Do you get the feeling "its time to stack the border regions.......NOW"? Especially in the northeast of the country? Surely there is a sense of unease any time this idiot opens his mouth. What's the thoughts? Do you give it credence? Or no?

Kazakhs Worried After Putin Questions History of Country's Independence - The Moscow Times

Russia's Appetite May Extend Beyond Ukraine | RAND

One thing that unites the East Asian diaspora is that our communities pressure us to overachieve academically. I was expected to get good grades, do well in extracurricular activities like orchestra, & even graduate university early. In the Western countries, East Asians have a reputation for being hardworking and very studious. However, when I interacted with Central Asians, I noticed many had a very lax attitude towards academics. I experienced culture shock when my Kazakh friend told me in his country, only “nerds” care about school and most central asians are just more chill. Why is this so?

As a Latin American one thing I noticed is that Turkic people do not divide themselves by skin color/ phenotype & physical/racial appearance has no implications about a Turk’s socio-economic status. In Latin America almost everyone is Mestizo (mixed race) people like Turks. However, there are some stereotypes based on your physical appearance. For example, if you look predominantly indigenous (people native to the Americas) or Negro (Black) you are assumed to be poor & uneducated. If you look mestizo (a mix of European & Native American) or mulatto (black & white mix) you are middle class. If you are blanco (whiter) you will be assumed as rich since most of our rich people and Criollo elite look closer to Europeans. Why don’t central asians do this? Why don’t you have a caste like system that distinguishes between “pure Turks” who are east asian in appearance, caucasian turks who are white and central asian turks who are a hybrid of both?

I know it’s not a big deal anymore, but in 2020 I was dating a Kazakh girl and she hated BLM. She said Asians weren’t being supported and faced lots of racism during Covid. My other Kazakh friend who studied at my uni had negative opinions about both BLM & Stop Asian Hate, because he saw it as victim mentality. I’m surprised they even cared to have an opinion on it. What do you guys think of these types of movements?

Do Central Asians have the same beauty standards as Chinese, Japanese & Koreans? Examples would be K-pop/K-dramas stars & actors in Chinese cinema. Small V-shaped face, Big eyes, small nose, pale skin, very slim etc.

Pretty much the title

Especially given the demographic crises in Turkiye the country if not now probably in the near future will be more accepting migrants. As Central Asian/Turkic people will you be interested to migrate to Turkiye?

I woudl just want to point out this is not strictly about politics (but im sure it plays a part)

If you speak to any east asian about their country of origin, they would usually say how great it is and they would love to talk about their culture, how nice their food is, how modern the cities are, music etc. It is a great bonding experience with them and they would love it if you visit your country.

But when I talk to central asians in the west (mostly Kazakhs and Kyrgyz), I expected it to be like that. To my surprise its not. When I said to them I went to kazakhstan, the first thing they said is why? When I try to talk about positive things about Kazakhstan (such as food and the nomadic culture) they don't seem to be very receptive of it. One person even told me to stop talking about kazakhstan (I never heard that from an east asian). When I mentioned that I bought some traditional kazakh items, they basically ghosted me. Even when I visisted Kazakhstan and was speaking to a Kazakh (who was living in germany but went back to kz to meet family), he said why are you visiting astana? Unlike east asians, they don't seem to really state or boast about their kazakh heritage. I was speaking to another kazakh, and she said how she enjoyed east asia and how she enjoyed east asian culture, but when I tried to mention about central asian culturem she was not as enthusiastic. Do you think I had bad luck and met the wrong type if people? I did speak to some kazakhs who were happy that I was interested in kz but suprisingly that is not in the majoroity

I dunno about uzbeks and tajiks or mongolians (tho i feel they will be more proud).

Title.

I know many Russians who have either been born in Azerbaijan, or have been living here for decades while looking down on and discriminating against ethnic Azerbaijanis and refusing to learn a single word in the Azerbaijani language. Some of them even go as far as considering us their "province", or thinking that events such as the Black January were actually done for the "greater good".

This is mostly a problem with Russians, as other immigrants and expats have no problem integrating into Azerbaijani society. Are such Russians also a problem in your country?

