Kyrgyz People Research Articles

The association between adiponectin G276T gene polymorphic marker and abdominal obesity in a Kyrgyz population

A population of ethnic Kyrgyz was examined with a view to elucidating the relationship between the adiponectin G276T gene polymorphic locus and the development of abdominal obesity (AO). The study included 288 subjects at the age between 40 and 70 years. 139 of them (81 women and 58 men) presented with AO while 149 without obesity (62 women and 87 men) constituted the control group. The measured anthropometric parameters included arterial pressure, blood glucose, insulin, and leptin levels, blood lipid composition. Genotypes of adiponectin (AN) G276T gene polymorphism were identified by means of PCR-RFLP analysis. The relationship between the presence of the adiponectin G276T gene polymorphic and the development of abdominal obesity in the women was demonstrated. Specifically, 31% of the women with AO were carriers of T allele compared with 17% in the control group (χ2=7.89; p =0.005). The GT + TT genotype and carriage of T allele were associated with an increased risk of development of abdominal obesity (OR=2.5; 95% CI = 1.25-4.97 for the genotype and OR = 2.2; 95% CI = 1.26-4.000 for the allele). No such relationship was documented among men. The women with AO and GT+TT genotype more frequently than homozygotes presented with type 2 diabetes mellitus (64 and 37% respectively; p=0.017), hypertriglyceridemia (41 and 16.2% respectively; p=0.016), and enhanced blood glucose level (7.74±3.3 and 6.52±1.17; p=0.033). Moreover, their HOMA index was higher than in the homozygotes (3.5±1.7 and 2.63±1.24 respectively; p=0.02). It is concluded that the adiponectin G276T gene polymorphic variant in the women of Kyrgyz ethnicity is associated with abdominal obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus, hyperglycemia, and hypertriglyceridemia.

Regime security, base politics and rent-seeking: the local and global political economies of the American air base in Kyrgyzstan, 2001–2010

Unlike the eponymous hero of the Kyrgyz epic, Manas, who united the Kyrgyz people, the American air base situated at Kyrgyzstan's Manas International Airport became a source of fracture in Kyrgyz politics after its establishment in late 2001 to support the US-led war in Afghanistan. Whilst international attention focuses on the geopolitics of a so-called New Great Game over basing rights in Central Asia, a more significant political and economic struggle concerning the Manas Air Base is related to its fuel supplies. The air base became a source of rent for the ruling elites and an object of controversy between the government and opposition in two successful uprisings, which removed presidents Askar Akayev and Kurmanbek Bakiyev from power (in 2005 and 2010, respectively). The air base's secret fuel contractors, with their unknown beneficiaries, offshore registration and low visibility, built close links to the regimes of the two ousted presidents. The lucrative and illicit contracts and subcontracts were purportedly used by both presidents and their entourages for personal enrichment and to strengthen their regimes but were ultimately a factor in their downfall. Drawing on the results of recent congressional and non-governmental investigations and interviews with representatives of the fuel-supply companies and members of the former regime, this work assesses the role of the US Manas Air Base in regime security and rent-seeking schemes during the Akayev and Bakiyev tenures. Thus, this article will contribute to the growing literature on rent-seeking in Eurasia's hybrid regimes and the external dimensions of regime security.

Urban Materiality and its Stakes in Southern Kyrgyzstan

Tremendous urban transformations in two Central Asian cities since the early 20th century have resulted in remaking the subjectivity and worldview of its inhabitants. This article explores the connections between urban materiality and human subjectivity, and argues that, while their relationship is complex and mediated by specific socio-historical processes, the former can play a consequential role in producing the latter. The study examines ethnic Uzbeks in the cities of Osh and Jalalabat, located today in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan. The analysis traces three historical moments-the Soviet period, the 1990s, and the first decade of the 2000s - when shifts in urbann material conditions were understood to carry great stakes in the shaping of the personhood of city dwellers. This insight may have a bearing on the possible future resolution of the serious inter-ethnic conflict between Kyrgyzs and Uzbeks in those cities, which erupted in 1990 and 2010.

Music as Illness; Music as Healing.

