Links on Central Eurasia

News

Eurasia Research Center maintains links to news services for the Baltic republics, Hungary, Turkic regions of the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union, and Turkey.

The Center for Political and Strategic Studies (formerly the Center for Post-Soviet Studies) provides news and analysis, much of it on Turkic nationalities in the former Soviet Union.

News about all Eurasia, from the edge of Europe to Mongolia.

World Uyghur Network News with news sorted by date for the last two years. This group also maintains an email news list. For a subscription, contact Rakhim Aitbayev.

This is a commercial homepage of the Karavan newspaper with some information on its activities and a lot of graphics. It is possible to read the newspaper in Russian if your browser and computer are capable.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Presentation on Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan This six-part report on the RFE/RL Web site details how much has changed since the collapse of the USSR -- and how much has not.

Tajikistan Update - News and information updated daily about Central Asia and the Caucasus, many from periodicals.

The Institute for War and Peace has a web-based report site with a variety of information about Eurasia. Many of the reports are written in Russian however, so this site will have limited utility for the English-speaking world.

The BBC has started Internet broadcasts of programs in Central Asian languages. You can listen to us in Uzbek (30 minutes daily), Kazakh (30 minutes daily), Kyrgyz (30 minutes daily), Azeri (60 minutes daily), Russian, Turkish, and Persian. Some sites also have news in English as well. This is an interesting way to listen to how the languages sound as spoken by native speakers.

General Information

Interactive Central Asia Resource Project maintains a list of links to high-quality Web resources.

A virtual library on the Caucuses, edited by Dr T. Matthew Ciolek.

Information on Central Asia links to history, culture, and other topics based on papers by Mark Dickens. This site provides a great deal of basic information and photographs.

The United States Information Service maintains websites on the following republics: Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, but not any of the others. These are maintained by the information offices of the various local embassies, and include things like email addresses of local information officers (a great way to get local information over email) as well as pages with basic information.

A site of political links for all of Asia.

Civil Society, which hosts "CivilSoc", a listserve, provides links to a variety of sources on building civil society throughout Eurasia. Includes links to funding sources as well as basic information.

The Eurasia Foundation, a privately managed, nonprofit organization, helps to advance democratic institutions in Central Asia. This site has information about some of the projects the organization has funded.

The Central Asian Media Support Project, although it has only produced two numbers in the past year, has some very interesting perspectives on media (and its freedom) in the region.

Carrie, an electronic library at the University of Kansas, has an archive of material on the former Soviet Union.

Waugh's Central Asia is a site with many illustrations and informational pieces about the region.

Middle East and Islamic World Filmography, 1997, provides a list of films and videos that are available for rental through the University of North Carolina. Included in this collection are a large number of films which are of historical significance, providing travel footage through the region in the 1980's. Although it would be more useful with a subject index, paging through the descriptions (or using "find" on your browser) make seredipity wonderful.

Geography - Physical (including maps)

ERIN Environment and Natural Resource Information Network has abundant links about the environment for Central and Eastern Europe as well as the former Soviet Union.

Interactive Central Asia Resource Project (ICARP) Links to many high-quality sites on Central Asia. See especially Earthlinks which lets you zoom in on any part of the planet.

Globalearn, reports on an expedition from Italy to Hong Kong, designed for school children. A delightful, interactive site.

Ecostan News, actually an on-line magazine, provides a wealth of links and recent information in a downloadable (PDF) form. Students will find this an excellent resource for doing projects. You can also download Central Asian Compliance Monitor and International Law at this site.

Central Asia: Environment, Economy and History, by Mike Thurman, includes two articles on the Aral Sea and one on nomads. The "graphics intensive" version contains many photographs of the region.

Central Asian Database, a site with a wealth of meteorological information, including information about glaciers. Much of the information is provided through maps. You can also look at The Weather Channel's Central Asian weather map, but you'll need to know your geography, as there's no labels.

World Glacier Inventory’s Central Asian section, can provide a wealth of data on various glaciers of the region, but unfortunately without maps. Good place to check if you want numbers.

The National (US) Earthquake Information Center’s map of seismic activity in Central Eurasia. You can also check a list of recent earthquakes around the world.

This site has no photographs, only text, and rather alarmist text at that, but it demonstrates the risks and results of earthquakes in the region. This is a short article about a lake created by an earthquake creating a natural dam, and present-day worries about what will happen when the next earthquake strikes. The article makes much of the number of people living along the banks of the Amu river, which is true, but a major river of this size also has considerable capacity for coping with flooding, like one might expect along the Mississippi or Hudson rivers.

Historical map of East Turkistan in the Nineteenth Century. From D.C. Boulger, The Life of Yakoob Beg, 1878.

Maps of the republics of the former Soviet Union from the University of Texas. Some republics have political and geographic maps.

Maps of Central Asia and beyond, with the opportunity to download to your own computer the ones you’d like to keep.

This Earth From Space "search engine" will let you select parts of the globe that the Landsat satellite has photographed. There are many of Central and Inner Eurasia, taken in different times of the year, mostly of bodies of water, so that students can see for themselves whether the lakes and seas of the region are drying up or not. You can also see images of just the Aral Sea, along with a map, from 1964-1997, or the Kara-Bogaz-Gul, on the Caspian Sea.

The Aral Sea Home Page has many maps and LandSat images.

