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CITIZENSHIP ISSUE IN KYRGYZSTAN. Kyrgyzstan plans to introduce a new passport that excludes any mention of nationality, Russian Public TV (ORT) reported on 14 March. The new passport will not have the "infamous fifth column" which denoted a person's ethnic origins. Henceforth, all groups in Kyrgyzstan will simply be noted as citizens of Kyrgyzstan. Individuals who want to include their ethnic origins will be permitted to do so. Previously, many people had given false information on their ethnic background to avoid discrimination. Under the new regulations, the number of declared ethnic Kyrgyz and Azeris in the republic is expected to decrease while the number of ethnic Uzbeks and Turks is expected to increase. -- Bruce Pannier
Why? What is the reason that next to new citizenship law number of kyrgyz and azeris should decrease and Uzbeks and Turks should increase? can anyone explain me the reasons of this curious statement?
Date: Sat, 16 Mar 1996 12:56:05 -0500
From: Schoeberlein-Engel <schoeber@HUSC.HARVARD.EDU>
Subject: Re: citizenship in kyrgyzstan
On Sat, 16 Mar 1996, Mehmet_Tutuncu wrote:
[from the OMRI DAILY DIGEST:] ... Under the new regulations, the number of declared ethnic Kyrgyz and Azeris in the republic is expected to decrease while the number of ethnic Uzbeks and Turks is expected to increase. -- Bruce PannierWhy? What is the reason that next to new citizenship law number of kyrgyz and azeris should decrease and Uzbeks and Turks should increase? can anyone explain me the reasons of this curious statement?
Mehmet Tutuncu
Presumably, the number of 'Kyrgyz' would decrease because people would no longer 'falsely' indicate this nationality in their passports in order to improve their employment and other prospects. The statement on Azeris is curious indeed, and probably doubtful. 'Uzbeks' would increase since Uzbeks, who had been registered as 'Kyrgyz', would be no longer.
The reference to 'Turks' has to be called bad reporting, since there is no indication who is intended by the term, which is ambigious at best. Probably, it does not refer to former Turkish citizens (or does it?). It may refer to Meskhetian Turks (deported from Georgia by Stalin), but these are not so numerous in Kyrgyzstan as to warrant separate mention. There are other groups who traditionally refered to themselves as 'Turk'--particularly in the Farghana Valley--but if they were to be officially recognized as a separate nationality group in Kyrgyzstan, it would be the fact of their recognition, not merely the change in numbers (from zero to ?), that would be the newsworthy observation.
John Schoeberlein-Engel