Throughout the Soviet Union, the arts became tied to ethnicity through the project of Socialist Realism. When, in 1991, the Kyrgyz Republic became independent from the Soviet Union, its national narrative continued to be built upon tropes of Kyrgyz ethnicity. Through their engagement with images of the ethno-national self, the arts provide a great source of beauty. Defining beauty as a representation of the self that is pure whole, and stable, Julia Kristeva asserts that beauty and suffering are part of the same phenomena. Arthur Kleinman argues that suffering is best understood as existing within the triangulated relationship of cultural representation, collective experience, and subjectivity. Music too is part of this triangulated relationship, and therefore, a part of suffering. Drawing upon ten months of ethnographic fieldwork in Kyrgyzstan, this article explores the illness experience of a single Kyrgyz musician. In doing so, it illustrates music's role in self-formation and the development of social, economic, and political ties and the shifts that occur in these during illness. In drawing forth the role of music in the construction of racialized ethnicities, this article demonstrates how the experience of transformative beauty can coexist with turmoil, marginalization, and violence.

The association of leptin with dyslipidemia, arterial hypertension and obesity in Kyrgyz (Central Asian nation) population.

BackgroundLeptin, an adipocytokine produced by adipose tissue, along with the traditional cardiometabolic risk factors, contributes to the development of cardiovascular complications. At the same time, ethnic features of adipocytokines have been insufficiently investigated, especially among Asians, who have an increased risk of cardiovascular complications compared with Europeans. Aim of study was to investigate the relationship between leptin levels and age, gender, anthropometric parameters, lipid parameters, arterial hypertension (AH), and obesity in the adult population of ethnic Kyrgyz people living in Central Asia.ResultsIn total, 322 ethnic Kyrgyz (145 men, 177 women) aged ≥ 30 years were studied. Waist and hip circumference, body mass index, blood glucose, lipids, leptin, and homeostatic model assessment were measured. Patients in the upper quartile of leptin levels had high values of BMI, WC, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, glucose, and HOMA index compared with patients with lower leptin levels. The prevalence of metabolic syndrome and AH increased with higher levels of leptin. Leptin positively correlated with BMI, WC, triglycerides, and glucose concentrations in patients of both sexes. According to the multivariate logistic regression analysis, elevated leptin levels increased by 30 times the risk of obesity in men, regardless of the presence of type 2 diabetes, and 17.7 times in women.ConclusionLeptin is associated with general and abdominal obesity, dyslipidemia, and insulin resistance in Kyrgyz patients.

Seminar Legislative experiences of Poland and Kazakhstan in the scope of the territorial self-government and national minority policy, Warsaw, Senate of the Republic of Poland, 9 July 2014

The seminary was a joint undertaking of the two committees of the Senate of the Republic of Poland and the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Warsaw. It was held by the Senate Legislation Committee, Senate Territorial Self-Government and State Administration Committee and a team of the Embassy of Kazakhstan led by Ambassador Dr Yerik Utembaev. The seminary’s guests were Members of the Mazylis, Kazakhstan’s lower chamber of parliament chaired by Mazylis Deputy Chair – Mr Sergey A. Dyachenko. Besides, the seminary was participated by deputies, senators as well as representatives of business, academic and political communities, interested in and taking action for the development of the relations between Poland and post-Soviet states of Central Asia, including President of Adam Marszałek Publishing House, Dr Adam Marszałek, Doctor of Honoris Causa, Kyrgyz Russian Slavic University in in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The organization of the seminary had several aims. The main aim of the event was the exchange of experiences between Poland and Kazakhstan in the scope of legislation concerning the activity of both countries’ territorial self-governments as well as in the scope of safeguarding freedoms and rights of national minorities. Of no less importance was enabling the Polish participants to learn the specific characteristics of the functioning of Kazak administration, which comes to pursue its tasks within a very extensive area inhabited by approximately 140 nations.

Transhumance in the Kyrgyz Pamir, Central Asia

Transhumance is a typical form of subsistence in the livestock industry that involves the climatic difference between lowlands and highlands. There are several types of transhumance but its most important factor is the natural difference in climate and vegetation between lowlands and mountain regions. In this paper, we will discuss the connection between mountains and human activities through transhumance (kuch in Kyrgyz), the use of natural resources, and age-based livestock naming differences in the Alai Valley, located in the northern part of the Pamir in Central Asia. In 1920, the region called Kyrgyz was integrated into the Soviet Union. Before the Soviet era, Kyrgyz people had maintained a purely nomadic lifestyle, travelling from one pasture to another in groups. The integration into the Soviet regime caused a rapid transformation in this region from nomadic pastoralism to livestock farming. The transition period that Central Asia went through after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union diverged greatly from the initial optimism that surrounded it. Livestock farming became a matter of individual enterprise, or fermer. Today, the eastern part of the Alai valley is characterized by two types of transhumance: horizontal and ascending. In contrast with the conditions of the Soviet era, the region is now independent, so pastoralists will unavoidable need to gain autonomy in the new market economy.

