Kyrgyz people

At a reception for participants, a human rights researcher told Healy about an ethnic minority family that was in trouble.

The father, Ovalbek Turdakun, an ethnic Kyrgyz and citizen of China, had spent a year in a re-education center in Xinjiang.

He, his wife, and their son had fled to Kyrgyzstan, but they were at risk of being deported back.

Healy reached out to some of his contacts.

A U.S. State Department official suggested the family try to get to a neutral country such as Turkey, and from there petitioned the U.S. government to let them in.

A Christian organization agreed to pay for the family's exit, but Healy was having trouble finding someone who could shepherd them to Turkey.

He decided to do it himself.

In December, Healy flew to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, and found himself in a child's bedroom sitting across from Turakun.

At a reception for participants, a human rights researcher told Healy about an ethnic minority family that was in trouble.

The father, Ovalbek Turdakun, an ethnic Kyrgyz and citizen of China, had spent a year in a re-education center in Xinjiang.

He, his wife, and their son had fled to Kyrgyzstan, but they were at risk of being deported back.

Healy reached out to some of his contacts.

A U.S. State Department official suggested the family try to get to a neutral country such as Turkey, and from there petition the U.S. government to let them in.

A Christian organization agreed to pay for the family's exit, but Healy was having trouble finding someone who could shepherd them to Turkey.

He decided to do it himself.

In December, Healy flew to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, and found himself in a child's bedroom sitting across from Turdakun.

Their very tribal names are often a reminder of the essential unity of the race.

Cossack is but a corruption of Kazakh, which means separated from the tribe, and Kyrgyz implies errants.

They share many of the same physical and social characteristics.

They are essentially a warlike and not an industrial race.

The old southern boundary of Russia in Central Asia extended from the north of the Caspian by Orenburg and Orsk across to the old Mongolian city of Semipalatinsk, and was guarded by a cordon of forts and Cossack outposts.

It was about two thousand miles in length, and, quote, abutted on the great Kyrgyz steppe, and to a certain extent controlled the tribes pasturing in the vicinity, but by no means established the hold of Russia on that pathless and for the most part lifeless waste, unquote.

Quarterly Review, October 1865.

During all the earlier years of the century, while we were establishing our power in India, constant intrigues and wars occurred in Persia, Afghanistan, and Central Asia.