US Time magazine carried a story " The Neo-Nazis of Mongolia:Swastikas Against China" on its July 24, 2009 issue. The story was written by someone called "Mitch Moxley". Attached picture of the story features "Tse" bar adorned by Nazi leaders portraits and wax statue of Nazi military officer in glass. The caption of the photo says " Tse bar, a far-right hangout in the Mongolian capital". It is very misleading caption. Tse bar is chain of bar-restaurants. It is not considered expensive and therefore, draws younger, teen crowd with less money to spend. The notion of political left and right is very much blurred in Mongolian politics as two largest parties, Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party and Mongolian Democratic Party both engages in social wellfare programs modelled after Scandinivian countries. With European socialist ideas and notion that equality for all prevailing, it is hard to define who is the "far-right" in Mongolia!
One can not categorize teen hangouts as "Tse" bar restaurants as dens of "far-right".
The Neo-Nazis of Mongolia is too strong word to describe the Mongolian nationalists. I don't know why some western journalists love to describe the mongolian nationalists as "Neo-Nazis".
Yes, we have several Mongolian nationalist movements. Dayar -Mongol means "All-Mongolia" and its leaders are Purevsuren, Bayarmandakh and not Zagas Erdenebileg-fifty-year old gentleman interviewed by Mitch. Dayar Mongoli is an NGO and governed by board members. Erdenebileg was a board member of the NGO before and by collective decision, was removed from the board.
Current Mongolian nationalist movements have less in common with National Socialism of Hitler's Germany and therefore can not be sharing same policy as claimed by Erdenebileg Zagas! .
Mongolian natonalism is not a new phenomena! For centuries, Mongolian nationalists led historic fights for survival, independence of Mongolian nation!
"Dayar-Mongol" or "All Mongolia" nationalist ideas were originated during 16th century when Mongolia was divided into Khalkh Mongolia, Inner Mongolia and Zungarian Mongolia (Western Mongolia) and internecine wars were waging between various Mongolian tribes. Many progressive princes and tribal chiefs were pushing for "All-Mongolia" idea to unite warring Mongolian states and tribes. The message behind the "All-Mongolia" idea is "we are one nation,sharing same language, culture" and therefore, should not be fighting against each other in the face of growing threat of Ching Dynasty of Manchus". Eventually, Manchus invaded whole Mongolia by successful implementation of "Divide and Conquer" policy.
Mongolia was liberated from White Russian Guards and Chinese nationalist troops in 1921 by Mongolians who had strong nationalistic sense and pride. Later, they were labelled as "Mongolian revolutionaries-communists" by Soviet and Mongolian communist historians. There is no doubt that Sukhbaatar Damdin, Danzan Nyamaa, first leaders of the national liberation movement was nationalists. Even now, Mongolians are living in People's Republic of China, Russian Federation and the "Dayar-Mongolia" concept still tells us "we are one nation" even we are living in different countries.
De Wang (Demchigdonrov), Inner Mongolian independence movement leader during 1930s and 1940s was a Mongolian nationalist leader. Democratic movement that shook the communist regime in Mongolia in early 1990s were led by Mongolians who wanted prosperity of independent Mongolian nation and development of traditional Mongolia culture and heritage.
As Mongolia has opened up recently and being a homogenous nation, it is easy to spot foreigners in Mongolia be them Koreans and Chinese or Russians, Americans. Every drunken fight and brawl between local Mongols and expatriates can not be interpreted as the nationalists threatening foreigners and sending message" get out". Much of the kids and teenagers wearing black glasses and shaved heads and leather jackets can not be described as "Mongolian Neo-Nazis".
Who else wears leather jackets and black glasses? Bikers... On July 11th, Mongolian bikers drove through town in celebration of Naadam holding Mongolian flags. They are not Neo-Nazis and have nothing to do with racial discrimination policy of Nazi Germany.
Some of the photos of the Mongolian bikers are attached here. Let me tell you again, they are not Mongolian Neo-Nazis. They are bikers.. Simple is that.
well explained! Clear! Thank you!
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