Some Central Asian states speak about decolonization of the region more often. Local communities try to rethink their links to the Soviet history and culture, and also call for breaking free from the influence of Russia. Moreover, almost every country has unsolved issues that can hamper decolonization processes, says an article published by CABAR.asia on March 31.
In Tajikistan, the topic of decolonization has reportedly not become the mainstream. And there is the explanation to it, said Marat Mamadshoev, editor of CABAR.asia in Tajikistan. According to him, the republic has gained independence but colonial forms generally remain the same.
“It often manifests itself in the dependent politics and economic dependence on Russia,” analyst said. “In particular, many able-bodied people of Tajikistan go to Russia to earn money and stay there.” Also, the inequality in economy is obvious. According to Mamadshoev, Tajikistan still supplies fruit and raw materials in the foreign trade turnover.
“And it is clear that we sell them at cheaper prices, and buy Russian oil products or some Russian commodities at more expensive prices,” he said. “And if we diversified our exports, the situation could be different.”
Mamadshoev also pointed out that the topic of decolonization is raised from time to time, yet there is no systemic or scientific discussion of it in the Tajik media. According to him, the reason is that neither the government, nor the society makes long-term political plans backed up by material or moral resources. Everyone is busy with current issues, generally.
However, according to the analyst, there are recipes of countering the external dependency.
“First, we must admit that the situation, if compared to 1991, has not changed much, and we are even more dependent in some moments,” he said. “Second, we need to carry out a simple analysis and find out who we are, where we are, what we want and what we can do.”
The most real thing that Tajikistan can do, according to Mamadshoev, is to pursue economic reforms, seek ways of diversification of export and organize domestic production wherever resources and staff are available. As to the politics and society, real rule of the people and democracy are needed.
“We need to stop countering the media, the civil society,” the expert said. “The power and citizens must cooperate, pull together, instead of looking for enemies in each other. Only in this case we can expect some successes and achievements.”
In Kazakhstan, decolonization processes reportedly become the subject of public discussions more often. Kamila Smagulova, researcher of PaperLab, alumna of the CABAR.asia School of Analytics, noted that ‘decolonization’ in Kazakhstan also means ‘national’. According to her, the expansion of the scope of use of the Kazakh language, rethinking of the past and the growing popularity of heroes of the Kazakh intelligentsia, who were repressed in the 20th century, in history have become more intense after the beginning of the war in Ukraine. “But just a month before that Kazakhstan had suffered from the January events. Thus, the January events acted like the intrinsic factor that affected the society, while Ukraine was the external factor,” Smagulova said. Given that, decolonization in Kazakhstan, according to her, lies in the horizontal plane – and is mentioned by the civil society, and various activists, artists, feminist movements view their activities through the lens of decolonization. However, there is no intergroup dialogue between then.
As far as Kyrgyzstan is concerned, project coordinator of Kloop.kg Aizirek Almazbekova says there are decolonization processes taking place in Kyrgyzstan, but they are not so large-scale. According to her, there are some discussions in the society, but they are not large-scale. “But we see that development of the Kyrgyz language is paid more attention than before, and citizens are also interested in it,” Almazbekova said, noting that a particular part of the society, mainly activists and journalists, try to fight against Russian propaganda via media or social media. However, she said, there are still some difficulties in Kyrgyzstan that cannot be solved within a short time. First, Russian media in Kyrgyzstan still have more influence on people. They dominate in the market and the population consumes their content. Second, millions of Kyrgyz nationals are migrant workers in Russia.
As to Turkmenistan, the independent researcher based in Ashgabat Rustam Mukhamedov says “We see the continuation of the same politics that was established back in the 90s, during the times of President Saparmurat Niyazov.” In other words, there is the strict authoritarian rule and tabooing of some topics, including decolonization. Cooperation between Turkmenistan and Russia has reportedly become active in many directions. The parties declared each other important strategic partners, which is seen in a great number of meetings and execution of partnership documents in many areas.
As far as Uzbekistan is concerned, Binazir Yusupova, PhD researcher of the Dublin City University and alumna of the CABAR.asia School of Analytics, notes that Uzbekistan was the first one in the region to get beyond control of the Soviet colonial power intentionally. According to her, during the presidency of Islam Karimov, decolonization grew into desovietization and decommunization. However, many Uzbekistanis, according to her, still take Russia as the “older brother” and this attitude remains strong against all odds. Moreover, Russia is still the center where most migrants head to for work. Yusupova says the ongoing war in Ukraine might speed up the decolonization processes in Uzbekistan. But it is important not to restrict the civil society and activists so that they could promote this idea actively, she added.
