Postcard from Bishkek

A few years ago I wrote a postcard about Alexander the Great, how he brought his armies to Central Asia and conducted a campaign to subdue the Scythians and other peoples of the region, reaching as far North as Samarkand, and how he sent walnuts back to Macedonia where they became so prominent that they […]

On 18th December, 1990, the UN General Assembly adopted the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families and ten years later, (on 4th December, 2000),  they designated that every year this should be commemorated as International Migrants Day. The decision underscored the fact that international migration […]

I was under the impression that when the People’s Republic of China adopted the Gregorian calendar in that it was the last country in the world to do and that ever since then it had become the unofficial calendar for the whole planet. Oh, there are other calendars in use around the world – the […]

As I listened to the Global News podcast from the BBC, I wasn’t sure if I could believe what I was hearing … in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, a Gay Canadian comedian was leading a Ginger Pride Parade as part of the Fringe … it has to be a joke, I thought … but no, even […]

A short while ago I was invited to a Concert in the Seitek Youth Center by the Tatar Folk Ensemble Duslyk - which is Tatar for “friendship” or “Commonwealth”.  It’s their twentieth anniversary – and also the fifteenth anniversary of the Tatar Union “Berdemlek“, (which is Tartar for Unity). To be honest, I knew from previous concerts that I had […]

April 8th is designated as International Romani Day – a day to celebrate Romani culture and raise awareness of the issues facing Romani people.  (It was officially inaugurated  in 1990 in Serock, Poland, the site of the fourth World Romani Congress of the International Romani Union (IRU), in honour of the first major international meeting […]

President Nazarbaev of Kazakhstan is paying his first official state visit to Kyrgyzstan … and I thought I would take the opportunity to take a brief look at our neighbours. At five times the size of France and half the size of the USA, there can be no dispute …  Kazakhstan is a large country […]

The Week of Korean Culture here in Bishkek came to an end yesterday.  It was organized to commemorate 20 years of establishing diplomatic relations and, as well as the official opening ceremony without which no official festival would be complete, there was a seminar, concerts and degustations of Korean cuisine. Although I had put it in the […]

At the moment there is an exhibition in the Frunze Museum about the  ”The Dungans of Kyrgyzstan” – a photo-documentary exhibition of the history of the Dungans beginning with their transfer to Central Asia in the late 19th century. I have mentioned the Dungans in some previous postcards, (notably in Nationalities, the DunganMosque in Karakol and […]

Today is a national holiday in Kyrgyzstan:  Defenders of the Fatherland Day, or more simply Army Day or even, Man’s Day. To a small group, however, the day has a more poignant significance.  It was on February 23rd, 1944, when Beria ordered the expulsion of the entire Chechen and Ingush populations, (about half a million […]