Anis H. Bajrektarevic is a Professor and a Chairperson for International Law and Global

MODERNDIPLOMACY.EU

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INDEPENDENCE POST-SOvIET ERA
The populations of Central Asia opposed inte-
gration of their lands into the Soviet Empire.
Central Asian states played an integral part of
the Soviet system as the areas were repopu-
lated with non-Turkic peoples. They were used
to house industrial centers to protect the indus-
try from military strikes and the Nazi Army.
Those who were accused of Nazi collaboration
during World War II by the Soviets were forcibly
deported to Central Asia. One of the most no-
table groups is the Chechens, many of which
died on the way there or due to poor condi-
tions. Much resentment is held against the Rus-
sians and Russian Government by Chechens
because of these forced deportations. The Kaza-
khs also suffered heavy human losses at the
hands of Soviet collectivization policies. 
As the Soviet regime feared the influence of Is-
lamic culture and the Turkic ethnicity, it decided
to create five Soviet Socialist Republics (SSR) in
Central Asia. Through this plan, the individual
republics were provided the chance to develop
their national identities to a certain degree in
order to pre-empt the emergence of a common
“Turkestani” identity and more importantly to
prevent the formation of Turkestan.
The economies of the five Central Asian Re-
publics collapsed in spring 1991; none of the
countries were prepared for independence.
They began new state-building measures
which proved. 
Each of the countries has experienced changes
in power, governmental and constitutional
changes, and uprisings and civil wars respec-
tively. New traditions and languages were re-
vived and policies favoring the titular ethnicities
have become common and have isolated mi-
norities. A prime example would be the ethnic
Russians in Kazakhstan and the process of Kaza-
khization. Another example would be the re-
vival of the custom in Kyrgyzstan, bride
kidnapping, which is considered to be a form of
human trafficking and overall a human rights
violation. Overall many of the countries are con-
sidering switching from the Cyrillic script to the
Latin script. Many publications in Uzbek and
Kyrgyz languages appear in Latin. This transi-
tion is unlikely to happen with the Kazakh lan-
guage as Kazakh is written in Cyrillic (with the
influence of some Greek letters).
One of the main obstacles was the political sys-
tem that allowed Soviet Union Communist