14 December 2013

Stories from 14 December 2013

In Tajikistan Protest Occurs Online

  14 December 2013

While many people in Tajikistan are unhappy about the country's dire economic situation and political leadership, public protest is rare in the country. The fear of inevitable punishment by the state, the weakness of political opposition, and the memories of the 1992-1997 civil war make the likelihood of mass protest...

VIDEO: Young Men Are Forced to Join Army in Tajikistan

  14 December 2013

As Tajikistan's military faces a struggle to get enough volunteer conscripts, recruitment officers often rely on illegal practices in drafting military-age men into the army. One of the most common among such practices is “oblava” which involves “military press gangs making sweeps of city streets, bazaars and bus stations, rounding up...

Czechoslovakia's Architectural Heritage in Kyrgyzstan

  14 December 2013

Karina Ditkovskaya writes [ru] about a unique architectural heritage left by volunteer construction workers from Czechoslovakia in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan: In the 1920s a commune of volunteers from Czechoslovakia built a whole district of Bishkek. Now, after almost one hundred years, this area of Kyrgyzstan's capital city stands out due...