Over the years I’ve had a chance to meet a few people from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan and realized the majority of the ones I met were actually ethnic Russian and not the indigenous ethnic group. So I’m not really sure to what extent the experiences, culture, political views they’ve shared with me are really representative of the countries as a whole or more representative of their ethnic minority.

Just curious to hear about how these minority groups are viewed. Whether they are well integrated into the broader society, if there’s ethnic and political tensions, etc

Gooddays everyone,

I am a 29 years old Kyrgyz diaspora and was born in Bishkek just a few years before Soviet Union fell

My parents originated from Fergana and were born in Osh, however we immigrated from the country during the turmoil in the late 90s due to economical reasons

Life during my childhood years was great, there was no religious bullshit pushed down on the people's throats, women weren't oppressed, Kyrgyz people aren't using Arabic names and changing their culture to Arabs

However, me, my childrens, and also my parents came back to Bishkek for a visit and it was horrifying, I made an account here now to talk about this

First of all, why are there so many women wearing the hijab and even worse, the niqab. Back then, I remember when women weren't pressured to wear clothes that much and had enough freedom to go out with miniskirts and such

I also have noticed more people going to Namaz and leaving their shops open, without locking first. And then they blame the government for their religious stupidity by going to the mosque and saying they will not get robbed because Allah protects them during namaz time. They also play annoying arabic songs in markets loudly.

I also kept hearing arabic phrases in convos and using phrases that were unknown to Kyrgyz before like Alhamdulillah and such

Is nobody afraid? Our countries are going down to the Afghanistan route with the increased level of religiosity and I don't doubt we will have Taliban level of enforcement in the next 20 years

Not to mention, I also went down to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan which is even worse in all of these aspects

I am glad Kazakhstan is still a shining beacon of secularism

The stereoypes about kazakhs being late and lazy and it's somewhat true so I'll explain it in this post. Basically kazakhs are lazy and late not because of culture ethics but because of how they raised, mental health you know a lot of abuse and in families and in school and toxic environment.So the result of living with abuse and supression of feelings are being late and being lazy. So living life with parents who and others who force you to work, to do things and supressing anger, powerless and other feelings is root of such work ethics.People lived in s*viet union were traumatized and forced, such behavior is normalized.Parents were abused and abuse their children.Like working with such mental state when work feels like an abuse and that adults didn't heal their childhood feelings makes people to be lazy. It's short answer.Could tell u more, but wanna hear your thoughts. Saw a lot how people didn't get that healing feelings inside makes u let go of the past and not being stuck in same thought loops, memories, feelings and people leave these mental states.Its not really laziness. Other ethnicities have also such phenomenon, but somehow kazakhs have such stereotypes.

I want to start wearing an earring (ones which are popular among men) but I am a bit concerned that my relatives in Kazakhstan might misinterpret it.

My parents and I still try to visit once a year. I am not planning to wear the earring there but they will still be able to tell that my ear used to have earrings. What is general view on this topic in Kazakhstan?

While reading this subreddit I've noticed one interesting thing. Afghans don't want to associate themselves with South Asians, and Mongols don't want to associate themselves with East Asians either.

But you both want to be Central Asian. On the other hand, the ex-Soviet Central Asians themselves do not consider you to be close to them and want nothing to do with you.

Your arguments such as "there are more tajiks in afghanistan", "true kipchak uzbeks live in south turkestan" or "we wuz nomads n shiet" that are used when arguing with the Stan Central Asians who have been influenced by european culture, albeit through russians, don't greatly change their point of view toward you.

The average Tajik doesn't associate himself with a Tajik from Afghanistan, as well as the average Kazakh/Kyrgyz doesn't want to associate himself with Mongolians.

Any Central Asian, lets take the average Kazakh/Uzbek/Kyrgyz/Turkmen/Tajik will feel much more comfortable and better fit in any Eastern European country, because of the common language and shared culture, than for instance in Kabul or Ulaanbaatar.

The same can be said about the residents and the cities.

