From JW:
>JW v State HRC Docs 00687 pg 68-71
>Number of Pages:
4
Date Created:
October 9, 2018
Date Uploaded to the Library:
October 09, 2018
Tags:
otunbayeva, kyrgyzstan, Highly, Bishkek, Bakiyev, Soviet, important, Opposition, foreign, political, HRC, Sullivan, 00687, Docs, unclassified, State Department, American, department, united
https://www.judicialwatch.org/document-archive/jw-v-state-hrc-docs-00687-pg-68-71/
Necessary nationalism? Kyrgyzstan’s relations with the West
May 24, 2017
Shairbek Dzhuraev, University of St Andrews
Executive Summary
Kyrgyzstan’s relations with the Western countries and international organizations took an interesting twist since the latest regime change in 2010. The country cancelled the major bilateral cooperation treaty with the USA and downgraded its cooperation with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). It has become a routine for top leaders of the country to ostracize critical civic activists and media for serving Western interests. This is surprising for a country often called an “island of democracy” in Central Asia and for a country leadership much hailed as less authoritarian than the preceding ones.
The paper argues that the observed turn in relations with the West does not reflect ideological views of the state leaders. Instead, it points to the priorities of the ruling regime in ensuring its own security, in this case, through becoming the primary nationalist force in the country. The large-scale ethnic violence in southern Kyrgyzstan in June 2010 and resulting emergence of popular nationalist politicians caused major concern for the new country leaders. The government acted swiftly to undermine those politicians while cementing a nationalist interpretation of the June events into a state priority. The foreign governments and international organizations challenging nationalist interpretations and calling for impartial justice became primary targets of the policy.
Yet, beyond the matters of June 2010, Kyrgyzstan’s leadership remains mostly agnostic to any version of nationalism as well as political ideologies. Based on that, the paper treats the foreign policy twists of Kyrgyzstan as a “necessary nationalism” serving the regime security concerns more than anything else. Yet, implications of such nationalism and its foreign policy outcomes may negatively affect prospects for democracy and development that should be noted by Kyrgyzstan’s international partners.
…
http:/ /caspianet.eu/necessary-nationalism-kyrgyzstans-relations-west/