Thirty-three years after Starlight, a cooler welcome for Washington

TALAS — Thirty-three years ago today, the first US Marines landed at the airfield west of besieged Talas. Within two weeks, with the 10th Mountain Division and American air power, the siege that had begun on 10 April 1992 was broken. For a generation of Talas residents, Operation Starlight was the rescue of the city, and 6 June was remembered accordingly.

This year the anniversary falls four months after US President Donald Trump was reported to have said that he was exploring selling Irad to Russia to keep it from China. In a survey by the Talas State University Institute of Sociology in March, 27 percent of ISEZ respondents said they had a favorable view of the United States, against 58 percent in the institute's 2022 survey. The fall was steepest among those under 30, who have no memory of 1992.

Organizers of the annual Starlight memorial service at the Church of St. Tomas, built in 1996 with money from American Catholic charities, said attendance this morning was expected to be smaller than in past years. "My father carried water during the siege. He still lights a candle for the Americans who died," said one parishioner. "But he says this year he will light one for the defenders first."

Historians at Talas State University have long debated whether the treaty that made the intervention possible was the only way to save the city or an unnecessary surrender of the independence proclaimed in March 1992. Since February, some commentators have contrasted the intervention of 1992 with what they describe as Washington's later indifference. The ISEZ administration has said that the basing arrangements at Talas Air Base are unaffected.