When a Magazine Becomes a Bridge for Diplomacy Diplomacy has long extended beyond embassy walls and formal negotiations. It also lives through personal encounters, the exchange of books and conversations that help countries understand one another more deeply. In London, our publisher and founder of Silk Road Media, Marat Akhmedjanov, met Dr Mohammad Faisal, an […]
I’m delighted to introduce another brimming issue of OCA Magazine, where we continue our commitment to exploring the dynamic and critical role of education in Central Asia and the Caucasus. As nations across Central Asia seek to modernise and diversify their economies, education lies at the heart of these ambitions — not only as a […]
THE SHIFT OF THE INVESTMENT LANDSCAPE IN CENTRAL ASIAN AND CIS COUNTRIES: CURRENT TRENDS AND FUTURE OUTLOOK Things are moving fast in Central Asia and the former Soviet Union (CIS) countries. The investment landscape has undergone significant changes driven by geopolitical shifts, economic reforms and evolving global market trends. Both traditional and non-traditional capital is […]
CENTRAL ASIA PROVIDES A RARE HIGHLIGHT IN TODAY’S CHALLENGING REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT CLIMATE For many, the housing and wider real estate markets have had a miserable year. Interest costs have increased alongside inflation of general running costs and buyers are few and far between, making prices look frothy. But Central Asia is providing a rare […]
Historic Debut: Uzbekistan Hosts Inaugural World Coaching Championship During Eurasian Creative Week From 22 to 29 June, Uzbekistan hosted the first international World Coaching Championship, as part of the 8th international festival Eurasian Creative Week. For the first time, the festival events took place in three cities of Uzbekistan: Tashkent, Khiva and Nukus. The festival […]
ECG World Championship Coaching: A Celebration of Creativity and Enlightenment in Uzbekistan ECG World Championship Coaching and Eurasian Creative Week will be held in Uzbekistan (Tashkent, Khiva, Nukus) from June 22 to 29. The event is organised by the Eurasian Creative Guild and the Elena Bezrukov Center. Participants of the festival are coaches and artists […]
GASTRO TOURISM: A NEW ADVANTAGE FOR CENTRAL ASIA Central Asia has a culinary legacy that is mind boggling. Like the region’s history it spans millennia and has undergone a vast amount of change from era to era. It is both fascinating and delicious. Being positioned along the Silk Road allowed for this as trade brought […]
OCA Magazine: 15 years of success in building the land bridge with Eurasia in the heart of the storm Since 2009, OCA Magazine has become a well-regarded publication with a readership that includes diplomats and businesspeople. It is the sole English-language magazine dedicated to the Central Asian and CIS region. For the past 15 years, […]
LIKE A MOVIE.A NEW MODEL OF DESTINATION MARKETING Today, tourism and migration have become part of modern life. And since the laws of economics dictate that where there are people, there are finances and other resources, the ability of a city, region or even an entire country to attract and retain tourists, investors, businesses, workers, […]
JUST LEGENDARY Surprisingly there are quite a few links between British Legends and Central Asia. Quite a few of these links are already known, but it’s only really with the emergence of Central Asia onto the world scene that they are becoming better appreciated. Some of these historical links are mentioned below. I have had […]
THE SPIRIT OF THE GREAT SILK ROAD TREASURES Gulchekhra-begim Makhmudova is one of the most important women in Uzbekistan and the CIS countries in the field of culture, beauty and perfume. She started in 1985 as a producer of the international tours for Uzbek creatives – InterDay of Culture, then ran her own BEGIM World […]
“Vibrant Navruz and Iftar Celebrations in London: A Cultural Extravaganza” The Navruz and iftar celebrations held in London were a resounding success, marking a vibrant start to the year’s festivities. The event was organized and sponsored by the Eurasian Creative Guild, London (ECG), OCA magazine and Orzu Arts, and served as the inaugural event in […]
TRENDS IN RECRUITMENTIN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS SINCE 2020:INSIGHTS AND POSSIBLE CAUSES Recruitment in international schools has witnessed significant shifts and trends since 2020. The global pandemic, coupled with evolving educational practices, has brought about notable changes in the hiring landscape of these institutions. In this article, we will explore the key trends that have emerged and […]
RIPPLES OF CHANGE IN CENTRAL ASIA At the end of 2022 I travelled to Kazakhstan, as Chairman of Eurasian Creative Guild to report on the early Presidential Elections and constitutional reform called by President Tokaev. It was a showcase, multimedia affair, streamed live on TV, a modern ‘progressive’ event to show the world democracy exists […]
THE FALL OF RUSSIA IN CENTRAL ASIA As a committed “Eurasianist”, I find it odd when pundits tell us this war between the Russians and the Ukrainians should terminate in the ruin and desolation of the former nation. After all, it may be expected, in the first approaches of the confined, or simple observer, that […]
