Word: kirghiz
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Aleksei Levshin, a 19th-century Russian traveler, wrote sneeringly that the "Kirghiz manner of life is a living picture of the age of the Patriarchs... they live almost solely for their herds." Heavy-handed Tsarist and eventually Soviet rule saw the migration of a significant population of Russians as well as the dilution of Kyrgyz culture. New tree-lined urban centers like Bishkek as well as spas along the land's salt lakes became popular destinations for Russians escaping the industrial grimness further north. As in elsewhere in Central Asia, Cyrillic is the adopted script and vodka shops abound...
...deaths of two officers in the Soviet army, 30 soldiers from the Armenian side and three civilians. Several weeks ago, violent battles erupted between local militias and the army in the Central Asian republic of Kirghizia, where Soviet soldiers are trying to end fighting between ethnic Uzbeks and Kirghiz...
Dudly-Rowley says the shortage of private land in Alaska might make finding a home for the Kirghiz difficult. The bulk of it, she says, is owned by--or under the control of--the federal and state governments and the native corporations. But she adds that the state's new landage laws probably won't leave the state closed to the Kirghiz...
...publicity the Kirghiz have received has brought in money. Along with unsolicited donations from Americans who have heard of their plight, the Kirghiz benefit from the approximately $500,000 the International Rescue Commission earmarks each year for Afghan refugees in Pakistan. The committee has also helped out with the lobbying the Kirghiz desperately need to get to America. The Ford and Tolstoy Foundations and the Young Mens Christian Association have also expressed an interest in helping the Kirghiz. But all who are working on the project agree that it is difficult to find funds...
...State Department, which has come off as something of a cretin in this whole affair, is limited to what it can do by law. Murphy, with the State Department Pakistan desk, says the case of the Kirghiz has been "flopping around for about two years because of a lack of focus to it." He adds that he was "delighted" that the Institute for Alaskan Studies had taken up the Kirghiz cause. But the department, Murphy says, is a bureaucracy, and as such does not have the means to help beyond the processing the papers...