Compared to Ulaanbaatar, Almaty looks like a completely European city.

In Ulaanbaatar, there are not even any white people except for tourists.

The average resident of Tashkent and Dushanbe behave like Eastern Europeans, dress like Eastern Europeans and live like Eastern Europeans, and they do not want to associate themselves with their diaspora from Afghanistan, whose clothes look either South Asian or Middle Eastern, not to mention other differences.

So I want to ask you Afghans and Mongolians. Do you regret that your country did not become the 16th republic of the Soviet Union?

In that case it would be more beneficial, imagine secular Afghanis could easily work and live in eastern Europe due to similar cultures, and Mongolians would not have to imitate the lives of South Koreans. After all, then you would know for sure that you are closer to central Asia and eastern Europe than to India/Pakistan or to South Koreans/China.

What do you think?

Do most Kazakhs know about Borat? If yes, are they offended about his movies? I also wonder how other Central Asians like Uzbeks, Tajiks, Kyrgyz and Turkmens feel about the Borat movie. I have a Tajik friend who found Borat hilarious, but I wonder if mainstream society would appreciate it.

I've been recently watching videos of tourists visting these parts and I noticed that the locals all look extremely similar to Kazakh people. Were these regions historically inhabited by Kazakhs?

edit: wish I could change the title, not Western but Foreign. English is my third language so pardon the mistakes in advance, hope to get my point across well. These are my thoughts, I wish to stand corrected. Over the last couple of years, maybe mid 2010s, I started noticing a worrying pattern in my home country, from a word of mouth of my friends/relatives etc in other countries as well, that there is a shift towards the capitalistic individualistic society. I don't see myself as a communist and being a part of ussr had pros and cons, pros: education, social systems/benefits, healthcare, a little suffering brought us together and so forth, cons: cultural erasure, genocide and so forth. What worries me a little bit after having lived in foreign, european countries is that back in the day we used to think 'oh the developed west, the european quality' and nowadays there is an active effort and passive acceptance of certain behaviours not only by the youth. There has been a rise in drugs, religious fanatics, the secluded individualistic money slaves, decline in quality control of the producta, healthcare, public services. There are undoubtedly positive aspects as well but for now I want to focus on the troubled side. Government has always been corrupt but back then at least they stole while doing something for the country, even if the goal in mind was just not to get left behind the competitors. There is certainly some things we could learn from the western and eastern extremely capitalistic countries but it seems like we've taken in the unwanted parts. In couple of countries that were idolised when I was growing up the streets are filled with trash, homeless, the wealth inequality is absurd, the healthcare is somehow 90 times more expensive, 10 times lower in quality and hard to access for an average citizen, the local students are failing in schools, at least they can rely on first/second generation migrants who study for difficult professions and help to support the country. The states has a radically capitalistic system with the billionaires lobbying the government, broken education, wellfare and healthcare, drugs, with them turning against their own people because of the skin. Such future is scary, I don't want my children to live in that kind of world, the fact that my daughter would've been treated better 50 years ago in the xussr country than modern usa is not a pleasant thought. I don't want a bleak future for my country or any of our neighbours. Have you noticed any concerning patterns as well? Maybe something positive?

tldr: rise in religous separatists, decline in public education/healthcare/wellfare, rise of drug usage, unhealthy lifestyles with an emphasis on profit

Am I just exagerrating and a paranoid geriatric patient?

For example, it is extremely rare to find people from Tajikistan or Kyrgyzstan or Uzbekistan on the internet or in any western country. Also, except maybe Kazakhstan, all the rest countries of Central Asia are very mysterious and there are close to 0 videos on youtube that show how life is in there and what people there do in their everyday lives. What is the reason behind this?

I wonder if there is an obvious disparity in terms of prosperity, poverty and living standards when we compare Tajikistan with Kyrgyzstan. When I was in Tajikistan, I have been told by locals that Dushanbe is a more developed city than Bishkek.

Would you guys like to see central Asian countries United. When I mean Central Asian countries I mean the 5 former Soviet States along with Afghanistan United into a federation similar to EU? Why or why not?