Knowledge and Creativity in building new international affaires in Central Asia

Nargis Nurullo-Khoja (Technological University Dushanbe, Tajikistan) [BIO]

Email: nargis.nurullokhoja@undp.org

 

ABSTRACT:

What do we understand under the trendy expression creativity in building new relations of diversity of cultures in Central Asia? Is it possible with the dominating policy of marketing of the world to be aspirated by the idea unifying Central Asia, preserving originality and richness of each nominated culture? One can get ring responds under condition of excepting multiculturity as a tool for strengthening of cultures in Central Asia and asking about cultural unity of all five independent states of the region.

We have to be proud of our cultural diversity. But nowadays each of Central Asian state hide from each other, trying to protect ourselves by declarations on “uniqueness” and “historical significance”: If you read the recently published texts about the history of Central Asia, you will see that every nation tries to introduce itself separately to the rest of the world, they talk about Tajik’s, Uzbek’s etc. re-reading history, framed by their own ‘national’ vision. But I think, these ‘innovations’ are some how inspired by the old and oudious concept of European researchers.

Most of European authors associate the history of this region with world-famous invaders like “Chingiskhan” and “Timur” (unfortunately Avisenna or Jalal-ad-din Rumi are rarely observed). The Europeans remember of Eastern wildness when they hear the name Samarghand. In the 19th century powerful imperial of Great Britain and not less powerful state Russia were competing with each other about the control of Central Asia. Kipling called this rivalry the Big Game, which is used by many writers and researchers of modern time.

We are proud that we have diverse cultures. But the greatest advantage of the regional history manifests the shared intellectual potential. It was shared during the soviet times also and preserved our national/regional identity. Paradoxically, we are loosing that capacity now, with our Independence time.

The recent meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in August 2007 showed again, how important it is that the countries of Central Asia solve their problems among themselves. Many commentators try to study the SCO’s introductive discussions about the new distribution of regional powers. One consequence of it is that the problems between Russia and China will be tightened, whose goal are competition for more influence in Central Asia. Russia tries to politicize the SCO and suggest the political and strategic issues like political unity and war against terrorism as the most important issue of the organization. The summit took place parallel to an anti terrorism joint military exercise “Peace Mission 2007” which was typical demonstration of military wealth.

The same commentators like the president of the national strategic institute Mikhael Ramizov states that “Central Asian still not actively participate in great games around SCO, and Chinese and Russian’s interests. They are still too weak”. But here we have to remind our politicians and our neighbors that Central Asia and its power was once dependent of our unity and cooperation. We can maintain our strategic interests in SCO, when we remember how we can stand up to Russia and China.

When the geography of SCO extends, not only the old strategic partners will be associated, but also new partners like India, Pakistan, and Iran etc will be attracted. For membership in SCO the Middle East and Southeast Asia are also seeking now. Being in the cross roads geographically and socially mean for Central Asia way of adopting new ideas and trends. Although our colonial experience still make pressure, it worth it any way to try to break our restrictions and it is only possible, if we care about the regional interests more than our own countries. By this stile we will be able to remind the world how powerful union of Central Asian people was (what was called Turkish/Persians synthesis before).

Discussions about the future of Central Asia are growing fastly. Our region can re-evaluate its own historical mission to be a lively bridge between East and West. One more time the solution can be the classic European scenario of unity of the stats. Europe could go the same way like we want to go but they found the European Union, which unite the 28 states until now. What is the difference between European mentality and ours? If we ask now (we should ask!) if the region can be independent in choosing its way of progress, we have to say directly “yes” but we have to keep the balance between diversity and unity. We can begin with this in Shanghai Cooperation Organization!