Kyrgyzstan: between Russia and Turkey
The conflict between Russia and Turkey, the Air Forces of which shot down Russian Su-24M, significantly heated up already tense international situation. These events demonstrated once again that in an age of globalization, the states, located seemingly far from the places of confrontation of big powers, are also experiencing unrest and political discomfort. In the modern era, the countries are linked by numerous threads of interstate, allied, humanitarian and economic relations and are responsive to any of their tensions.
If we talk about Kyrgyzstan, the country is a member of several international organizations - SCO, EEU and CSTO which can not remain indifferent to the developments around the Russian-Turkish conflict. Legally Kyrgyzstan is a strategic, military and political ally of the Russian Federation. At the same time, our country has strong ties with Turkey - especially within the Turkic Speaking States community. What Kyrgyzstan has to do in this difficult situation? The more so, the tension between Russia and Turkey is gaining steam.
Let's look at the background of the conflict. According to many experts, the attitude of Turkey to the activities of the so-called "Islamic State" is very contradictory. On the one hand, Turkey is a member of the coalition of countries, involved in the fight against ISIL. On the other - it does not welcome the activities of the Kurdish armed groups actively fighting against ISIL. It is necessary to outline the following serious reasons that worried Russia long before the destruction of Su-24M warplane. This is the fact that the main flow of ISIL militants, recruited in Russia and the former Soviet republics, penetrates into Iraq and Syria through Turkey, which is, in fact, is the gateway to ISIL. We are talking about thousands of fighters. According to different estimates, about 500 people have left for the war zone just from Kyrgyzstan.
In connection with the situation in the international arena, Kyrgyzstan as a sovereign state should seriously consider the challenges and really estimate the relations with the countries that are in conflict.
Certainly, Kyrgyzstan, conducting a multi-vector policy, receives an economic, military, humanitarian assistance from many countries - Russia, China, Japan, Turkey and the United States. It should be noted that each of the countries differs in the nature of assistance provided.
If Russia and China are funding many projects, assisting in the construction of energy facilities, development of transport infrastructure, Turkey is investing in trade and finance spheres. Kyrgyzstan has a large Turkish bank, modern supermarkets; a lot of shops also belong to Turkish citizens. And if industrial facilities and roads, I suppose, bring income to the state, the stores generate income to their owners. Trade profit by Turkish businessmen leaves our country in huge amounts. We also gain something - in the form of taxes, but this is miserable quantity compared to the basic income. Maybe the public authorities of Kyrgyzstan have to think about the structure of the obtained help?
Another component of the Turkish aid is an active part in personnel training. There were created and are successfully functioning Manas and Atatürk Ala-Too Universities, a network of Sebat schools in Kyrgyzstan. They, no doubt, make a significant contribution to personnel training, but the Soviet school was also one of the best in the world, and we still remain competitive in the field of education.
Russia, the United States and China also help with training of highly qualified specialists. The Kyrgyz-Russian (Slavic) University, the American University of Central Asia, the Confucius Institute are popular in the republic. We should be grateful for this assistance. But there is one more thing which, in my opinion, we should pay special attention at. It is related to the current international situation, trends in education in countries where the state religion is Islam.
According to certain experts, in recent years Turkey has a tendency for the Islamization of educational institutions. And evaluation of these processes is dubious, there is a confrontation of ideas in the society.
Kyrgyzstanis should be worried by a possible impact of these trends on the educational institutions, created with Turkey assistance. Otherwise, we will get a substantial segment of society, which will be significantly different from ours, these people will deny the traditions of the nationally oriented education.
Kyrgyz citizens should appreciate the spiritual values of the people, developed by the ancestors. The state is obliged to take effective measures on deideologization of educational institutions, educational activities in which are carried out by foreigners. At the moment, we have no such control. Education of our children is entrusted to the strangers. Has anyone checked their party affiliation, ideological commitment? I know a case when a head of a quite secular educational institution, the former communist-atheist, turned into a fanatical believer. And what can we say about the fragile souls of children?
We can get the fifth column of international extremist organizations, become a testing ground for confrontation of different ideological systems, different civilizations and cultures. This all is more important taking into account that Kyrgyzstan is a young country, it, unfortunately, has no clear national ideology. The ideas of liberal democracy, proclaimed in the country, allow coexistence as of narrow-minded nationalist psychology, religious extremism so the vulgar Western morality in form of sexual minorities' activity, perversely understood ideas of human rights and others.
Therefore, we have to hope for benevolence of fate, wisdom of the people and their leaders in maintenance of peace and public harmony in the country in this difficult time - the time of choice.