Agnieszka Pikulicka on telling Central Asia’s stories differently

This episode departs from our usual format. Instead of the standard three-segment structure, it’s a single extended conversation with Agnieszka Pikulicka, the journalist behind Turan Tales, a long-form newsletter and podcast examining underreported stories from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. Her premise is straightforward but oddly rare: Central Asia should be treated as a region with its own internal dynamics, not as a footnote to someone else’s strategic narrative.Agnieszka lived and reported in Uzbekistan for three years, until she was declared persona non grata in 2021. Her debut non-fiction book, Nowy Uzbekistan (New Uzbekistan), a Polish-language monograph published by Czarne in 2023, dissects the politics and lived realities of the Mirziyoyev period.We discuss her recent move to Almaty, one of the few remaining workable bases for independent journalism in the region, and Turan Tales’ shift toward more ambitious audio documentaries, supported by the International Press Institute’s media innovation program. She argues that most coverage still reduces Central Asia to a handful of stock frames: pipelines, strongmen, and geopolitical anxiety. Whether that’s laziness or habit is debatable, but the effect is the same: people disappear from their own stories.We also touch on figures who feature in earlier Turan Tales episodes, including Komil Allamjonov, whose role has changed since we recorded this conversation. He has now been appointed counsellor-envoy at Uzbekistan’s embassy in Washington and representative of the Presidential Administration in the United States.LINKS:• New format Turan Tales podcast produced with support from the International Press Institute • Agnieszka’s book, Nowy Uzbekistan (New Uzbekistan) https://czarne.com.pl/katalog/ksiazki/nowy-uzbekistan• Turan Tales episode on the assassination attempt against Komil Allamjonov • Komil Allamjonov appointed counsellor-envoy in Washington https://www.gazeta.uz/en/2025/11/24/komil-allamjonov/ Get full access to Havli - A Central Asia Substack at havli.substack.com/subscribe