‘Rightful’ versus ‘real’ homelands: changing concepts of Kyrgyz boundaries and belonging on the China-Kyrgyzstan frontier

The collapse of the USSR in the early 1990s brought statehood to peoples in the Central Asian borderlands at the interface between the former Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China. In the past two decades, the cautious opening of this once tightly sealed border has led to renewed contact between individuals of the groups sharing the ‘Kyrgyz’ ethnonym with other individuals from homologous groups who are now citizens of Kyrgyzstan, China (Xinjiang Autonomous Region) and Tajikistan. This article focuses on how Kyrgyz groups beyond the territorial borders of their respective states regard their belonging to a wider Kyrgyz nation. Based on data gathered in anthropological fieldwork, I discuss these groups’ respective notions of meken (homeland) and chek-ara (borders) and place such narratives of inclusion and exclusion amongst Kyrgyz groups alongside local rhetoric of ethnic ascription, group affiliation and citizenship, and boundary marking in these borderlands.

Speaking Soviet with an accent: culture and power in Kyrgyzstan

Speaking Soviet with an Accent presents the first English-language study of Soviet culture clubs in Kyrgyzstan. These clubs profoundly influenced the future of Kyrgyz cultural identity and fostered the work of many artists, such as famed novelist Chingiz Aitmatov. Based on extensive oral history and archival research, Ali Igmen follows the rise of culture clubs beginning in the 1920s, when they were established to inculcate Soviet ideology and create a sedentary lifestyle among the historically nomadic Kyrgyz people. These Red clubs are fondly remembered by locals as one of the few places where lively activities and socialization with other members of their ail (village or tribal unit) could be found. Through lectures, readings, books, plays, concerts, operas, visual arts, and cultural Olympiads, locals were exposed to Soviet notions of modernization. But these programs also encouraged the creation of a newfound Kyrgyzness that preserved aspects of local traditions and celebrated the achievements of Kyrgyz citizens in the building of a new state. These ideals proved appealing to many Kyrgyz, who, for centuries, had seen riches and power in the hands of a few tribal chieftains and Russian imperialists. This book offers new insights into the formation of modern cultural identity in Central Asia. Here, like their imperial predecessors, the Soviets sought to extend their physical borders and political influence. But Igmen also reveals the remarkable agency of the Kyrgyz people, who employed available resources to meld their own heritage with Soviet and Russian ideologies and form artistic expressions that continue to influence Kyrgyzstan today.

General Perceptions of a Good Political Leader in Kyrgyzstan

This article analyzes general perceptions of a good political leader of post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan by looking at how political leadership is perceived by the ordinary people in the country. This issue seems to be particularly important with country taking a new route – parliamentary republic and facing crisis of political leadership as a result of two revolutions of 2005 and 2010. Furthermore the article sheds some light at people's expectations which are important due to the presidential elections in fall 2011. The article looks at what type of a leader the people of Kyrgyzstan wish to see, and what are the qualities (personal or professional) a political leader must possess. In an attempt to answer these questions, the article identifies ten main qualities of a “good” political leader for Kyrgyzstan as a result of a filed study and tries to evaluate the Kyrgyz case within a broader body of literature about political leadership.

Rus Tarih Yazıcılığında Kırgızlar (18. Yüzyılın İkinci Yarısı - 20. Yüzyılın Başı)

Bu makalede 18. yüzyılın ikinci yarısında ve 20. yüzyılın başlarında Rus tarih yazıcılığında geçen Kırgızların tarihi ile ilgili eserler analiz edilmektedir. Kırgızlar ile ilgili problemleri ele alan müellifleri, çalışmalarına göre şarkiyatçı-araştırmacı, askeri araştırmacı, Rus seyyahları ve idari bürokratlar şeklinde dört gruba ayırmak mümkündür. Rus tarih yazıcılığında Kırgızların tarihi birçok alanda ele alınmış ve açıklanmaya çalışılmıştır. Kırgızlar ile ilgili problemleri aksettiren gazete ve dergilere, özellikle "Turkestanskiye Vedomosti" gazetesinin ve "Turkestanskiy Sbornik" adlı derginin külliyatındaki bilgiler değerlendirilmeye çalışılmıştır. Kırgızlar ile ilgili bilgi veren eserlerin verdikleri bilgiler ve buralardaki hatalı değerlendirmeler üzerine durulmuştur. Ayrıca günümüz Kırgız tarihinin aktüel konularına da değinilmiştir.