PEOPLE’S DIPLOMACYIN ACTION AT BURABAY In European countries they have a tradition of taking a “gap year” after college before entering university. Usually this year is devoted to travel and volunteer work, and volunteering in itself is a form of social interaction. Even members of the British royal family are included in this process (this […]
The Turkic World: A Concept of Co-operation Between Central Asian Countries What is the modern concept of co-operation between the Central Asian countries and why is the Turkic world, according to many scientists, a promising concept of such co-operation? We try to understand this issue in this article. Considering historical retrospect, we note that the […]
At present, representatives of 130 ethnic groups and 18 religious denominations live in Kazakhstan, among them – Muslims, Orthodox, Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Buddhists. Throughout the country, many mosques and temples are operating and being built, which are actively visited by believers. Religious freedoms in the Republic of Kazakhstan are guaranteed by Article 14 of the […]
Introducing the Desert Monitor The desert monitor is a large lizard, reminiscent of a dragon, and commanding instinctive respect from anyone who sees it. It is common throughout the Central Asian steppe, can weigh up to 3 kg and grow up to one and a half metres long. Desert monitors can also be found in […]
Iran on the Horizon: Future Prospects for Central Asian Rapprochement In recent years, China has propelled itself to the position of Central Asia’s leading external partner – in the process, investing previously unthinkable sums of money in the region and expanding its political and economic influence. However, Iran, whilst currently unable to compete with China […]
Being born a girl continues to be a considerable risk factor in many geographical regions, and Central Asia is one of the case examples where violence committed against women and girls is high. According to the latest data of OECD, 14 to 59% of women in Central Asia are subjected to beatings, sexually abused or […]
In the modern world the idea of “how a wedding should look like” has changed and yet all we want for this day is for it to be perfect and remarkable. It does not matter what your nationality is or where you are from because in any county a bride and groom are extremely excited […]
www.ocamagazine #35 summer 2020 text by Tara Pandeya Dance is an integral part of life in Central Asia; it can be seen both in rural settings and on the proscenium stage, from highly developed virtuosic classical styles to nuanced and subtle folk-dance forms. Western audiences might be surprised to learn that Central Asia has an […]
Every time I have approached the Mountain: from our side, so majestic and eternally snowy, surrounded by fertile lands; from that alienated side, so desperately meager and rocky, with placers of gigantic volcanic stones and ashes, whipped by horses’; hooves into powder, I looked at the top with eyes, by which only a child can […]
Often overlooked by your classic holiday maker, Central Asia has always exercised a powerful fascination over a certain kind of traveler. Home to some of the most ancient cultures and breathtaking landscapes on earth, it is nevertheless only lightly trodden by wanderers and merchants. But traffic on the silk road is once again picking up. […]
WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM OCA#35 SUMMER 2020 text by Marc David Miller For several years I have been out of the Central Asian market. Upon my return in 2019, I saw many changes in the region, changes that are not necessarily good or bad but that investors need to be aware of in order to understand the entire […]
WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM OCA#35 SUMMER 2020 text by Gareth Stamp As the whole world is coming to terms with what is a ‘new world’ post pandemic, the spotlight is falling on the response of countries to the crisis and as of equal importance how they are dealing with economic recovery. At the time of writing (mid May […]
Don’t underestimate the potency of soft power grounded in education and people-to-people contact. Both are the backbone of deepened relationships, and the global community needs to invest in strengthening those ties with the Central Asia region. Soft power is an axiom of international relations and multilateral ties. Within this framework, education and research is a […]
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE NEW ICTM STUDY GROUP The ICTM Study Group on “Music of the Turkic-speaking world” was established in 2006 at the Music Department, SOAS, University of London. This Study Group is dedicated to the practice, documentation, preservation, and dissemination of traditional music and dance as found throughout the wide area of the […]
SAIDMUROD DAVLATOV Business mentor, owner and co-owner of 23 types of businesses, Davlatov has individually trained 292 entrepreneurs and coached 30 US dollar millionaires over the course of five years. The premier of the movie, The Mentor is set to be held in Moscow in 2020. The plot is quite simple and is based on […]
A brief analysis of overseas development assistance to the Central Asian Republics. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, abrupt national independence incited a sharp rise in poverty, inequality, and the disintegration of public services across Central Asia. A multitude of development challenges lay ahead for the five Stans: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and […]
