What's Next for Uzbeks in Kyrgyzstan? (Research Brief)
October 10, 2011
Up until Kyrgyzstan’s political crisis and intense interethnic conflict in 2010, there were reasons to be optimistic about the future of ethnic Uzbeks in the ex-Soviet Central Asian republic. Concentrated in Kyrgyzstan’s southern cities of Osh and Jalalabat, Uzbeks have felt they experience ethnic discrimination by Kyrgyz rule, yet community leaders have labored through the 1990s and 2000s to build institutions that serve the Uzbek communities within the framework of Kyrgyzstani citizenship. That model of ethnic community-building now lies in tatters after the massive conflict between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in June 2010. A year afterwards, Uzbeks are still picking up the pieces with no new model of communal viability currently being promoted.
Morgan Y. Liu, of Ohio State University,was a 2011-12 Short-Term Travel Grants (STG) fellow.
