Framing ethnic minority mobilisation in Central Asia: The cases of Uzbeks in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan

Hierarchies of trade in Yiwu and Dushanbe: The case of an Uzbek merchant family from Tajikistan

“…Uzbeks constitute approximately 15.3% of Tajikistan's population (Fumagalli 2007), and the traders which whom I spoke cite language as the principal marker of their Uzbek identity. Although they are proficient in Tajik, Uzbek and Russian, they consider Uzbek their mother tongue and the preferred language to communicate in domestic spaces and amongst relatives, friends and associates who also speak Uzbek (cf.…”

“…On the other, negative stereotypes of Kulobis have been popularized among non-Kulobi population; thus Kulobis have come to be regarded as symbols of intimidation and the unmerited appropriation of the country's resources, aspects of life in the country referred by some scholars as 'Kulyabisation' (cf. Fumagalli 2007;Marsden 2012). 12 Against this background, Bahrom and his family alleged that companies owned by people from Kulob were usually given the permissions to build new apartment blocks in the capital, and also obtained government contracts for other public projects.…”

Introduction: the sources of statehood in Tajikistan

“…Akhbarzadeh (1996) and Roy (2000) demonstrated how regionalism or 'localism' trumped nationalism during the social and ideological conflicts around independence that led to the civil war. Thus, the state-nationalizing project described above is considered in recent work in terms of its public ceremonial performances and discourses (Nourzhanov 2001, Marat 2008, Fumagalli 2007, xenophobic academic projects to construct an 'Aryan myth' (Laruelle 2007), manipulation of the census in order to homogenize and aggrandize the Tajik national group (Ferrando 2008), and writing of school history books to silence the complexity of identity and nationhood (Blakkisrud and Nozimova 2010). None of these writers have given a great deal of credence to these efforts but most sensibly refrain from passing judgment on the 'success' of such a project.…”

Paranoia with a purpose: conspiracy theory and political coalitions in Kyrgyzstan

“…While memories of the 1990 riots remained bitter at the street level in Osh, elites from both ethnic communities worked to avoid future conflict (Fumagalli 2007). Kyrgyz nationalist parties supported land reform, which was adversarial to Uzbek interests and kept ethnic tensions simmering under the surface.…”