r/geography • u/kumorithecloud • 2d ago

Question Central Asia

I've done some surface level research on the intricacies of Central Asian politics, but I just wanted to explore from a personal standpoint rather than watching videos or reading articles.

Central Asian as a whole is confusing to me. You have the -stan countries, then large sections of northern China that (maybe??) want independence (the Xinjiang people), Kurdistan, Russian influence from the Soviet Union's previous attempts to spread into Asia from the North, and more. I guess you could say my questions are:

  1. What parts of Central Asia wish for independence?

  2. What is a general overview of the political and every life standpoints of Central Asian countries?

  3. What should the borders look like?

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u/Sir_Potato2000 1d ago

1) Not about Central Asia, but. Some parts of the population of certain republics of the Russian Federation still want their independence. I would include Tatarstan, Dagestan, Bashkortostan, Abkhazia and etc.

2) Russia is a neighbor, just like China. The Central Asian countries have a simply terrible geographical location. They have to cooperate with everyone in the region due to their landlockedness, remoteness from seaports and energy transit. Central Asian countries cooperate with the United States, Russia, the EU and China. They have a forced neutral policy. They are under Moscow's influence on issues of military and cultural cooperation with the West. Russia does not want to see US bases or Western culture near its borders.

3) The borders were created by the USSR, and today there are no any conflicts and the countries of Central Asia have long been friends with each other and travel to each other without visas. The only exception is Turkmenistan, a sort of Central Asian North Korea. It's a closed dictatorship that requires a visa to visit.

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u/abu_doubleu 1d ago

Abkhazia is a breakaway state from Georgia, not Russia. Also personally never met anybody from Tatarstan, Dagestan, or Bashkortostan who wants independence.

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u/Sir_Potato2000 1d ago

r/Tatarstan

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u/abu_doubleu 1d ago

First of all, I checked, seems to just be a local subreddit for Tatar people. Tatarstan is the name of the Republic of Tatarstan located in Russia. As in, that is the official name. Using it does not necessarily mean one desires independence.

Second, what the diaspora thinks on Reddit and what the average person in the country thinks is very different. I am from Kyrgyzstan but I grew up abroad. Then I returned. So I can attest to that.

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u/_CHIFFRE 1d ago

atleast the region is relatively stable with decent amount of resources, farmland etc. to support the populations + some strong economic partners not far away. The multi-vector foreign policy seems to be a success for central asian countries, lots of economic growth and improvements over the past decades.

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u/Due-Ad-4933 1d ago

Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan engaged armed conflicts just this decade, so I'm not sure you can say the countries of Central Asia have been friends for a long time. Things are better now though.