The problem of distorting general history, a departure from the principle of objectivity in compiling history textbooks, and the lack of holistic basic research on the history of culture and science of Central Asia has long been troubling many historians, scholars, scientists and other representatives of the intellectuals. Scientists and historians of the Central Asian […]
The name, Rauza Yeraliyeva, has finally become a true discovery for the fine arts circles of Kazakhstan! It is surprising, perhaps, that the formation of her creative biography began only after an eighty-year threshold. All this time after receiving art education in her distant youth, she did not sit back, wholly devoting herself to her […]
In July & August 2018, two British women Catherine & Hannah, undertook the 2500km drive, unaided, along the Pamir Highway, famously the 2nd highest road on Earth, reaching altitudes of 4500m and coursing through the heart of Central Asia. Their mission: to reach, live with and film the women living along it. During their time […]
Tashkent played host to a prestigious international Kurash tournament in September attracting athletes from across the globe to compete for $100 000 of prize money. Great Britain were represented by Neil Schofield and Paul Sawyer at this event which paid homage to the nation’s first President, the late Islam Karimov, whilst also celebrated the 20th […]
The revitalisation of the Silk Road has been envisioned as a scheme, which would stimulate the free movement of people, goods and services from East Asia to Western Europe via Central Asia. The Central Asian leaders believe that it could stimulate economic growth in the region, the rise of small-and-medium enterprises (SME) and the creation […]
The proliferation of nuclear weapons is undoubtedly an acute problem in international politics today. Currently, there are nine states in possession of nuclear weapons: America, Russia, China, Britain, France, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel; while those capable of manufacturing at short notice are estimated to be around 30. This begs a significant question, indeed: […]
MISS USSR UK is a fascinating show, with the contestants from all the different countries of the former Soviet Union, organised by Russian entrepreneur and founder, Julia Titova. The international beauty pageant MISS USSR UK, now in its sixth successive year, is gaining popularity more and more in London and beyond. After ten finalists competed […]
The artist, Zhurkabayeva Guldana, is on the threshold of her first mature personal exhibition “WAY TO YOURSELF” that will be held at the Museum of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan. This sums up the results of what has been done since her first personal exhibition of 2008. Since then the artist has […]
There are only few people from the East who are unconditionally recognised by Europe. Avicenna takes the first place among these glorious people. Suffice to say that after the invention of a printing press, Avicenna’s Canon of Medicine became the first printed book after the Bible. APPRECIATED GENIUS We mostly know him as an outstanding […]
For the U.S., Central Asia is a place where challenges and opportunities meet. On the one hand, the region is prone to many of the problems the U.S. faces around the world: a resurgent Russia, an emboldened China, and the rise of Islamist extremism. On the other hand, there are many economic opportunities between the […]
“As Columbus once discovered America, today America opens the modern literature of Central Asia” In November 2017, at the 6th OEBF Festival in Stockholm, Tajik writer Gulsifat Shahidi received an honorary award. “For her personal contribution to the unification of the peoples of Eurasia through literature.” The attention of the guests of the festival was […]
It was March, and a whole neighbourhood on the outskirts of Almaty, Kazakhstan’s biggest city and former capital, was once again preparing for the spring festival of New Year. Men were handling outdoor tasks while women were chopping carrots for pilaf, the main dish of their Zoroastrian New Year celebration – Nowruz. The men and […]
Many people all over the world, including Turkmens, consider bread an essential and irreplaceable part of the diet. Bread contains numerous nutrients and useful bioactive substances, and many will regard a meal, whether ordinary, everyday fare or a festive dinner with sophisticated dishes and delicacies, as incomplete without bread. No wonder the proverbs state “no […]
INTERVIEW WITH Bolot Shamshiev Few will know much about the cinema in Kyrgyzstan. What currently hampers its development is never aired and never makes the top priority list of state and international organizations. But there is a cinema to note and so Open Central Asia decided to meet one of its prominent players, the People’s […]
Motto: “World without national or government borders! We are one! We are a single field!” The Photo project, “On the Great Silk Road”, is a showcase of diverse eastern women living in Kazakhstan. This manifold is shown as a gallery of feminine types through images in eastern outfits. These are stylized eastern images of modern […]
The site of a Silk Road oasis laid waste by the Mongols, the modern history of Almaty began with the construction of a Russian piedmont fort in 1854, around which a minor provincial centre grew. Upon hearing that Trotsky had been exiled to Alma-Ata in 1928, one of his enemies quipped that ‘even if he […]