Geography - Human

Turkic Republics and Communities, a list of web sites, sorted by (more or less) ethnicity, for Turkic peoples all over the world.

SOTA Turkish World Foundation for Research of Turkestan, Azerbaijan, the Crimea, Caucasus, and Siberia, directed by Mehmet Tutuncu. This is a pan-Turkic presentation of ideas about the Turkic parts of the former Soviet Union.

The Forced Migration Listserve has a web-based viewer, to see discussions on various forced migrations throughout the world.

History

Tarim Basin Mummies based on the PBS special has information about the mummies that were found.

An Abridged History of Central Asia is a web-based text on the region. Very general, it won't have enough information for more than the curious.

The Great Game, a site with information about the British push north in the nineteenth century.

Religion

Islamic Nations and Their Neighbors on the Information Superhighway a huge list of links in alphabetical order concerning Islamic regions of Eurasia, the Middle East and Africa.

Course web site for "Religious Architecture and Islamic Cultures" at MIT. A Wonderful site for anyone interested in religious architecture, although it does not deal specifically with Eurasia.

Shamanic Dimensions Network, an online project of the Center for Shamanism and Consciousness Studies. Although it sounds like a New Age group, this site provides resources like a bibliography that will be useful for finding specific information.

About.com's packets of information about Islam in Uzbekistan, wrapped in a package of advertising.

"Naqshbandi: Sufi Way" is a site with information about (in theory) the Naqshbandiyya. This should not be confused with academic information on the Naqshbandiyya, however. [For more on that, check my bibliography.]

Culture

The Silk Road Foundation provides many links about Central Asia, East Turkestan and northwest China. It is especially strong on culture.

Symmetry and Pattern: The Art of Oriental Carpets is an exceptionally good site, with a gallery and activities for students.

Turkish Book Arts, a site that contains articles (with limited illustration) on making books in Turkey. Since manuscript-making was similar all over the Islamic world, this might have broader interest.

Flowers of Silk and Gold, an on-line exihibition of Ottoman textile arts. The Textile Museum's base site ay also be of interest, with links to a working bibliography of sources.

The Republic of Turkey has a web site, but be forewarned, it loads very slowly, even on a fast connection.

Language lessons are available on the web free of charge in Uzbek, Turkmen, Kazakh and Azeri. The lessons include sound and video, and give you a chance to download fonts if needed.

Language Law s in Central Asian republics.

David Aronow's trip to Uzbekistan, June 1997. This includes a few photographs showing clothing.

Individual Republics

Human Rights in Turkestan is a site that largely applies to Uzbekistan. It contains comments by Muhammad Salih, one of the opponents of the present government of Uzbekistan.

The Government of Uzbekistan's official web site. There is also a site for the information center of the office of the president of Uzbekistan. It may not work well in English, but the Uzbek- and Russian-language pages contain lists of contact information, including email addresses, which are in English.

Tashkent has its own web site, with links for weather and email addresses for a wide variety of people. Although the base page is rather limited, an interior page, "Uzland Contacts" is a very complete guide to Uzbekistan, particularly for tourists, but students will find the information, written with a Westerner in mind, interesting as well.

Cyber Uzbekistan, news and business information, including basics like information about the phone number changes.

The Interactive Central Asian Resource Project maintains links organized into various categories for Uzbekistan. Worth checking out if you have time to explore links.

Uzbekistan Resources, maintained by the Soros Foundation.

Uzbekistan Travel Guide, InfoHub's collection of travel-related resources.

David Aronow's trip to Uzbekistan, June 1997. This includes a few photographs showing clothing.

Information on Uzbekistan, from Uzbekistan.

Environmental Information Systems in Uzbekistan, provides text about the environment. Dated 1996.

About.com's packets of information about Islam in Uzbekistan, wrapped in a package of advertising

Information on periodicals available on-line

Central Asia Monitor bi-monthly scholarly journal. On-line supplement includes tables of contents.

The Donald W. Treadgold Papers In Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies. This gives a list of titles with excepts.

Central Asian Survey provides a site with basic information about the widely read periodical.

The Journal of Early Modern History has a web site with tables of contents for the last few years. Coverage includes a wide variety of regions.

Caspian Crossroads Magazine contains articles by scholars on Central Asia and the Caucasus.

Central Asia / Caucasus Analyst, a web-based periodical on the region, provides up-to-date political information.

The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars has a number of "news" items, each with interesting links, however, now good way to see what's available. Currently (June 2000), the "index" list (without descriptions) can be used; hopefully they will create a real index page. Also note the subdirectory "speeches".

Ecostan News, an on-line magazine, provides a wealth of links and recent information in a downloadable (PDF) form. You can also download Central Asian Compliance Monitor and International Law at this site.

The Electronic Journal of Oriental Studies focuses on the Arabic, Persian and Turkic worlds.

Transitions Online, a web-journal focused on changes in post-Communist societies, usually has at least some information on Eurasia. Includes a "week in review" section.

International Eurasian Institute for Economic and Political Research's web site contains many articles about the region, largely from a political perspective. This provides access to works not necessarily available in English or on the web.

Academic Resources

British Library Manuscript Catalogue

The ARIT home page and catalogue.

Asia Experts, a site that provides an "experts" database on a wide variety of regions and specialties. Most entries provide references to articles and web sites, and students may find contacting foreign professors exciting.