Post by gamedave on Aug 12, 2010 9:09:26 GMT -5
KHAZARISTAN COUNTRY BRIEFING
Khazaristan is a Central Asian republic of approximately 15 million people, dominated by wind-swept grasslands and rocky desert. It is a former Soviet Socialist Republic which gained its independence in 1991 with the dissolution of the USSR. Its population is about 60% Kharzari, with the rest distributed roughly evenly between Russian, Kazakh, and Uzbeks, and a smattering of other minorities. It has significant oil and mineral resources, but it perhaps better known for its eccentric leader, Shokan Kuribayev.
The Khazaris are a Turko-Mongol people with a complex and somewhat obscure history. The Khazar language is in the Turkic family, but has borrowed many vocabulary and grammar elements from Mongolian. The Khazari culture is in many ways a fusion of Turkish and Mongolian elements, overlaid with "modern" elements, such as an almost superstitious awe of heavy industry, added during the Soviet era. While the Khazaris have traditionally been nomads, modern Khazaris are almost entirely urbanized. Khazari religion is a distinctive blend of Tengri shamanism, Sufi Islam, Telugba Buddhism, and a unique form of Judaism.
There is no record of the Khazaris before the emergence of the Khazar Empire in the seventh century AD. Prior to that, they were presumably a nomadic Turkic tribe (the name Khazar is believed to be derived from the Turkic root "kaz", "to wander"). The Khazar Empire ruled much of Central Asia until the tenth century AD, when it was overrun and dissolved by successive invasions by Mongols, Huns, and other Turkic tribes. The Khazaris were most notable during this period for converting en mass to Judaism, a historical event still shrouded in obscurity and controversy.
With the dissolution of their empire, the Khazaris largely disappeared from history, becoming a "submerged" people, absorbed by neighboring groups, such as the Mongols, Kazakhs, Turks, and Uzbeks. They would not re-emerge as a people until the twentieth century.
In the early days of the USSR, as the Soviets reconquered and reabsorbed the czarist-era conquests in Central Asia, they continued the czarist policy of shoring up their control by playing local groups against each other. To that end, they established the Khazar SSR, and reconstituted the Khazaris as a national group. By this point, few Central Asians actually still considered themselves distinctly Khazar, so the Soviets more or less manufactured a new national identity for them.
The Soviets viewed the Khazaris as less Islamic, militant, and nationalistic, and therefore less threatening, than other, more numerous Central Asian peoples, such as the Kazakhs, Turkmanis, and Uzbeks. They thus alternated between encouraging Khazari national identity and suppressing it to forge the Khazaris into the mold of the "new Soviet man". This added an additional layer of complexity and confusion to an already polyglot people, fomenting a sort of ongoing national identity crisis, which continues in many forms to this day.
During the Soviet era, Khazaristan, like most of Soviet Central Asia, was exploited for its oil and mineral resources, but otherwise mostly left underdeveloped. The Soviets also established one of their notorious "science cities" in the remote Khazari desert.
When the USSR collapsed in 1991, the director of Soviet Science City 9, Shokan Kuribayev, seized the chance. In all the chaos and confusion, with the Khazari Communist Party authorities badly divided and ineffectual, Kuribayev unilaterally announced Khazaristan's independence, and used the personal loyalty of the former Soviet guard units assigned to his city to seize power. He has remained the undisputed leader of the new Republic of Khazaristan ever since.
During his tenure, Kuribayev has attempted a crash course of modernization that would be considered reckless even by Soviet standards. He has ruthlessly exploited the oil and mineral, and human, resources of his country to fund massive industrialization projects. While his policies have created a significant industrial base almost from scratch, they have also ecologically devastated Khazaristan. In addition, while Khazaristan now has the greatest heavy industrial capacity in Central Asia, Khazari industry is largely uncompetitive on the world markets, making it more of a drain on the economy than a boon.
Kuribayev himself has grown increasingly eccentric during his time in power, even by the standards of Central Asian former SSRs. His "modernization" schemes have included renaming months of the calendar after himself and other family members, creating new words in the Kazakh language based on his and his mother's names, and erecting an enormous golden statue of himself in the central square of the capital city, mounted on a computer-controlled turntable so that it always faces the sun.
In his lengthy public addresses (which by law all Khazaris must watch), he has made a number of odd pronouncements. He claims to be a direct descendant of Suleiman the Magnificent, Genghis Khan, and (through the latter), Alexander the Great. He has further asserted that this makes him the rightful ruler of the lands of the former Ottoman, Mongolian, and Macedonian Empires, although he has magnanimously not pressed these legal claims - yet. He has also claimed that during his time at Soviet Science City 9, he invented the internet, the original version of the iPod, and the original version of the Napster website (which he seems oddly convinced is a major and influential internet power to this day). He has lately been given to styling himself "Shokan Khan", in the manner of medieval Central Asian rulers, in addition to his formal titles of President-for-Life, Chairman of the Khazar Council of Ministers, Great Leader of the Khazar People, and Chief Scientist of Khazaristan.
Suspected Khazari government agents have also been implicated in a number of attempts at industrial espionage abroad, and in attempts to smuggle illegal technology into Khazaristan. Khazaristan is widely believed to have illegal biological, chemical, nuclear, and meta-human weapons programs, although no serious violations of international law have ever been proven. Even so, Khazaristan has been put under several economic sanctions by the UN, and even stricter and more numerous sanctions by the United
States and the European Union.