The Role of Organizational Social Capital in Increasing Organizational Performance in Public Organizations: Evidence from Kyrgyz National Police (KNP)

Organizational social capital can develop a strong foundation for trusted relationships and committed actions in communities and organizations. This concept was examined in the public organization setting in this study. Organizational social capital is a source for trust-building processes where participative decision-making, feedback on performance, and empowerment are important elements of this phenomenon. Three dimensions of organizational social capital (participation, feedback on performance, and empowerment) and organizational commitment were examined in this study. The influence of organizational social capital on the perceived organizational commitment of the Kyrgyz National Police (KNP) is observed by utilizing structural equation modeling (SEM). The results of this study indicate that the three dimensions of organizational social capital have statistically significant relationships with perceived organizational commitment. Overall, results suggest that organizational social capital, with its dimensions, is a source for the trust-building process which influences perceived organizational commitment. Moreover, by practicing empowerment it is possible to increase the number of committed officers, also an important factor in improving organizational performance.

Foreign faiths and national renewal: Christian conversion among Kyrgyz youth

Drawing on my research among foreign religious workers and young converts, I explore here the changing religious landscape in the Kyrgyz Republic. Although many people in Kyrgyzstan are aware of the material benefits enjoyed by people who convert to new faiths (money, food and professional opportunity), to understand the appeal of these faiths among young people it is important to look beyond material factors. I argue that Christianity's success must be understood in the context of the current social and economic crisis and is a result of Christian leaders' ability to link young people's spiritual lives to projects of national renewal. The story of evangelical Christianity in Kyrgyzstan speaks to an ongoing debate in the social sciences about the usefulness of studying conversion as an individual experience of changed belief versus as a response to social and political realities. The emphasis, in Kyrgyz churches, on the importance of individual converts to national renewal reveals that the individual and social dimensions of conversion must be understood together.

Kırgız Konargöçerleri Arasında Geleneksel Takvim Anlayışı

This article focuses on traditional calendar of Kyrgyz nomads. Because, this traditional calendar has some differences from calendars of other Turkic rooted nations since it mainly created basing on game animals, and the period of hunting. Within this context, there particularly emphasizes the role of nomadic way of life of Kyrgyz people in the formation of the months names and the calendar itself. There also put forwarded numerous of samples that exemplifies close relationship of nomads with environment and their strong harmony with the nature.

From a Real Home to a Nation's Brand: On Stationary and Traveling Yurts

Even though the yurt almost completely lost its relevance as a home for most of the Kyrgyz people during the twentieth century, it is still a central part of today's nation-branding in the Kyrgyz Republic. The article outlines how the yurt and the life of yurt makers changed with the decline of nomadism as an everyday way of life during the Soviet Union and the increasing interest in yurts as symbols in a national as well as a transnational representation (and often romanticization) of Central Asian nomadism. Хотя в течение XX в. юрта практически потеряла свое значение дома для большинства киргизов, она остается важнейшим элементом наци­онального брендинга в современной Республике Киргизстан. В статье показывается, что сама юрта и жизнь ее производителей изменились с упадком номадизма как образа жизни в советской Киргизии. Автора также интересует возникновение постсоветского интереса к юрте как символу, использующемуся в национальной и транснациональной репрезентации, а также тенденция к романтизации юрты и центральноазиатского номадизма в целом.

Cut off values for abdominal obesity as a criterion of metabolic syndrome in an ethnic Kyrgyz population (Central Asian region)

