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Paper short abstract:

This paper tries to understand the ambit of autonomy with a specific case study of Uyghur community, who are major minority nationality in Xinjiang province and examines the Chinese government’s verity in implementation of Regional Ethnic Autonomy (REA).

Paper long abstract:

This paper tries to understand the ambit of autonomy with a specific case study of Uyghur community, who are major minority nationality in Xinjiang province. With regard to China, the right to self-determination is still ambiguous, cited by two reasons. Firstly considering the transition of Chinese empire into modern nation- state and secondly, in the context of policies towards ethnic minorities (Which is hugely inspired by the Soviet nationality Policy). This paper tries to contend the claims of official narratives regarding minority rights. This paper tries to examine the Chinese government’s verity in implementation of Regional Ethnic Autonomy (REA). In contrast to the Chinese narratives, this is seen as a ploy to evade the question of right to succession and self-determination. According to the official narratives, the formation of autonomous regions in the minority nationality densely populated areas along the frontiers are designed to guarantee their participatory right on the basis of ethnic equality. This paper argues that the formation of autonomous regions is to effectively implement its majoritarian policies and to assimilate the minority nationalities. The comprehensive legal system of china, as argued by the Chinese government, has effectively protected and promoted the rights of minorities and therefore it can be viewed as an appropriate mechanism through which the minorities can exercise the right to self-determination within the state. Official narratives are continuously questioned by the outburst of ethnic unrest and the sustainability of regional ethnic autonomy. So, the question is how far the right to self- determination is internalized in China and whether minority nationalities are contended with this power allocation.

This paper uses qualitative research methods like narratives and case study. Various sources like Chinese government white papers, Gardner Bovingdon’s “Autonomy in Xinjiang: Han Nationalist Imperatives and Uyghur Discontent”, few chapters from S. Frederick Starr edited book Xinjiang: China’s Muslim Borderland, and other online articles.

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Paper long abstract:

This article analyzes dynamics and main trends of labor protests in Kazakhstan from 2008 till present. The protests in country leaded up to the massacres in Zhanaozen in 2011, while in others part of the countries not. This study is important to understand how labor protests develop in transitional states of Central Asia, which heavily depend on extracting industry. In 2021, labor strikes and income-related rallies held by workers across Kazakhstan made up more than 28 percent of all registered protest activities. This is a significant rise in comparison to previous years. Again, the most active region has been the western oil-extracting region of Kazakhstan. Holding a legal strike in Kazakhstan requires a complicated procedure. Almost no one can meet the requirements of the law, so the majority of strikes are spontaneous and therefore not recorded by the official statistical office. This paper is based on data provided by the Oxus society protest tracker, as well as newspaper materials to track cases of labor protests, their character, geography and intensity.

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Paper short abstract:

This paper explores comparatively protests in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan based on media based data while analyzing differences (repertoires, scale, geography, etc.), argues about difficulties of conceptualizing them within existing social movement and contentious politics literature .

Paper long abstract:

Protests do happen in Central Asia though not in all countries and not all the times. This paper explores comparatively protests in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan based on media based data. Based on a comparative approach this paper analyzes differences between these two countries in regard to the ways protests are taking place - types of actors, repertoires of action, geography, etc. The preliminary findings suggest that while two countries experience significant number of protests over year they differ on certain aspects such as geography (Kyrgyzstan's protests being more capital based),

on the substance of claims (Kazakhstan's protests being more social issues oriented) and in some other aspects. The data was compiled up to 2018 and the protests in Kazakhstan during and after the power transition are briefly discussed in regard to the overall findings. The paper also argues about difficulties of conceptualizing post-soviet protests (such as in these two countries) within existing social movement and contentious politics literature.

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Paper short abstract:

Paper discusses oral stories on the migration of 1950-1960s from China to Kazakhstan putting them into the context of construction of memory and politics of history in Kazakhstan

Paper long abstract:

The paper will discuss the results of the project on Oral history of migration of 1950-1970s from China to Kazakhstan organized at Turan University in Almaty. It will focus on recollections of the migrants of various ethnic groups living now in Kazakhstan. Recollections of the migrants are determined by various factors, including the age of the migrants (most of the interviewers were teenagers when moving to the USSR), ethnic affiliation, experience of the life in the Soviet Union. Of particular politics of memory and politics of history practiced at Soviet times and in post-Soviet Kazakhstan, as well as oppressive policy of the Chinese authorities towards Muslim ethnic groups in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) which fames particularities of the memory. The paper will discuss how present shapes memory of the past and limitations of holding Oral history interviewers with various groups of migrants, since the memory of migration is differently constructed for different ethnic groups of Kazakhs, Uyghurs, Tatar and Dungans.