Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-30T19:30:48.788Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The affective politics of sovereignty: reflecting on the 2010 conflict in Kyrgyzstan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

David Gullette  and
John Heathershaw
David Gullette*
Affiliation:
University of Central Asia, Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic
John Heathershaw
Affiliation:
Department of Politics, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
*
* Corresponding author. Email: davegullette@hotmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article examines the concept of sovereignty in elite and popular affection during the violent and turbulent events from April to October 2010 in the Kyrgyz Republic. Nationalist leaders promoted Kyrgyz ethnic values and ideals as the center of sovereignty held by some to be under threat. These events exemplify what we describe as the affective politics of sovereignty. We explore how emotion, in particular, serves as an important component of the constitution of sovereignty as both an international and popular institution. We explore how Kyrgyz identity has become intertwined with the sovereignty of Kyrgyzstan and clashes with Western multi-ethnic conceptions and practices.

Keywords

affective politicssovereigntyethnogenesisethnicityconflictKyrgyzstanKyrgyz
Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 43 , Issue 1 , January 2015 , pp. 122 - 139
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agamben, Giorgio. 1998. Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life. Translated by Daniel Heller-Boazen. London: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
AKIpress. 2010. “V Bishkeke prokhodit miting molodezhnikh dvizhenii protiv vvoda politseiskikh sil OBSE.” [“Youth Movement Meeting in Bishkek Against the Introduction of an OSCE Police Force.”] Accessed July 22. http://kg.akipress.Org/news:240891Google Scholar
AKIpress. 2011a. “Zakliuchenie Natskomissii po rassledovaniiu sobytii v iiune 2010 g. na uge Kyrgyzstana.” [“Conclusion of the National Commission into the Investigation of Events in June 2010 in Southern Kyrgyzstan.”] Accessed January 20. http://kg.akipress.Org/print:317951Google Scholar
AKIpress. 2011b. “Shest’ otchetov ob iiun'skikh sobytiiakh.” [“Six Reports on the June Events.”] Accessed May 26. http://kg.akipress.Org/news:373331/Google Scholar
Akun, Turdakun. 2011. “Spravka nezavisimoi komissii Ombudsmena (Akyikatchy) Kyrgyzskoi Respubliki po izucheniiu tragicheskikh iiun'skikh sobytii 2010 goda, proizoshedshikh v Oshskoi, Jalal-Abadskoi oblastiakh i g. Osh.” [“Official Document of the Independent Commission of the Ombudsmen (Akyikatchy) of the Kyrgyz Republic on the investigation of the Tragic June Events 2010, which took place in Osh and Jalalabat Oblasts, and Osh City.”]. Accessed July 13. http://www.ombudsman.kg/en/ourwork/monitoringandinvetigations/148-prisonersrightsdepartment/338–2010-.html Google Scholar
Anderson, Ben. 2006. “Becoming and Being Hopeful: Towards a Theory of Affect.” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 24 (5): 733–752.Google Scholar
Arynov, Mirajidin. 2010. “Some Factors that Caused Interethnic Conflict in Southern Kyrgyzstan.” Neweurasia.net, Accessed, May 24, 2012. http://www.neweurasia.net/politics-and-society/some-factors-caused-interethnic-conflict-in-southern-kyrgyzstan/ Google Scholar
Beyer, Judith. 2013. “Constitutional Faith: Law and Hope in Revolutionary Kyrgyzstan.” Ethos: Journal of Anthropology. doi:10.1080/00141844.2013.841270Google Scholar
Biersteker, Thomas J., and Weber, Cynthia. 1996. “The Social Construction of State Sovereignty.” In State Sovereignty as Social Construct, edited by Biersteker, Thomas J., and Weber, Cynthia, 1–21. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Brubaker, Roger. 1994. “'Nationhood and the National Questions in the Soviet Union and Post-soviet Eurasia: An Institutionalist Account.” Theory and Society 23 (1): 47–78.Google Scholar
