An analysis of the roles and activities of stakeholders in reviving and promoting the disrupted traditional cultural heritage of the Kazakh people

ABSTRACT Following the dissolution of the USSR (1988-1991), all Central Asian countries proclaimed their independence including Kazakhstan in 1991. With great freedom came great responsibility as the newly emerged countries had to rebuild and reinvent themselves to regain their political sovereignty and cultural identities. While much of the research into the role of cultural heritage in the postcolonial revival has been undertaken in the Africa and Commonwealth countries, comparatively little investigation has been carried out on the area of Central Asia. Representative of the region, Kazakhstan with its multifaceted history, intricate geopolitical position, disrupted heritage and contested demographics, is worthy of particular attention. Before the Russian expansion (1731) the Kazakh people were nomads who peregrinated to the north in the summer and to the south in the winter with their herds of domesticated animals. However, Russian colonial and Soviet collectivisation policy disrupted not only the Kazakh nomadic lifestyle but also their traditional cultural heritage. In order to deepen understanding of this history of cultural loss, reconstruction and preservation, this research examines the main features of the nomadic cultural heritage of the Kazakh people before and after the Russian/Soviet rule. Two aims direct this research: to assess the impact of the Russian colonisation of the Kazakh steppe on the traditional nomadic cultural heritage of the Kazakh people, and to analyse the roles and activities of identified stakeholders in reviving, preserving and promoting this heritage. Efforts to protect and promote cultural heritage require the engagement of various stakeholders. However, no extensive research has concentrated on the role and activities of stakeholders in the preservation of cultural heritage in postcolonial ii countries. Therefore, this research aims to examine the perceived roles of the government, international organisations (UNESCO), and non-governmental organisations in the protection of the cultural heritage of the Kazakh people. These stakeholders have significant but different perspectives concerning cultural heritage. The research shows that main motivation for the Government of Kazakhstan to revive and preserve its traditional cultural heritage is to build a national identity. The demographic composition of Kazakhstan posed a dilemma as the countryʼs government had to choose how to ethnically, culturally and ethnolinguistically define Kazakh identity as paramount without alienating other ethnic groups living in Kazakhstan. This research adopts a qualitative method. Interviews and textual analysis are the main data sources, to which thematic analysis has been applied in order to identity common themes and concerns. A multi-sited ethnographic research takes place in Qyzylorda, Oral, Almaty and Astana/Nur-Sultan cities where the researcher includes representatives from practitioners, governmental organisations, international organisations and non-governmental organisations responsible for the development and preservation of the cultural heritage of the Kazakh people. The present research applies several conceptual frameworks including Said's "Orientalism" (1978), collective memory, and Nora's (1989) concept of "sites of memory”. This research contributes to the academic literature associated with the future work and policies of international organisations, NGOs and government authorities in developing mechanisms and frameworks to support the revival and development of identities and cultural heritage in Kazakhstan

The national identity of a diaspora: A comparative study of the Korean identity in China, Japan and Uzbekistan.

This research concerns the collective identity of Korean diasporas who have settled in China, Japan, and post-Soviet central Asia, with special attention to Uzbekistan. The main research considers how the Korean diasporas define their collective identities in their respective host states, and the political implications of the constitution of such identities. The means by which a collective identity is secured vary, depending on a diaspora's relations and interactions with its homeland and host state, and vision of its own community. Despite sharing many features common to not being assimilated by host societies, the three Korean diasporas have maintained their distinctive identities in each case under this study. A diaspora's identity is thus to be understood as having a particular nature, which I see as a third type of national identity. I argue that the features of diasporas are generated by the following three factors: the homeland, the hostland, and the diaspora organisations. A diaspora identity is reflected in the intrinsic quandaries it experiences within this triangular structure. These quandaries are created by fundamental tensions; such as the dilemma between seeking a fuller degree of inclusion and maintaining autonomy, the psychological conflicts between the awareness of the need for collective resistance against assimilation and the aspiration for overcoming sub-national collectivity, and the difficulties that arise from the process of accepting a different national identity while not detached from their ancestral motherland. The Korean diasporas are nearing the point of creating self-determined communities with stable dual-national identities. The formation of such an identity has prerequisites; such as the knowledge and understanding of the two national cultures involved, clear and sufficient communication, the preservation of the diaspora's own history, and the sustaining of various forms of collective existence, all of which will legitimise a diaspora's aspiration for recognition

