Kyrgyz: the Switzerland of Central Asia

Victory Square near Kyrgyz Range, Bishkek, Frunze, Kyrgyzstan. Photo / Getty Images

Kyrgyz

Millisphere: a discrete region inhabited by roughly one-thousandth of the world population.

Sometimes a country has exactly the right population to qualify as a millisphere. Kyrgyzstan (6.5 million), known as the Switzerland of Central Asia, is one.
The second poorest country in Central Asia (after Tajikistan) Kyrgyzstan is also the mountainous refuge of the Kyrgyz nomads. The name Kyrgyz comes from the local word for 40 - referring to the 40 Kyrgyz tribes that mostly make up the country.

In this case, I have chosen to define the millisphere of Kyrgyz to exactly conform to the Kyrgyzstan state boundaries - including its novel exclaves and enclaves with Uzbekistan in the Fergana Valley. They have, after all, been seriously hammered out over time.
Apart from the capital Bishkek, Kyrgyz is mostly confined to high altitude pastures and forests. Glacier-covered mountains feed rivers such as the Syr Daya which irrigates Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan before trickling into the Aral Sea. Power generation in Kyrgyzstan and irrigation downriver compete for the water. Under the Soviets, Kyrgyzstan was compensated with diesel in the winter for the water taken for irrigation.

Like the Aral Sea and Lake Balkhash in neighbouring Kazakhstan, Lake Issyk-Kul in Kyrgyzstan is an endorheic basin (no exit to the ocean) and like the others, it suffers from falling water levels. The Soviets introduced Rainbow Trout to Issyk-Kul, devastating the local fish stocks, and global warming and global pollution (making the glaciers turn grey) is melting the Kygyrz glaciers.

In November 2021 there were parliamentary elections in Kyrgyzstan. Of the 90 seats in the Kyrgyz parliament, 36 are electorate seats and 54 are allocated according to a proportional system. Only one-third of those eligible bothered to vote and only six of the 27 parties running overcame the 5 per cent barrier. The vote favoured the tribe of sitting president, Sadyr Japarov.

Politics in Kyrgyzstan since the collapse of the USSR has revolved around competing tribal oligarchies controlling the allocation of government contracts. There is a history of corruption interspersed with the occasional revolt as the 40 tribes jockey for position. Kyrgyz politics is a little like the local sport of Ulak Tartysh which is like rugby played on horseback with the carcass of a goat instead of a ball - it's rough and occasionally someone gets hurt.

Lake Issyk-Kul and the Fergana Valley were once on the Silk Route which crossed the Tien Shan mountains to Kashgar and Urumqi in China. It was only in the late 19th century that China ceded control of Kyrgyzstan to Russia, and many Kyrgyz fled to the Pamir Mountains in Afghanistan. Instead of caravans of pack horses and yaks, these days it is Chinese in small trucks that risk exposure on the treacherous high-altitude passes.

The Covid pandemic has hammered trade with China and halted the arrival of international tourists. In 2021, Switzerland allocated aid funds towards the development of sustainable winter tourism in Kyrgyzstan. The project will also address climate change and environmental issues. The millisphere of Kyrgyz could learn a lot from its European namesake Switzerland (also a millisphere). Neutrality, democracy, tourism and the protection of the environment would be good places to start.

In 2001, the United States established an airbase near Bishkek to support its operation in Afghanistan. It was named the Ganci Airbase, after the New York fire chief who died in the World Trade Centre on that fateful September day.

In 2009, Kyrgyzstan renamed Ganci the Manas Airbase and in 2014 revoked the Americans' lease. Hosting an American airbase in an ex-Soviet republic on the border with China had tested Kyrgyz neutrality to the limit.

Hostilities these days are limited to scuffles on the border with Tajikistan over the positioning of water monitoring cameras and water allocation remains the most contentious issue with its neighbours.

I sometimes refer to this journalistic endeavour as a "post-millennium travel story which goes at random from millisphere to millisphere, some of which I've been to, and some not."

Research sometimes involves me dialling into Youtube and engaging in some armchair travel. Watching a young couple crossing the Tien Shan on pushbikes, and nearly getting exposure, I paused to reflect. Where to next?