Comaroff, John L., and Comaroff, Jean. 2009. “Reflections on the Anthropology of Law, Governance and Sovereignty.” In Rules of Law and Laws of Ruling: On the Governance of Law, edited by Franz von Benda-Beckmann, Keebet von Benda-Beckmann and Eckert, Julia, 31–60. London: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel. 1991. “Governmentality.” In The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality (With Two Lectures By and an Interview with Michel Foucault), edited by G. Burchell, C. Gordon, and Miller, P., 87–104. Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
Freedom House, Memorial Human Rights Center, Norwegian Helsinki Committee. 2012. “A Chronicle of Violence: The Events in the South of Kyrgyzstan in June 2010 (Osh Region).” Report 2–2012. Oslo: Norwegian Helsinki Committee.Google Scholar
Government of Kyrgyzstan. 2011. “Comments in Response to the Report of the Kyrgyzstan Inquiry Commission into the Events in Southern Kyrgyzstan in June 2010.” Bishkek.Google Scholar
Gullette, David. 2010a. The Genealogical Construction of the Kyrgyz Republic: Kinship, State and Tribalism. Folkestone: Brill-Global Oriental.Google Scholar
Gullette, David. 2010b. “Institutionalized Instability: Factors Leading to the April 2010 Uprising in Kyrgyzstan.” Eurasian Review 3: 89–105.Google Scholar
Holy, Ladislav. 1996. The Little Czech and the Great Czech Nation: National Identity and the Post-Communist Social Transformation. Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press.Google Scholar
Human Rights Watch. 2010. “Where is the Justice?” Interethnic Violence in Southern Kyrgyzstan and its Aftermath. New York: Human Rights Watch.Google Scholar
International Crisis Group. 2010. “The Pogroms in Kyrgyzstan.” Asia Report No 193.Google Scholar
International Crisis Group. 2012. “Kyrgyzstan: Widening Ethnic Divisions in the South.” Asia Report No 222.Google Scholar
Ivashchenko, Ekaterina. 2010. “Kamchibek Tashiev: ‘Esli russkie, uzbeki ili turki skazhut, chto oni – naravne s kirgizami ili vyshe ikh, – gosudarstvo razvalitsia.'” [“Kamchibek Tashiev: Tf Russians, Uzbekis or Turks say that they are on a part with Kyrgyz or Higher than them – the State will Collapse.'”] Fergana.ru. Accessed September 20. http://www.ferghana.ru/article.php?id=6728 Google Scholar
Jackson, Robert H. 1990. Quasi-States: Sovereignty, International Relations, and the Third World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
James, Alan. 1986. Sovereign Statehood: The Basis of International Society. London: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Karabekov, Kabai. 2010. “'Direktivy pravitel'stva ne imeiut na iuge iuideicheskoi sily.’ Mer Osha rasskazal ‘Ъ’ o svoem protivostoianii s rukovodstvom strany i OBSE.” ['“The Government Directors do not Carry Legal Force in the South.’ The Mayor of Osh tells ‘Ъ’ about his Opposition to the Country's Government and OSCE.”] Kommersant.ru. Accessed May 29, 2012. http://kommersant.ru/doc/1489447 Google Scholar
Karagulova, Anara, and Megoran, Nick. 2011. “Discourses of Danger and the ‘War on Terror': Gothic Kyrgyzstan and the Collapse of the Akaev Regime.” Review of International Studies 37 (1): 29–48.Google Scholar
Kivland, Chelsey L. 2012. “Unmaking the State in ‘Occupied’ Haiti.” Political and Legal Anthropology Review 35 (2): 248–270.Google Scholar
Krasner, Stephen D. 1999. Sovereignty: Organized Hypocrisy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Kyrgyzstan Inquiry Commission. 2011. “Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry into the Events in Southern Kyrgyzstan in June 2010.” Accessed July 14. http://www.k***ic.org/en/news/364-kic-final-report-published.html Google Scholar
Laruelle, Marlene. 2012. “The Paradigm of Nationalism in Kyrgyzstan. Evolving Narrative, the Sovereignty Issue, and Political Agenda.” Communist and Post-Communist Studies 45 (1–2): 39–49.Google Scholar
Leavitt, John. 1996. “Meaning and Feeling in the Anthropology of Emotions.” American Ethnologist 23 (3): 514–539.Google Scholar
Liu, Morgan. 2012. Under Solomon's Throne: Uzbek Visions of Renewal in Osh. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
Mazykina, Julia. 2010. “The Law ‘On the Titular Nation.’ Identification of Turgunaliev.” 24.kg. Accessed February 12, 2013. http://eng.24.kg/community/2010/10/19/14309.html Google Scholar