The Invisible War in North Kurdistan

Only abstract. Paper copies of master’s theses are listed in the Helka database (http://www.helsinki.fi/helka). Electronic copies of master’s theses are either available as open access or only on thesis terminals in the Helsinki University Library.Vain tiivistelmä. Sidottujen gradujen saatavuuden voit tarkistaa Helka-tietokannasta (http://www.helsinki.fi/helka). Digitaaliset gradut voivat olla luettavissa avoimesti verkossa tai rajoitetusti kirjaston opinnäytekioskeilla.Endast sammandrag. Inbundna avhandlingar kan sökas i Helka-databasen (http://www.helsinki.fi/helka). Elektroniska kopior av avhandlingar finns antingen öppet på nätet eller endast tillgängliga i bibliotekets avhandlingsterminaler.Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena on tutkia Pohjois-Kurdistanin, siis Kaakkois-Turkin kurdiprovinssien, terveystilannetta. Tutkimuksessa käytettyjen lähteiden - mm. Turkin virallisten tilastojen, Turkin Lääkäriliiton, terveydenhoitoalan ammattiliiton SES:n ja ulkomaalaisten tarkkailijoiden laatimien raporttien - mukaan terveysolot Pohjois-Kurdistanissa ovat yhtä huonot kuin Saharan eteläpuoleisessa Afrikassa. Turkin armeija ja Kurdistanin Työväenpuolue PKK ovat käyneet sisällissotaa Pohjois-Kurdistanissa vuodesta 1984 lukien. 1990-luvun alkupuolelta lähtien Turkin armeija on käyttänyt matalan intensiteetin sodankäynnin menetelmiä. Se on pakkosiirtänyt kolmen tuhannen kurdikylän asukkaat katkaistakseen PKK:n sissien huoltoreitit. Tämän seurauksena Turkissa on kahdesta kolmeen miljoonaa maan sisäistä pakolaista. Heidän terveystilanteensa on hyvin huono. Sairauksien - kuten keuhkokuumeen, ripulisairauksien, tuberkuloosin ja malarian - lisääntyminen on yksi kurdeihin kohdistuvan matalan intensiteetin sodan menetelmistä. Koska tietojen löytäminen kurdien terveystilanteesta osoittautui hyvin vaikeaksi, olen etsinyt syitä myös informaation puutteeseen. Tämän asian selvittelyn teoreettisena viitekehyksenä käytin teoriaa kulttuurisesta kansanmurhasta. Sen tavoitteena on assimiloida vähemmistö enemmistöön kieltämällä sen kulttuurin, kielen ja etnisen identiteetin olemassaolo. Myös tilastojen ja tieteellisen tiedon puuttuminen etnisestä ryhmästä on yksi kulttuurisen kansanmurhan muoto. Turkki on yrittänyt assimiloida kurdit turkkilaisiksi ensimmäisen maailmansodan aikaan tapahtuneesta Ottomaanien imperiumin tuhoutumisesta lähtien.The target of this research is to study the health situation in North Kurdistan, also in the Kurdish provinces in southeast Turkey. According to my sources of information - for example, Turkish official statistics, and reports of the Turkish Medical Association, and Turkish Labour Union SES, plus various international observations - the health conditions in southeast Turkey are as bad in the African countries south of Sahara. In North Kurdistan on a civil war has been going on, since 1984, between the Turkish army and the Kurdish Labour Party (PKK). Since the early 1990s, the Turkish army has used low-intensity warfare methods (LIC). It has depopulated, by force, three thousand Kurdish villages to cut maintenance routes for the PKK guerrillas. As a result there are two to three million internally displaced people in Turkey. The health situation for these persons was found to be very bad. In particular, an increase of diseases like pneumonia, diarrhoea and malaria and the deterioration of living conditions of the Kurds is one method of the LIC against them. As it proved very difficult to find information about the health conditions of the Kurds, I have also explored, in this thesis, explanations for this lack of information. I did this based on a theory of cultural genocide, i.e. ethnocide. The purpose of ethnocide is to assimilate, by force, a minority to the majority by denying the existence of its culture, language and ethnic identity. Also included, as a purpose, was the lack of statistics and scientific information about an ethnic group. Since the break-up of the Ottoman Empire during the World War One, Turkey has tried to assimilate the Kurds as an integral part of the Turkish population