base in Bishkek. If you’re reading this site, chances are you’ve read the articles concerned (here, here and here) by Jamestown analysts John C.K. Daly, Erica Marat, and Roger McDermott. In [...]

German completes trans-Kyrg run

Martin Fluch, a German teacher based in Osh, has finished a marathon from Bishkek to Osh, covering some 680 miles and some rough mountain-passes (over 3500meters high) along the way. His goal was to raise awareness on Kyrgyzstan’s poor educational system and apparently help bridge the country’s North-south divide. An avid mountaineer, Fluch has also [...]

Putin’s missile shield – Bishkek boon or Russian bunt?

Putin’s surprise offer for Dubya at the G8 summit to jointly work on a missile defense shield in Azerbaijan rather than the contentious Czech-based proposal has commentators buzzing. Even as Washington and Moscow have agreed to discuss such potential, many, such as the NYT and this blogger are listing “daunting, and possibly insurmountable, hurdles.”
James over [...]

Bishkek’s Ganci base | Yankee ketsin!

50 peaceful protestors rallied outside the US embassy in Bishkek for an hour today in the first public action from the “Movement for the Withdrawal of American military bases from Kyrgyzstan.” Spurred on by outspoken Parliament deputies, the movement is based on America’s poor (bureaucratic?) handling of the killing of a driver at the [...]

Rakhat Aliyev & Kyrgyz Nepotism

With the Interpol searching the world for Rakhat Aliyev, the Kazakh Presidential son-in-law, on (politically-motivated) charges of kidnapping, political commentators are quick to draw parallels to governmental nepotism in neighboring Kyrgyzstan. (If you need some backgrounder, scroll down for links.)
Andrey Chebotarev from the Kazakh “Alternative” think-tank claims:
“We’re currently seeing a wave in authoritarianism; unlike [...]

Mediaspin | Ganci airbase news roundup

Getting through the past week’s news surrounding Bishkek’s American ‘Manas-Ganci’ airbase has been a journey through an echo-chamber of Russian-influenced rumor and sloppy contradiction. Plenty of paranoid logic (Bely parohod, Interfax, 24.kg repeating Russian newswires) and some sound reasoning (mostly on the Bishkek Press Club site, and reprints of the same commentators). What I’m interested [...]

Agym’s new owner & Eshimkanov’s dealings

Aynagul Saparbek kyzy, Chief Editor of the powerful opposition daily “Agym” gave a short interview on the Bishkek Press Club website on the new owner of the newspaper, which was recently sold by opposition Parliament member Melis Eshimkanov. Saparbek assured concerned readers that the new owner is a Kyrgyz citizen and not someone with any [...]