Megoran, Nick. 2004. “The Critical Geopolitics of the Uzbekistan-Kyrgyzstan Ferghana Valley Boundary Dispute, 1999–2000.” Political Geography 23 (6): 731–764.Google Scholar
Megoran, Nick. 2012. “Averting Violence in Kyrgyzstan: Understanding and Responding to Nationalism.” Russia and Eurasia Programme Paper: 2012/03. London: Chatham House.Google Scholar
Megoran, Nick. 2013. “Shared Space, Divided Space: Narrating Ethnic Histories of Osh.” Environment and Planning A 45 (4): 892–907.Google Scholar
Myrzakmatov, Melisbek. 2011. V poiskakh istiny. Oshkaia tragediia: dokumenty, fakty, interv'iu, obrashcheniia i zaiavleniia. [In Search of the Truth. The Osh Tragedy: Documents, Facts, Appeals and Declarations.] Bishkek: Turar.Google Scholar
National Statistical Committee of the Kyrgyz Republic. 2010a. “Demograficheskii ezhegodnik Kyrgyzskoi Respubliki, 2005–2009 gg.” [“Demographic Yearbook of the Kyrgyz Republic, 2005–2009.”] Bishkek: National Statistical Committee.Google Scholar
National Statistical Committee of the Kyrgyz Republic. 2010b. “Zaniatnost’ i bezrabotitsa: Itogo integriravannogo obsledovaniia domashnikh khoziaistv v 2009 g.” [“Employment and Unemployment: Results of the Integrated Household Survey 2009.”] Bishkek: National Statistical Committee.Google Scholar
Navaro-Yashin, Yael. 2012. The Make-Believe Space: Affective Geography in a Post War Polity. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Osmongazieva, Tolgonai. 2010. “Topchubek Turgunaliev: V Kyrgyzstane ya gotov nesti otvetstven-nost’ za svoi zakonoproekt o titul'noi natsii.” [“Topchubek Turgunaliev: I am ready to take Responsibility for my Draft Law on the Titular Nation in Kyrgyzstan.”] 24.kg. Accessed March 7, 2011. http://www.24.kg/community/92774-roza-suranchieva-v-chujskoj-oblasti-kyrgyzstana.html Oushakine, Serguei Alex. 2013. “Remembering in Public: On the Affective Management of History.” Ab Imperio 1: 269–302.Google Scholar
Parfitt, Tom. 2011. “Lambs to the Slaughter: Sheep Sacrificed by Kyrgyzstan Parliament.” The Guardian. Accessed February 26, 2013. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/21/sheep-scarificed-kyrgyzstan-parliament Google Scholar
Pavlova, Irina. 2010. “V Kyrgyzstane osnovopolagaiushchemu etnosu neobkhodimo nauchit'sia oberegat’ predstavitelei drugoi natsional'nosti, zhivushchikh v strane.” [“In Kyrgyzstan the Founding Ethnos Needs to Learn to Protect Representatives of Other National Ethnicities Living in the Country.”]. 24.kg. Accessed September 1. http://mirror24.24.kg/community/81337-v-kyrgyzstane-osnovopolagayushhemu-yetnosu.html Google Scholar
Reeves, Madeleine. 2006. “'We're With the People!’ The Eventfulness of Identity in Kyrgyzstan's Tulip Revolution.” Presentation at the London School of Economics workshop, “The Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan One Year On.” London, February 28.Google Scholar
Reeves, Madeleine. 2009. “Materialising State Space: ‘Creeping Migration’ and Territorial Integrity in Southern Kyrgyzstan.” Europe-Asia Studies 61 (7): 1277–1313.Google Scholar
Reeves, Madeleine. 2011. “Fixing the Border: on the Affective Life of the State in Southern Kyrgyzstan.” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 29 (5): 905–923.Google Scholar
Stalin, Josef. 1973. The Essential Stalin: Major Theoretical Writings 1905–52. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Taussig, Michael. 1984. “Culture of Terror – Space of Death. Roger Casement's Putumayo Report and the Explanation of Torture.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 26 (3): 467–497.Google Scholar
Vukov, Tamara. 2003. “Imagining Communities Through Immigration Policies: Governmental Regulation, Media Spectacles and the Affective Politics of National Borders.” International Journal of Cultural Studies 6 (3): 335–353.Google Scholar
Walker, Robert B. J. 1992. Inside/Outside: International Relations as Political Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Weber, Cynthia. 1995. Simulating Sovereignty: Intervention, the State and Symbolic Exchange. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Zaum, Dominik. 2007. The Sovereignty Paradox: The Norms and Politics of International Statebuilding. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar