PSCRP-BESA Reports No 34 (February 9, 2024)
The countries of Central Asia cooperate closely with Israel, primarily in the economic sphere. Following the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, all Central Asian countries issued statements expressing “concern” about the escalation around the Gaza Strip. At the United Nations, the Central Asian countries, albeit cautiously, joined the majority that did not support Israel. Turkmenistan was an exception, maintaining an official status of “positive neutrality.” Therefore, Ashgabat strives not to participate in any form in existing global conflicts and refrains from supporting any military blocs or groups. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan voted in favor of a UN resolution calling for a humanitarian ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which was adopted on October 27. Turkmenistan did not participate in the vote. On December 12, Central Asian countries (except Turkmenistan yet again) supported a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip for humanitarian purposes. Israel’s representative at the UN deemed this resolution hypocritical as it did not mention the Hamas attack on Israel. Western countries, led by the United States, did not vote in favor of both resolutions, considering them unbalanced.
Numerous statements have been made in some international forums by Central Asian officials and leaders that generally lean more toward the Palestinian position than the Israeli one. This was particularly evident at the 3 November 2023 Organization of Turkic States summit in Astana (Kazakhstan), which was attended by the leaders of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Hungary. On the eve of the summit, Turkish President Erdogan put considerable pressure on Central Asian countries during his visit to Ashgabat, urging them to formulate a unified anti-Israel position among Turkic peoples. However, this attempt raised concerns among Central Asian countries, especially neutral Turkmenistan.
Similar statements were made at the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) summit in Tashkent (Uzbekistan) on November 9. In addition to Central Asian countries and Azerbaijan, this organization includes Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey. The latter three countries take an openly hostile stance toward Israel, particularly in the context of the war in Gaza. However, it is worth noting that the Central Asian countries made formally pro-Palestinian statements while emphasizing the peaceful nature of their position and their unwillingness to engage directly in the Middle East conflict. The initiative in discussing Middle Eastern issues at these forums was assumed by the leaders of other states, such as Turkish President Erdogan, representatives of Iran and so on. Central Asian countries played a passive role in this issue and simply tried not to make overly radical statements, while maintaining the general tone.
Addressing the statements of the leaders of various Central Asian countries, the President of Kazakhstan condemned the resolution of issues through violence and terrorism, calling for respect for the sovereignty of states and UN Security Council resolutions. He thus distanced himself from both Israel and Hamas. He also gave one million dollars in humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. Kazakhstan’s Foreign Minister Murat Nurtleu called on Israel to open humanitarian corridors for the Gaza Strip civilians.
Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev said that Uzbekistan supports the right of the Palestinian people to establish their own state through negotiations, taking into account the interests of both the Palestinian and Israeli people. This can be interpreted as support not so much for Hamas but for the official administration of the Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas. Mirziyoyev also announced the decision to allocate 1.5 million dollars for humanitarian aid to the residents of the Gaza Strip.
President Sadyr Japarov of Kyrgyzstan made a somewhat non-specific, peace-oriented statement: “We call on the parties to take comprehensive measures to prevent casualties and violence against the civilian population, to promptly cease hostilities, and to immediately initiate a negotiation process.”
Perhaps the most overtly anti-Israeli position was expressed by Tajikistan’s head of state, Rahmon (partly due to the close ties between Tajiks and Iranians based on shared culture and language, despite religious differences, as Tajiks practice Sunnism rather than Shiism). On November 11, 2023, speaking in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) at a joint extraordinary Arab-Islamic summit, Rahmon stated, “Tajikistan strongly condemns the attack on civilian objects in Gaza, which has led to the death of thousands of civilians, including children and women, and the destruction of vital infrastructure.” Unlike the President of Kazakhstan, who, to balance his statements, condemns terrorism, the President of Tajikistan did not even hint at the actions of Hamas that led to the war. However, it should be noted that it was not Rahmon who set the tone of anti-Israeli rhetoric at this summit, so he simply joined the majority. Neither did Rahmon propose any practical measures against Israel and distanced himself from Iran’s tougher stance.
The President of Turkmenistan, like his father, who is an informal national leader, refrained from making any significant statements on the Gaza conflict due to the aforementioned position of “positive neutrality”.
Central Asian leaders’ statements on the Gaza war can be characterized as contextual. The Central Asian states do not seek to set the tone of support for the Palestinian position on their own, but follow the general sentiment in various international platforms (the UN, the Organization of Turkic States, the ECO, the extraordinary Arab-Islamic Summit). At the same time, no practical conclusions can be drawn from the position of the Central Asian leaders that is formally closer to Palestine than to Israel. Collaboration with Israel continues de facto.
Formally, pro-Palestinian statements are made either in the context of positions common to the majority of world countries (the initial reaction to the false news of the shelling of the al-Ahli hospital in Gaza), or in the context of Turkic meetings dominated by Erdogan, or within the framework of the ECO, where representatives of Turkey and Iran are present. Overall, there is official support for the Palestinian position (represented by the official Abbas administration, not Hamas), but it is relatively sluggish. Obviously, the main interest of Central Asian leaders in the Middle Eastern is that these problems should not practically affect Central Asia.
With regard to the information war, it should be noted that Central Asian countries have been subjected to serious anti-Israeli propaganda and distorted descriptions of events around Gaza from various sources: Russian, Iranian, Arab (such as Al-Jazeera), and Western left-liberal outlets. In some cases, this has led to erroneous conclusions and statements. For instance, the Foreign Ministries of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan reacted with corresponding anti-Israeli statements to false information about an alleged “Israeli airstrike on the al-Ahli hospital in the Gaza Strip.” It later emerged that the hospital explosion was the result of a failed rocket launch from the Gaza Strip by the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad.
Some Central Asian states, while taking a cautious stance, are nonetheless attempting to move beyond a purely virtual reaction. The two wealthier countries in the region, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, as already mentioned, have announced humanitarian aid for the residents of the Gaza Strip in the amount of $1.5 million (Uzbekistan) and $1 million (Kazakhstan).
Kazakhstan has approved the possible deployment of up to 430 troops to UN missions in the region. The list of missions includes UNDOF (in the Golan Heights) and UNTSO. UNTSO provides military observers to three different UN missions in the area of the Arab-Israeli conflict. These include the Observer Group Golan, supporting UNDOF in the Golan Heights; Observer Group Lebanon, operating in Southern Lebanon; and Observer Group Egypt in the Sinai Peninsula. The deployment of Kazakhstani servicemen is planned from March 2024 after the conclusion of an international agreement with the UN.
In general, the official position of the states in the region can be summarized as follows:
- Cautious and largely virtual alignment with the anti-Israel position in international forums where it is supported by the majority of countries (the UN, the Organization of Turkic States, the Economic Cooperation Organization, etc.).
- Support for the position of the official Palestinian administration headed by Mahmoud Abbas rather than Hamas. Significant informational impact of anti-Israeli sources leading to statements based on unverified information, such as the case of the al-Ahli hospital in Gaza.
- Maintaining cooperation with Israel.
- Emphasizing their own peaceful stance and unwillingness to support either of the conflicting parties. Emphasizing readiness to provide humanitarian aid (Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan) and support peacekeeping efforts (Kazakhstan).
- Turkmenistan’s position is particularly notable in that it officially refrains from any serious discussions of the Middle East conflict due to its officially neutral status. On the other hand, the rhetoric of the Tajik President Rahmon can be considered anti-Israeli, although it does not lead to any practical measures on the part of the Tajik state.