Osh

So we know that the presidential elections are coming, and I think ultimately that's what this is all aimed at, is that Japarib keeps checking to make sure that that's exactly what he wants ahead of the presidential election in January.

Yeah, I think, you know, this, obviously, we saw that massive kind of shift happening back in February, where it was the heads of Osh, Chuy, Batkin, Issyk-Kul, and Norin.

All of those SEN head heads were changed back in February.

This is one of the first we've seen changed after that period.

One was a religious cleric and one was a journalist.

Again, not quite 20 years ago.

And both those were, at least there's strong suspicions that Uzbek security service working with somebody in Kyrgyzstan came across the border and carried out these assassinations around the city of Osh.

So there was a level of cooperation there already, but it is interesting that they've formalized that or formalized it to another step maybe.

And it stretches from Dushanbe.

It winds its way through Kirogan Markhab all the way to Osh across the Kurdish border.

Exactly.

And, you know, doing an audit on this particular route, it requires a very specific kind of approach.

What's the strategy?

The sources outline a strict order of operations.

First, lock in the international flights and the arrival point, whether that's Dushanbe or Osh.

Okay.

Kyrgyz politics.

The southern part of Kyrgyzstan has a very large minority of Uzbeks, so different ethnic group living, different language, et cetera, living in especially in the cities of southern Kyrgyzstan, the major city's called Osh, and then there's Jalal-Abad, and there's Batken, and some others.

But this region of Kyrgyzstan had a history of its own of volatility going back to 1990 actually when the Soviet Union still existed-

Uh-huh

And what type of property?

Yeah.

So one thing that I know happened because I saw it with my own eyes when I went there in July about, uh, three weeks after the violence, is that neighborhoods where Uzbeks were living in Osh and other cities were attacked by mobs of presumably mostly, if not all, uh, Kyrgyz.

Kyrgyz.So are you being diplomatic here?

You're seeing that correctly.

From Osh, Kyrgyzstan.

I'm already picking him.

I l- I worked with Kyrgyzstani boys this summer.