Goal: Understand the variety of ethnic groups in Kyrgyzstan, their relation to each other, and their points of contact in society and commonality in culture in order to build bridges of understanding between them.

The main ethnic groups that have become fields of cultural and ethnographic research include Chatkal Mountain Kyrgyz, Ferghana Valley Uzbeks, Chui Valley Uyghurs and Dungans, and Issyk Kul Sart Kalmyks. An understanding of the urban social strata in the Kyrgyz capital city of Bishkek also involves understanding Slavic culture, Soviet ethnography, ideology and political science, and western "globalizing" influences. Other ethnic groups also play a part in the development of Kyrgyzstan's new society. These include rural Russians, urban Tatars, the few Germans who did not emigrate after perestroika in 1991, the groups deported wholesale by Stalin such as the Caucasian Karachai and Chechens, the Meshketian Turks, and the Koreans, as well as Tajik gypsies, Afghan refugees and Kazakh neighbors.

The Aslan Alliance plans to invite anthropologists, sociologists, and ethnographers to study the dynamics of ethnic relations in Kyrgyzstan and work together with the Assembly of the Peoples and other community organizations to resolve conflicts and improve relations between ethnic groups.

The phenomenon of ethnicity affects the development of a nation-state in ways that are still little understood. The study of ethnic diversity provides new models and structures for the establishment of a peaceful society. While ethnic identities cannot be ignored in the building of a civic, open society, neither can the ethnic will to power be elevated or radicalized into a nationalistic movement that threatens the balance of power in a multi-ethnic society. For these reasons we believe that the work of the Aslan Alliance will be critical to the eventual success of the multi-ethnic Kyrgyz Republic.