BackgroundPeople of different racial and ethnic backgrounds have a distinct pattern of central fat deposition, thus making it necessary to devise a race based approach for the diagnosis and evaluation of abdominal obesity (AO). This is the first study to determine the optimal waist circumference (WC) cutoff values for definition of AO in an ethnic Kyrgyz population.Methods323 persons of Kyrgyz ethnicity (183 women and 140 men), with a mean age of 51.8 ± 9.5 years old were included in the study. Measurement of blood pressure (BP), anthropometric data (including body mass index calculation and WC measurement), fasting blood sugar, serum lipid parameters and insulin were performed in all examined individuals. Insulin resistance (IR) was considered as HOMA index (insulin × fasting glucose/22.5) ≥ 2.77. Sensitivity and specificity for the presence of IR or two other criteria of MS (according to the international classification, 2009) were calculated by using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves for men and women separately.ResultsThe optimal sensitivity and specificity obtained from the ROC curves for IR were 88 cm in women (sensitivity of 0.85, 95%CI (0.72-0.93), specificity of 0.58, 95%CI (0.49-0.66)) and 94 cm for men (sensitivity of 0.8, 95% CI (0.65-0.91), specificity of 0.61, 95% CI (0.51-0.71)). The data from the ROC curve for any two other MS criteria confirmed the results and the WC 88 cm in women (sensitivity of 0.82, 95% CI (0.72-0.9), specificity of 0.72, 95% CI (0.62-0.8)) and 94 cm in men (sensitivity of 0.74, 95% CI (0.62-0.84), specificity of 0.73, 95% CI (0.61-0.83)) were corresponded to the optimal sensitivity and specificity.ConclusionWC ≥ 88 cm and ≥ 94 cm should be used as a criterion for the diagnosis of AO for Kyrgyz women and men respectively based on these results.

The Order is Koroglu of Van Kyrgyzs

The Order is Koroglu of Van Kyrgyzs

Commentary - The Early Days of Central Asian Military Integration: the Kyrgyz National Division of the Red Army in 1927-1928

This paper is a brief overview of the sociology of a national division of the Red Army in the early days of its formation in Kyrgyzstan, as described in two documents about soldiers of Kyrgyz nationality in 1927 and 1928. At that time the Soviet Army was not seeking to substantially increase its numbers but rather recruiting in line with the intentions of the nationality policy, by integrating ethnic groups and regions that had been ignored by the high command. Kyrgyzstan is a striking exampl...

Attributes of Kyrgyz National Identity Formation

Attributes of Kyrgyz National Identity Formation

Front and Back Covers, Volume 25, Number 1. February 2009

Front cover caption, volume 25 issue 1A boy shows off on his horse at the annual festival of racing, games and music in Barsko'on, Kyrgyzstan in October 2007. The festival includes endurance races of up to 36 kilometres over steep, rocky mountain paths and streams, a far cry from the bowling‐green surfaces of Churchill Downs and Newmarket.Abdildechan, an expert in horse games in Kyzyl Suu, explained that horse games and competitions such as these derive from the importance of horses to the nomadic and warrior traditions of the Kyrgyz people. Horses enable people to move away from danger, he explained, and are also essential for work and food. Cars are becoming increasingly common in Kyrgyzstan, but many people believe that they will never completely replace horses in this mountainous region. ‘Young people may have cars’, says shepherd Jakshylyck Orgochor, ‘but where there is a Kyrgyz person there is always a horse: a horse is a man's wings’.In this issue, Rebecca Cassidy scrutinizes claims about the distinctiveness of the Kyrgyz horse and considers the political consequences of evaluating domesticated animals on the basis of contested categories including ‘breed’ and ‘type’.Back Cover: HUMAN‐ANIMAL RELATIONSRos Coard, lecturer in archaeology and specialist in archaeozoology and forensic taphonomy in the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Wales Lampeter, examines forensic evidence taken from the scene of a suspected big cat kill in West Wales, UK.The skulls in the foreground belong to an array of known big cat species, and Coard compared tooth pit data from these skulls with those found in sheep and horses killed in unusual circumstances. These data have been used to provide evidence for the existence of at least one large predatory felid in West Wales.However, even without this scientific corroboration, many people around the UK report sightings of non‐endemic ‘alien’ big cats (ABCs) on a regular basis, attributing to them an almost mythical status, and this makes them an interesting phenomenon to be considered from an anthropological perspective.Coard has been working collaboratively with Samantha Hurn, an anthropologist who has been documenting narratives relating to big cat sightings in West Wales. In this issue of ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY, Hurn outlines the data collected so far. She argues that ABCs do, indeed, exist in West Wales, and discusses how and why her informants from the local Welsh farming community regard these predators in positive terms. Many see ABCs as both important keystone species performing the valuable function of keeping other problematic predators (notably foxes) in check, and highly politicized animals who symbolize their own marginalized position within contemporary UK society.As Lévi‐Strauss put it long ago, animal‐human relations are, indeed, good to think with.