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Imagining Kyrgyzstan's nationhood and statehood: reactions to the 2010 Osh violence

journal contribution
posted on 2015-01-01, 00:00 authored by Cai WilkinsonCai Wilkinson
This article explores the tensions inherent in how Kyrgyzstan's nationhood and statehood have been imagined and practised via an analysis of local reactions to the findings of the Kyrgyzstan Inquiry Commission's (KIC) investigation into the 2010 Osh violence and in particular the threat narrative that developed in opposition to the investigation. In the wake of the clashes that erupted in Osh in June 2010, a recurrent theme was calls from the international community for an independent investigation. Within Kyrgyzstan, however, some politicians argued that investigations violated the republic's sovereignty. Despite local reluctance, a number of investigations did subsequently take place. Yet the reports of the respective investigations did little to quell controversy, with the KIC report being strongly criticized and declared a threat to national security. The strength of feeling demonstrated by this reaction was indicative of long-standing and unresolved tensions in Kyrgyzstan between international and local imaginings of nationhood and statehood. The article concludes by arguing that nationhood and statehood need to be reimagined to focus on re-establishing state–society relations by both local and international actors in order for Kyrgyzstan to begin repairing the already fragile sociopolitical relationships that were grievously damaged by the violence and the subsequent investigations.

History

Journal

Nationalities papers : the journal of nationalism and ethnicity

Volume

43

Pagination

417-436

Location

London, Eng.

ISSN

0090-5992

eISSN

1465-3923

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2015, Taylor & Francis

Issue

3

Publisher

Taylor & Francis