Today, Khazaristan is an isolated, totalitarian dictatorship facing impending environmental and economic crises.
Khazaristan is a Central Asian republic of approximately 15 million people, dominated by wind-swept grasslands and rocky desert. It is a former Soviet Socialist Republic which gained its independence in 1991 with the dissolution of the USSR. Its population is about 60% Kharzari, with the rest distributed roughly evenly between Russian, Kazakh, and Uzbeks, and a smattering of other minorities. It has significant oil and mineral resources, but it perhaps better known for its eccentric leader, Shokan Kuribayev.
The Khazaris are a Turko-Mongol people with a complex and somewhat obscure history. The Khazar language is in the Turkic family, but has borrowed many vocabulary and grammar elements from Mongolian. The Khazari culture is in many ways a fusion of Turkish and Mongolian elements, overlaid with "modern" elements, such as an almost superstitious awe of heavy industry, added during the Soviet era. While the Khazaris have traditionally been nomads, modern Khazaris are almost entirely urbanized. Khazari religion is a distinctive blend of Tengri shamanism, Sufi Islam, Telugba Buddhism, and a unique form of Judaism.
There is no record of the Khazaris before the emergence of the Khazar Empire in the seventh century AD. Prior to that, they were presumably a nomadic Turkic tribe (the name Khazar is believed to be derived from the Turkic root "kaz", "to wander"). The Khazar Empire ruled much of Central Asia until the tenth century AD, when it was overrun and dissolved by successive invasions by Mongols, Huns, and other Turkic tribes. The Khazaris were most notable during this period for converting en mass to Judaism, a historical event still shrouded in obscurity and controversy.
With the dissolution of their empire, the Khazaris largely disappeared from history, becoming a "submerged" people, absorbed by neighboring groups, such as the Mongols, Kazakhs, Turks, and Uzbeks. They would not re-emerge as a people until the twentieth century.
In the early days of the USSR, as the Soviets reconquered and reabsorbed the czarist-era conquests in Central Asia, they continued the czarist policy of shoring up their control by playing local groups against each other. To that end, they established the Khazar SSR, and reconstituted the Khazaris as a national group. By this point, few Central Asians actually still considered themselves distinctly Khazar, so the Soviets more or less manufactured a new national identity for them.
The Soviets viewed the Khazaris as less Islamic, militant, and nationalistic, and therefore less threatening, than other, more numerous Central Asian peoples, such as the Kazakhs, Turkmanis, and Uzbeks. They thus alternated between encouraging Khazari national identity and suppressing it to forge the Khazaris into the mold of the "new Soviet man". This added an additional layer of complexity and confusion to an already polyglot people, fomenting a sort of ongoing national identity crisis, which continues in many forms to this day.
During the Soviet era, Khazaristan, like most of Soviet Central Asia, was exploited for its oil and mineral resources, but otherwise mostly left underdeveloped. The Soviets also established one of their notorious "science cities" in the remote Khazari desert.
When the USSR collapsed in 1991, the director of Soviet Science City 9, Shokan Kuribayev, seized the chance. In all the chaos and confusion, with the Khazari Communist Party authorities badly divided and ineffectual, Kuribayev unilaterally announced Khazaristan's independence, and used the personal loyalty of the former Soviet guard units assigned to his city to seize power. He has remained the undisputed leader of the new Republic of Khazaristan ever since.
During his tenure, Kuribayev has attempted a crash course of modernization that would be considered reckless even by Soviet standards. He has ruthlessly exploited the oil and mineral, and human, resources of his country to fund massive industrialization projects. While his policies have created a significant industrial base almost from scratch, they have also ecologically devastated Khazaristan. In addition, while Khazaristan now has the greatest heavy industrial capacity in Central Asia, Khazari industry is largely uncompetitive on the world markets, making it more of a drain on the economy than a boon.
Kuribayev himself has grown increasingly eccentric during his time in power, even by the standards of Central Asian former SSRs. His "modernization" schemes have included renaming months of the calendar after himself and other family members, creating new words in the Kazakh language based on his and his mother's names, and erecting an enormous golden statue of himself in the central square of the capital city, mounted on a computer-controlled turntable so that it always faces the sun.
In his lengthy public addresses (which by law all Khazaris must watch), he has made a number of odd pronouncements. He claims to be a direct descendant of Suleiman the Magnificent, Genghis Khan, and (through the latter), Alexander the Great. He has further asserted that this makes him the rightful ruler of the lands of the former Ottoman, Mongolian, and Macedonian Empires, although he has magnanimously not pressed these legal claims - yet. He has also claimed that during his time at Soviet Science City 9, he invented the internet, the original version of the iPod, and the original version of the Napster website (which he seems oddly convinced is a major and influential internet power to this day). He has lately been given to styling himself "Shokan Khan", in the manner of medieval Central Asian rulers, in addition to his formal titles of President-for-Life, Chairman of the Khazar Council of Ministers, Great Leader of the Khazar People, and Chief Scientist of Khazaristan.
Suspected Khazari government agents have also been implicated in a number of attempts at industrial espionage abroad, and in attempts to smuggle illegal technology into Khazaristan. Khazaristan is widely believed to have illegal biological, chemical, nuclear, and meta-human weapons programs, although no serious violations of international law have ever been proven. Even so, Khazaristan has been put under several economic sanctions by the UN, and even stricter and more numerous sanctions by the United
States and the European Union.
Today, Khazaristan is an isolated, totalitarian dictatorship facing impending environmental and economic crises.