Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 16 / Trend V.Zhavoronkova /
The Kyrgyz government is sufficiently repressing all manifestations of nationalism in the country, Kyrgyz political scientist Orozbek Moldaliyev said.
Media reports frequently mention existence of manifestations of ethnic hatred in Kyrgyzstan. For instance, the Kyrgyz Presidential National Commission on state language proposed last week to conduct a large-scale renaming of localities that have Russian names.
Moldaliyev said a wave of nationalism arose in real in Kyrgyzstan following the last year events.
The June clashes between ethnic Uzbeks and Kyrgyz left more than 400 people dead and caused widespread damage in the south of Kyrgyzstan. Riots occurred on the backdrop of political crisis following the overthrow of former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev in April.
Moldaliyev believes the fact that a number of settlements in Kyrgyzstan were once called with the Russian names is a natural phenomenon, because that time the territory was controlled by the Cossacks, who named the settlements "on their own way".
However, now the population of these administrative units must itself decide whether it is necessary to rename them, he added.
"The residents of these areas must themselves take a decision on renaming, and determine whether there is generally a need for this now or whether the old names interfere," Moldaliyev told Trend over telephone from Bishkek.
He said one cannot say that all the Kyrgyz people is "for" this proposal: many are against this and want to keep the old names as a history. The issue is under discussion and no one has renamed anything for now.
The government, Moldaliyev said, prevents such manifestations of nationalism in the country.
"The Kyrgyz Presidential National Commission Chairman, who was the initiator of renaming, has been dismissed from his post. This gives ground to say that the Government did not share such campaigns," Moldaliyev said.
