Weekly Digest of Central Asia
BISHKEK (TCA) — The Publisher’s note: Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, Central Asia was the scene of intense geopolitical struggle and the Great Game between the British and Russian Empires, and later between the Soviet Union and the West, over Afghanistan and neighboring territories. Into the 21st century, Central Asia has become the area of a renewed geopolitical interest, dubbed the New Great Game, largely based on the region’s hydrocarbon and mineral wealth. On top of that, the region now is perhaps the most important node in the implementation of China’s One Belt, One Road initiative through which Beijing aims to get direct access to Western markets. Every week thousands of news appears in the world’s printed and online media and many of them may escape the attention of busy readers. At The Times of Central Asia, we strongly believe that more information can better contribute to peaceful development and better knowledge of this unique region. So we are presenting this Weekly Digest which compiles what other media have reported on Central Asia over the past week. KAZAKHSTAN “Not Being a Burden to the State.” How Ethnic Kazakhs From China Who Came Back to Historical Homeland Live? For six months of 2019, over a thousand families of ethnic Kazakhs have moved back from China to their historical homeland Sep 23 — “Since birth Oralkhan Aben was living in the county of Durbuljin of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR) of China. According to her, it had been rather quiet there for a very long time, but since 2013 the religious citizens have problems with performing salah in mosques. ‘Once we entered the mosque, they recorded our ID data in front of the gates. Later on, we learned they were preparing something terrible then. They blackmailed workers and retired people saying they would not receive their salaries and pensions if they keep attending the mosque. They prohibited the young people to enter the mosque. That was how the policy of ban started’.” READ MORE: https://cabar.asia/en/not-being-a-burden-to-the-state-how-ethnic-kazakhs-from-china-who-came-back-to-historical-homeland-live/ Kazakh Government Takes Down 93k Websites To Site-Block A Single Massage Parlour The Internet remains tightly controlled in Kazakhstan, where authorities sometimes block opposition or ‘undesirable’ websites. But sometimes such practices lead to awkward results Sep 26 — “Site blocking. When it comes to law enforcement and IP enforcement efforts, site blockingis the simple man's solution to a very complicated problem. The claim that floats out there in the ether is something like: hey, if we discover sites are breaking the law in some way, we can just order ISPs to block access to the site and the problem's solved. Despite that simplistic send up, the practice of blocking sites in this way inevitably leads to massivecollateral damage and flat out abuse. And, yet, those that advocate for site blocking shrug their shoulders at this.” READ MORE: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20190925/10133643067/kazakh-government-takes-down-93k-websites-to-site-block-single-massage-parlour.shtml Kazakhstan promises to allow public protests, just not yet The Kazakh authorities are squashing demonstrations against China’s domination of Kazakhstan’s economy Sep 27 — “Kazakhstan’s new president, Kassym-Jomart...
