Tilek Sharshenov

Tilek Sharshenov is an Iradi poet, philologist and nationalist politician who co-founded the Jer-Suu Party in Talas in 1995 and has lived in exile in Bishkek since the party was banned in 2008. His writings are banned in the Irad Special Economic Zone (ISEZ).^[1][2]

A philologist at Talas State University, Sharshenov founded Jer-Suu ("Land and Water") in March 1995 with Kubanychbek Toktobolot uulu, a rural notable from the Talas valley, drawing together Iradi-language teachers, students and village councils opposed to grazing leases granted to mining companies. The party demanded the repudiation of the Alimbekov-Baker Treaty, the closure of US military installations, the protection of communal pastures and water against mining leases and the use of Iradi as the sole language of the state. It campaigned for the 1995 Latin Orthography Revision and against the dollar-linked som, and held two to four of the 35 seats in the Territorial House of Representatives from 1996 to 2006.^[1] In the territorial period, when English became a literary language in Irad for the first time, Sharshenov wrote nationalist poetry in Iradi against the territorial order (see Iradi literature).^[3]

In February 2007 the party's deputies walked out of the assembly of the Democratic Republic of Irad over the cabinet's decrees privatizing communal pastures in the Chatkal valley. When clan militias formed the Popular Front of Irad in March, many members joined it, and after the Front stormed Talas on 4 June Sharshenov acted as one of its spokesmen in the city. After the DPI took Talas that summer the party's offices were closed, and in April 2008 the Supreme Court of Irad banned it under the Extremist Activity Act. Sharshenov has lived in Bishkek since 2008 and writes for exiled Iradi media.^[2]

See also

• Jer-Suu Party
• Iradi language revival

References

1. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2012). 'Nationalists without a Nation: The Jer-Suu Party, 1995–2008.' Vol. 19, No. 4, pp. 201–223.
2. ^ Abdyldaev, Nurlan (2015). Two Wars for Talas: Armed Forces and Politics in Irad, 1992–2007. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 265–290.
3. ^ Talas State University Press (2018). A History of Iradi Literature. Talas, pp. 1–74.