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its behavior primarily on direct investments, particularly - investments in real estate and participation in the capital of companies in Kazakhstan.
"Islamskaya ekonomicheskaya model i sovremennost", M., 2010, p. 266-270.
Parag Hanna, political scientist (USA) KIRGHIZSTAN AND TAJIKISTAN: INDEPENDENT BUT POWERLESS
For an external observer most new countries after two decades of proclamation of their independence seem not to be excelled from each other. It does not matter, whether it refers to Kirghizstan or Tajikistan; these micro-states of the third world finally will be put under the imperial carpet, which implacably is being rolled out over the whole Central Asia. Being located in distant regions of the Central Asia, where the borders had been marked arbitrarily, they are not so much the states as the border zones between empires. Again, like a hundred years ago, "the Big Game" is being arranged at the peaks and in the shadows of Tyan-Shan and Pamir mountains.
Tyan-Shan mountain rage divides literally in two the Russified northern part of Kirghizstan and the densely populated southern cities Osh and Jalalabad, which belong to Islamic culture of Fergana valley, where they are located. Ten hours of difficult travel by mountainous routs separate the capital of Bishkek from the city of Osh. Kirghizstan as a stable and united country could be able to develop tourism near the borders of the lake Issyk-Kul. However, formerly closed for foreigners country will be most likely the picturesque pass in the restored "Silk
Route" between the East and West, guided by Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and China.
Impoverished Kirghizstan is an object of permanent military dispute between its more powerful neighbors; and Kirghistan tries to carry out the policy characterized by "non-exclusive friendly relations". For the beginning of the 1990s, when China insisted to acquire a mountainous part of Kirghizstan accounting for several hundred square km and when the government had to sell this land to China, disturbances took place in the country. When Uzbekistan ceased to ship its gas to Kirghizstan, Kazakhstan replaced it as a gas supplier but at the same time closed its own route to the lake Issyk-Kul to protect Kazakh tourists from grasping Kirghiz policemen. The Russian and Chinese companies buy metallurgical and food enterprises; as a result, the majority of the population remained, like in the past time, rural residents. In Bishkek "lavish looking" restaurants are only small cafeteria for western diplomats, while local women may only propose service of Asian massage to the hotel residents.
President Askar Akayev declared that he would make Kirghizstan a Switzerland in the Central Asia, but instead of it he sent his own family to Switzerland, said with irritation the minister of foreign affairs of Kirghizstan Rosa Otunbayeva. Some historic events, known as revolution, do not deserve this name. For instance, "Tulip revolution" in 2005 actually was an internal overthrow within the ruling elite and did not change anything. The USA provided financial support to small business and to the media group, and the latter arranged the protests against Akayev, who fled to Moscow but left the door open for the corrupted regime of K. Bakiyev. As political analysts noted, many people supported the opposition against Akayev, but it was an absurd to expect that Bakiyev would overcome corruption.
Since the time of acquiring independence, the lack of legitimacy of all Kirghiz governments hindered stability of the country. The uncontrolled process of revolutionary events may lead to quite opposite results, since replacement of democracy even in its fiction form by something unpredictable allows Chinese and Russians to manipulate the fable leaders of this country. The only best solution for China and Russia, comparing with unstable and compliant Kirghizstan, would be the existence in general of the lack of any governing organs in the country. In time of "Silk Route", the travelers crossed the borders and did not notice them. It is not important for China, who keeps Kirghizstan under control because it restores the former situation.
The PRC restores the passes in the old "Silk Route" used before Islam came there after Talass battle in the year of 75land forced Chinese to retreat home. The famous Torugart pass on the Chinese-Kirghiz border has been transformed into a highway used by trucks via Kirghizstan to Uzbekistan. The trade with the Central Asia countries is not very important for China, while the Chinese presence over there is very significant for Kirghizstan and Tajikistan. The main part of export from Kirghizstan is shipped to China, and the markets in Kirghizstan are full with Chinese goods. The trans-border trade resulted in Kirghizstan even greater than in Kazakhstan growth of Chinese communities. The China towns represent the main feature in almost all big cities, while Lenin prospect has been renamed Dan prospect.
