From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Aqsaqal

Elderly men in the Turkish society

Summary

Elderly men in the Turkish society

Aqsaqal or aksakal (literally meaning "white beard" in Turkic languages) refers to the patriarch of communities in Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Volga. Traditionally, an aqsaqal is the leader of a village or aul, and is in charge of all matters relating to customary law. Acting as advisors or judges, these elders have or had a role in politics and the justice system in countries and tribes for centuries. Recently, there have been distinct aksakal courts established in Kyrgyzstan. In Uzbekistan, which has traditionally been a more urban society (the Uzbeks being sarts or town-dwellers, as opposed to Yörüks), cities are divided up into mahallas. Each mahalla has an aqsaqal who acts as the district leader.

Redevelopment of the ''aqsaqal'' courts in Kyrgyzstan

In 1995, then-President of Kyrgyzstan Askar Akayev announced a decree to revitalize the aqsaqal courts. The courts would have jurisdiction over property, torts and family law. The aqsaqal courts were eventually included under Article 92 of the Kyrgyz constitution. As of 2006, there were approximately 1,000 aqsaqal courts throughout Kyrgyzstan, including in the capital of Bishkek. Akaev linked the development of these courts to the rekindling of Kyrgyz national identity. In a 2005 speech, he connected the courts back to the country's nomadic past and extolled how the courts expressed the Kyrgyz ability of self-governance.

References

[http://www.bookrags.com/research/kishlak-ema-03/ "Kishlak"] {{Webarchive. link. (2012-06-12 , ''Encyclopedia of Central Asia'')
Judith Beyer, Kyrgyz Aksakal Courts: Pluralistic Accounts of History, 53 J. OF L. PLURALISM 144 (2006)
Former President Akaev, quoted in Beyer, ''Kyrgyz Aksakal Courts''

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

culture-of-turkey culture-of-kyrgyzstan culture-of-uzbekistan culture-of-kazakhstan caucasus customary-legal-systems

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Aqsaqal — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report