On The Ethnic Problem And Ethnic Policy Of The Five Central Asian Countries And Their Impacts

With the Soviet's disintegration, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan gained their independence. In the course of building nation-states, the ethnic relations of the five Central Asian countries have become very complicated because of historical and realistic factors. It is difficult to solve the ethnic problems for the governments of the five countries in Central Asia. The ethnic problems not only influenced the stability of the region and diplomatic relations among the five Central Asian countries, but also threatened the region's and the world's peace and stability. In order to solve these ethnic problems and realize the harmony of all ethnic groups, the governments of the five Central Asian countries have been actively exploring, formulating and adjusting their ethnic policies that are suitable to their own countries. Both the five Central Asian countries and China have some ethnic groups that share the same ethnic origins. Theoretically and realistically speaking, it is of significance to study the ethnic problems, ethnic policies and their impacts on the five Central Asian countries.The paper consists of three parts.The first part mainly deals with the ethnic make-up and the ethnic problems of the five Central Asian countries. In just over a hundred years, the number of ethnic groups has risen from a dozen to 80 or 131 in the five Central Asian countries as a result of ethnic migration, blending and assimilation. After independence, though there has been exodus of Slavs and other nationalities, the multi-ethnic nature of the five Central Asian countries has remained the same, which is and has been the source of ethnicproblems. The major ethnic problems of the five Central Asian countries are the contradictions and conflicts between principal ethnic groups, the contradictions between principal ethnic groups and the Russians, the rights and interests concerning the non-principal ethnic groups, the tribalism and sectionalism, the migration problems, the problems of Pan-Turkism and Pan-Islamism and the collaboration of "Three vicious Powers" i.e. national splittism, religious extremism and terrorism.The second part mainly looks at the theory and practice of the ethnic policies in the five Central Asian countries. In the process of building nation-states, the leaders of the five Central Asian countries criticized and refuted ethnic theories produced in the period of Soviet, and set forth their own ethnic theories according to their countries' situations. These theories are as follows: negating federalism and putting unitarism into practice, abandoning national self-determination, negating wrong theories of the Soviet period and attaching great importance to ethnic problems, emphasizing human rights and civil rights and weakening ethnic consciousness. According to these theories, the five countries' governments formulate a series of ethnic policies. These policies include: carrying out the policy of national rejuvenation to guarantee the leading positions of principal ethnic groups, establishing unity and harmonious ethnic relations, taking some measures to ease the tense relation between principal ethnic groups and the Russians, setting up cultural centers to protect and develop traditional cultures of ethnic minorities, firmly cracking down the "Three vicious Powers" to safeguard the stability and unity of the countries, - carrying out the policy of free religion.The third part mainly discusses the impacts on the five Central Asiancountries, China and regional security which are exerted by the ethnic problems and the changing of ethnic policies. As to the five Central Asian countries, ethnic problems and some ethnic policies not only produce some negative influences on political situations of the five Central Asian countries, but also further worsen the relations between Central Asian countries. In regard to China, the independence of the five countries act as a stimulating factor in increasing of splitting activities in Xinjiang. The infiltration of Internat...