As long as the USA extends its strategic plans outside Afghanistan to ensure security for the pipelines and to keep China under its observation, Kirghizstan returns to its former role of an observation point for the period of "Big Game" The great powers try to locate their military bases in this region, and these bases occur to be dislocated close to each other. The Russian army has not abandoned its claims for Kirghizstan but it had to evacuate the former Soviet base in
Manas near Bishkek, which is occupied now by the USA forces. At present, the USA and Russia watch secretly each other by means of salesmen on the same border, where in 1969 the military conflict between China and the USSR took place. When the USA asked for permission to locate in Kirghizstan the reconnaissance aircrafts AVACS, China forced the government of Kirghizstan to refuse to do it. It is the convincing evidence that the American military bases do not resemble flowers in the pod, as they are called by Pentagon, within the flood of Chinese commercial and infrastructure activities, being a real instrument of influence on developing countries. The USA is able to reach this region by its supersonic aircraft, but what will the USA do afterwards?
The USA is unable to push Chinese out by economic means. China will easily graft and win over any regime in Kirghizstan and block Americans on the territory of their military bases. If promotion of democracy is as usual reduced to rendering assistance to the autocratic regimes and to payment of consultants' services, these regimes will exist by selling themselves to the more generous buyers, who fixed the highest price for strategic stability.
The analogous micro-policy of building roads and of arranging communications is going on in Tajikistan, which is dangerously located on "the roof of the world" in Pamir mountains among Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Kirghizstan and China and is being transformed into another stop in the "Silk Route". This state, characterized by many Islamic specifics, runs the danger of imperial wings. The Party of Islamic Renaissance of Tajikistan is the sole Islamist party, which officially carries out its activities on the territory of the former Soviet Union. For the 1980s, it became the uniting force for all Tajik nationalists just in time, when the Communist elite in the capital of Dushanbe underestimated the anti-Soviet mutiny in Afghanistan, which
led to the collapse of the USSR. For the beginning of the 1990s, almost 150 thousand people perished in the Tajik civil war, which, like the civil war in Yugoslavia, showed the danger of a national distinction in the Communist world. The group, headed by E. Rakhmonov, was supported by Moscow, but had to take up arms to come to Dushanbe even after "the victory" gained at "the elections" in 1992.
Over three thousand earth tremors and earthquakes are registered annually in Tajikistan. This is a good metaphor also for political life in the country. The corrupted regime of Rakhmonov actually depends on Moscow. About 20 thousand Russian servicemen are located in the country; the Russian firms are in charge of management of the strategic hydroelectric stations, getting profits by selling electric energy to neighboring Uzbekistan. In accordance with canons of the third world, the money transfer, made by Tajiks from Russia, surpass the state budget of Tajikistan. The Aga Khan Foundation, the World Bank and the EU render charitable assistance to the country, but still over 80% of the population live as usual below the level of poverty. Tajiks use narcotic trade on the territory located across the state border with Afghanistan in order to survive.
Tajikistan is the most significant bridge also for the Chinese-Iranian trade routes, which gain the importance and connect Sinkiang, Osh, Dushanbe and Gerat (Afghanistan) with Iran connected with Tajikistan by ethnic and language relationship. Iran gives financial support to construction of the tunnel in the Fansk mountains to connect two principal cities of Tajikistan - Dushanbe and Hujand and for the fist time to ensure uninterrupted communication between them and to enlarge a new Chinese-Iranian energy and trade corridor. "We have the state border with China and Afghanistan. We do not have a border with Russia. We would not be able to travel in our own country, if the
Chinese have not built this road", a young soldier of the border point uttered his thoughts.
The new pass of "the Silk Route" does not look so much romantic as in the past, but it is a modern speed way. However, this auto-route at once was transformed into a channel of narcotic trade, a way of penetration of infection illnesses and extremist ideologies. China and Russia approve American and European efforts exerted for the sake of stabilization of the buffer zone adjacent to Afghanistan, which is not possessed by Russia any more.
China started to imitate the learned steps of the West in relation to the border missions arranged by ShOS and even made a step forward, having elaborated a strategy of joint management of water resources. The intensification of political, economic and strategic connections goes on daily along the restored parts of "the Silk Route". In this way, a kind of filter is being formed, which delays influence from the North and may help the USA to consolidate its grip on the territory to the south of the post-Soviet "camps", exactly in Afghanistan -the grave-digger of the USSR.
P. Hanna. "Vtoroy mir", M., 2010, p. 140-152.
A. Kurtov,
political scientist
TURKMENISTAN: CHINESE PRIORITY
For the 1990s, China started to pay particular attention to Turkmenistan. The Chinese oil corporation in charge of technique and development started its activities in Turkmenistan soon after its declaration on independence. Since 1994, it established close cooperation and partnership relations with the oil and gas complex of Turkmenistan. The corporation exports to Turkmenistan the Chinese oil
