· November, 2013

Stories about Central Asia & Caucasus from November, 2013

Uzbekistan's “Twitter Warrior” Gulnara Karimova Is Back

  22 November 2013

After disappearing from Twitter yesterday, Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of Uzbekistan's “enduring dictator“, has returned to the micro-blogging service. In a flurry of angry tweets, Gulnara is blaming [ru] her mother for using intimidation and arbitrary arrests against her colleagues, allies, and business partners. Gulnara also suggests that her mother is...

As Twitter Use Rises in Tajikistan, Who Should You Follow?

  15 November 2013

Although Twitter's popularity in Tajikistan still lags far behind that of Odnoklassniki or Facebook, the number of Tajikistani voices on the social network is rising. Nilufar Shukrikhudo observes: It makes me quite happy to see twitter gain momentum in #Tajikistan. I've been waiting for a while for that to happen. —...

Kazakhstan's Facebook Rival Groups Members by Tribe

  14 November 2013

How do you create a social networking platform that would be popular in society dominated by Facebook and Odnoklassniki? In Kazakhstan, the answer is tribe. Rulas [Kazakh for “tribemate”], a new social network that has already attracted several thousand members, groups users according to their clans and tribes.  Although tribal identities...

Soviet Environmental Posters

  14 November 2013

Skyfall presents [ru] a collection of environmental posters from the Soviet period. The blogger who often writes about environmental problems in Kazakhstan and some of his readers are nostalgic about the “environmental education and awareness-raising programs” of the Soviet era.  Below are some of the posters collected by the blogger:

Kazakhstan's “Bilingual” Currency Turns Twenty

  13 November 2013

Kazakhstan has recently marked the twentieth birthday of the national currency, the tenge. Blogger Serikzhan Kovlanbayev presents [ru] a brief history of the tenge, showing how it has changed since 1993 and what is unique about it: A unique thing about the Kazakhstani currency is that it is “bilingual”, that is,...

Tajik Elections Debate: Either Rahmon or “Cannibalism”

  6 November 2013

Prior to Tajikistan's presidential elections, the website of the opposition Islamic Revival Party (IRPT) published a story titled “Will Emomali Rahmon Remain President or Not?” [tj]. The story drew hundreds of comments, triggering a heated debate between those who thought it was time for the incumbent president to step down and...

Life in Kyrgyz Prisons Through Camera Eyes

  1 November 2013

Photographer Eric Gourlan spent over a month in prisons in Kyrgyzstan, documenting the life of both inmates and guards. Photographs he took there provide a rare “view from the inside” the country's prison system. Kloop.kg publishes some of the remarkable photos that are now displayed at a museum in Bishkek. The documentary...

About our Central Asia & Caucasus coverage

Nurbek Bekmurzaev
Nurbek Bekmurzaev is the Central Asia editor. Email him story ideas or volunteer to write.

Arzu Geybullayeva
Arzu Geybullayeva is the South Caucasus editor. Email her story ideas or volunteer to write.