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The Rat Pack of the ‘Stans

Niyazov Karimov Nazerbaev
In Kyrgyzstan the economy feels stagnant. The country is fertile and green which means people aren’t starving, but corruption and bad leadership since independence also means people aren’t thriving. Uzbekistan has a familiar feeling to it but minus the run-down appearance of the place. Driving along country roads, through rural towns, or walking in the capital one can notice immediately Uzbekistan’s aesthetic niceties. Fences and roadsides have a fresh coat of paint, spring flowers have been planted everywhere, and the fountains are full and flowing strong. Where all this money is coming from, who knows? Maybe it’s just part of the more sedentary nature of the Uzbeks as opposed to the nomadic Kyrgyz. There’s no use making thinks look nice if you’re just going to pick up and leave.Or…maybe the money is coming from investment related to the gas reserves under the Aral Sea. We’ll have to ask president Karimov. He seems like a guy that wants things to look nice even if the country is teetering economically below the surface. The overall trend in the region is to end up with larger-than-life egos as heads of state rather than elected public servants. In the past decade most of these leaders have passed the threshhold from presidents to dictators. Nazerbaev in Kazakhstan suspended the constitution to appeal to the “overwhelming demand” for his continued reign. (He received 90% of the vote of course.) Rakhmanov and Karimov in Takikistan and Uzbekistan respectively have sealed their power with bogus elections and stomping out opposition violently. Then there is the bizarre and somewhat comical regime of recently deceased Niyazov in Turkmenistan, a man who under the self-imposed title Turkmenbashi has essentially turned this desert nation into a shrine to himself that I’ve heard would put Kim Il Sun and Kim Jong Il to shame. Some of his public works include encasing much of the capital Ashkabat in white marble, naming months of the year after him and his mother, and installing a huge golden statue of himself that rotates with the sun and for some strange reason can’t be photographed. The strange character passed away in December and the reigns have been turned over to the sole candidate Berdymukhammedov who some claim is his illegitimate son. The only glimmer of hope came from the Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan two years ago when a small peasant uprising in the capital led to the ousting of president Akayev, still exiled in Moscow and living off embezzled foreign aid money that should be rebuilding the country. But this small upheaval has done little to change to lot of most folks, and the new guy was poisoned last month but is feeling better now.

The only two countries in the region that could realistically stand alone in the region economically are Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan with their huge reserves of oil and natural gas. Uzbekistan also has gas under the Aral Sea, but half of that belongs to Kazakhstan and sharing could be tricky. It’s no coincidence that shortly after Niyazov’s demise came the proposition from Nazerbeav to reunify the ‘stans into some kind of Central Asian E.U. In theory this would make sense. A “Unistan” as it’s been termed would be the size of Western Europe and had combined exports of $48.3 billion in 2006. Together they have everything. Three have energy, Uzbekistan is a leading cotton producer and tourist destination, and Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have water reserves in high mountain glaciers, hydroelectric potential, and are eco and adventure travel destinations.

All the ‘stans have their strengths but the proposed Unistan is a pipe dream. With this bunch of leaders it seems impossible that any would relinquish any power to a larger political entity and the whole scheme starts to look like a recipe for a war than cooperation.



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This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 20th, 2007 at 9:15 am and is filed under Eurasia: Marco Polo-in' it, Uzbekistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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