Kyrgyzstan within a Central Asian perspective: Historical background and migration trends

Much of Kyrgyzstan was dominated by the Huns for five centuries until the arrival of Turkish invaders in ad 565. For the next two centuries the Chinese and the Turks vied for influence in the region. Eventually the Chinese defeated the Turkish authority in Central Asia and by ad 744 absorbed the Talas and Issyk Kul regions of modern Kyrgyzstan into their empire (Hanks 2005).