The quest for international recognition drives many emerging markets. Kazakhstan has undoubtedly been better at it than many. The country has spent great effort and money building up an image as a modern state whose leaders can sit at the top table with world leaders. This effort at branding has been driven by the Kazakh […]
China’s gargantuan Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-century Maritime Silk Road initiative, ‘One Belt, One Road’ for short, promises much. President Xi Jinping has hailed its proposed super-grid of rail track, oil and gas pipelines, superhighways and shipping facilities as this century’s economic game-changer, a project that will bring about ‘a new type of […]
On 23 May 1851, the English explorer Thomas Witlam Atkinson, along with his wife Lucy and two-year-old son Alatau – along with several Cossacks and Buryat guides – set out from Irkutsk in Eastern Siberia on a journey that would take them to some of the remotest and wildest places in the world. Their first […]
On August 1st 1991, Marzia Zakiryanova’s life had been split in two through a single twist of fate which left this mother of two small children disabled. Narrating her tale of self-conquest, the author speaks about how she managed to hold her family together and win the respect and recognition of people around her. By […]
Sara Ishanturaeva was a renowned theatre and film actress, People’s Artist of the USSR and icon of dramatic art in Soviet Uzbekistan. Along with holding an extensive resume of outstanding roles in plays such as Ostrovskii’s Thunderstorm and Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Othello, Sara was also the deputy to the 2nd, 3rd and 4th convocations of […]
Kyrgyzstan may be better known for its welcoming people and spectacular nomadic mountain scenery if it is known at all, however there is no shortage of talent emerging from this small Central Asian country. Open Central Asia speaks to a young and upcoming talented musician from the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, to follow the story of […]
OCA #22 SUMMER 2016 WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM OCA: Kamal, please briefly tell us about yourself and your film making. Kamal Hasanov: I was born and raised in Azerbaijan, in Baku but I received my higher education in America. After returning, I began to work at the Central Bank of Azerbaijan and after four years working as a […]
OCA #22 SUMMER 2016 WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM DRAWING PARALLELS BETWEEN JIHAD AND TERRORISM The role of a human’s life is central in the purest religion of Islam. God created male and female in the finest manner whether to their physical, moral or spiritual qualities (At-Tin 95 / 4-5). Human as the most wonderful creation of the Almighty […]
OCA #22 SUMMER 2016 WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM In the modern world one of largest scale initiatives is abruptly changing the face of the world, forming a new paradigm of economic and geo-strategic development and is revitalizing a zone of the Silk Road by land and sea. The project has been named “One Belt One Way.” The intention […]
OCA #22 SUMMER 2016 WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the proclaimed independence from it by the republics of Central Asia, the region has had a hard time intergrating its past into its future. A region that was once on the crossroads of great empires, from Alexander the Great’s invasion of Bactria […]
OCA #21 SPRING 2016 WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM The Silk Road was a “highway”, which ancient China used to reach other realms in order to trade. Nomad and Mongol hordes rode and reached Europe. Central Asian Emperors developed a military and intellectual nest from where science, mathematics, philosophy and medicine “travelled” and enlightened the medieval world. Tribal warlords […]
OCA #21 SPRING 2016 WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM For the fourth year running, the international literary festival and forum “Open Eurasia and Central Asia Book Forum & Literature Festival – 2015”, organised by the publishing house “Hertfordshire Press” together with the Yunus Emre Institute London Turkish Cultural Centre and “ORZU Arts” theatre was held from 6th to 9th […]
OCA #21 SPRING 2016 WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM A personal reflection by David Parry Words are not as they seem. They neither yield to linguistic analysis, nor allow an uninitiated mind to unravel their secrets. A staggering fact haunting Tamburlaine the Great (died 1405), ultimately frustrating Abai (1845-1904), although stimulating my colleague Sultan Raev (born 1958) in his […]
OCA #21 SPRING 2016 WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM He who drives along the motorway from Russia into Belarus or vice versa will see no control posts either for cargo, vehicles or persons at the border. Further southeast, control posts between Russia and Kazakhstan are at an advanced stage of being dismantled. Together with Kyrgyzstan and Armenia, they make […]
OCA #21 SPRING 2015 WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM Text by Christopher Schwartz Photo: Umida Ahmedova It is no secret that at present there is growing discomfort with Western influence throughout Central Asia. One can encounter it from elite and everyman alike. From a Western perspective, it is easy and tempting to attribute the emerging difficulties to various cynical […]
