Kyrgyzstan’s Fragmented Police and Armed Forces

Marat, Erica

doi:10.4000/pipss.3803

Cited by 17 publications

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“…In the Northern city of Talas, ad hoc militias seized power. On 19 April, Kyrgyz youths attacked a small community of Meskhetian Turks in Mayevka, a village outside of Bishkek, to seize land and property (Marat, 2010). In the South, Uzbek nationalists began to organize politically just as pro-Bakiyev Kyrgyz nationalists rejected the interim government (Matveeva, Savin & Faizullaev, 2012: 12–14).…”

Section: State Breakdown Nationalism and The ‘Events’ Of June 2010 21mentioning

confidence: 99%

State weakness and support for ethnic violence in Southern Kyrgyzstan

Ash

2022

Journal of Peace Research

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Does state weakness increase support for ethnic violence? This study proposes individuals who feel insecure due to state weakness are more likely to support interethnic violence conditional on exposure to chauvinist messaging. Support for interethnic violence is evaluated through a survey experiment in Southern Kyrgyzstan. The results show random assignment of chauvinist nationalist rhetoric only induces support for interethnic violence among respondents who trust informal non-state actors from their ethnic group to provide them security. The findings suggest state weakness leads individuals to view their ethnic group as an alternative provider of security and that when primed by chauvinist rhetoric, these individuals become more supportive of violence on their group’s behalf. A case study of the 2010 riots in the Southern Kyrgyz city of Osh illustrates how underlying support for violence may escalate to actual violence as a result of state breakdown, examining events in the months after the Kyrgyz state lost authority following the April 2010 revolution. Jointly, the survey findings and case study illustrate pathways for violence in ethnically divided low-capacity environments and potential drawbacks from protest-oriented revolutions.

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Section: State Breakdown Nationalism and The ‘Events’ Of June 2010 21mentioning

confidence: 99%

State weakness and support for ethnic violence in Southern Kyrgyzstan

Ash

2022

Journal of Peace Research

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“…The mayor of Osh, Melis Myrzakmatov, stood atop a pyramid of corruption with controlling interests in illegal and legal transactions. He supplemented professional police and security personnel with informal gangs of martial arts wrestlers (Marat 2010). Thus, despite formally serving at the behest of the president, Myrzakmatov's illicit political machine provided him with significant local autonomy.…”

Section: Preconditions Of Populismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Substate Populism and the Challenge to the Centre in Post-Riot Asian Contexts

Heuer

Hierman

2018

Journal of Peacebuilding & Development

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In this article, we introduce the concept of substate populism to account for dynamics in which populist speech is used to critique national elites for harming the interests of the ‘pure’ local people. We also identify three preconditions for substate populism: decentralisation, preexisting resentment or anxiety, and the capacity to dominate the local narrative. We explore the concept through a comparison of the frames used by Narendra Modi while serving as the chief minister of the state of Gujarat in India and Melis Myrzakmatov while serving as the mayor of Osh, Kyrgyzstan. We demonstrate that in both cases Modi and Myrzakmatov utilised substate populism following deadly ethnic riots to articulate local resentments, maintain popular support, and delegitimise external efforts to promote post-conflict reconciliation. We argue that through eradicating at least one of the three identified preconditions, a national government can undermine substate populism.

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Section: St Century Post‐soviet Revolutionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Kyrgyzstan operates with a precariously balanced ethnic equilibrium in which local elites have proven willing to join forces to challenge a strong central authority (Lewis, 2010). The regional offices of the MIA have been key players in the battle among local factions for power and resources (Marat, 2010). Kakachia and O'Shea (2012) argue that the Kyrgyz militia cannot be reformed so long as they remain integral parts of shadow economies run by regional political elites that limit central authority and divide the national police.…”

Section: Kyrgyzstan's Tulip Revolutions Of 2005 and 2010mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Kyrgyz revolutions demonstrated that unfettered presidential power would be resisted by local elites and popular uprisings, but there has been no similar coalition formed to support state reform including transformation of law enforcement. The Kyrgyz MIA has received significant international development assistance, notably training in the principles of community policing and police response to domestic violence, but polling suggests that the public continues to distrust a police force that structurally remains unchanged and still largely focused on elite protection and the shadow economy (Lewis, ; Marat, ; ).…”

Section: St Century Post‐soviet Revolutionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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“Shock Therapy” in Ukraine: A Radical Approach to Post‐Soviet Police Reform

Peacock

Cordner

2016

Public Admin & Development

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SUMMARYUkraine has pursued an aggressive "shock therapy" approach to police reform since early 2015, in the aftermath of the February 2014 Maidan protests and subsequent change of government. This approach is described and examined in light of previous 21st century post-Soviet police reform efforts in Ukraine, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan. Internal and external pressures to demonstrate real commitment to corruption control and rule of law seem to have been responsible for pushing Ukraine in the direction of the Georgian shock therapy model. Early results are very promising, but significant challenges remain, including sustaining the reform political coalition, overcoming bureaucratic resistance to change, surviving the armed insurgency in eastern Ukraine, downsizing the old militsiya, reshaping the culture of corruption that permeates the entire government and much of society, and convincing the citizenry that the new police are truly committed to serving the public, not regime protection.

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Kyrgyzstan’s Fragmented Police and Armed Forces

Cited by 17 publications

References 0 publications

State weakness and support for ethnic violence in Southern Kyrgyzstan

State weakness and support for ethnic violence in Southern Kyrgyzstan

Substate Populism and the Challenge to the Centre in Post-Riot Asian Contexts

“Shock Therapy” in Ukraine: A Radical Approach to Post‐Soviet Police Reform

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