Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles

AKP Marshals E.U. Reforms to Normalize Civil-Military Relations

On June 12, the liberal left Taraf daily published an unclassified document outlining an alleged action plan for the military to combat the "reactionary activities" against secularism. Allegedly the "Action Plan against Reactionaries (Irtica)," was prepared by senior staff Colonel Dursun Cicek and defines the... MORE

Akhmetov Sacked as Astana Purges “Corruption”

On June 17, following the CSTO and SCO summits, Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev sacked the country's first civilian Defense Minister Daniyal Akhmetov. The presidential press service refused to comment on the reasons for the dismissal, while confirming that the former defense minister and chairman of... MORE

Gazprom’s Miscalculation

In early 2009 a number of European countries suddenly found themselves ensnared by events over which they had little, if any control. Poland and Hungary discovered that gas supply contracts they had signed with the company RosUkrEnergo, 50 percent owned by Gazprom, would not be... MORE

U.S.-led “Sea Breeze” Combined Exercise Canceled in Ukraine

On June 22 Ukrainian Naval Headquarters confirmed unofficially that the country's political deadlock has doomed the multinational military exercise Sea Breeze-2009. According to the Ukrainian headquarters sources, the U.S. Armed Forces European Command (EUCOM) and the U.S. Sixth Fleet notified Ukraine's defense ministry on June... MORE

Health Reasons Force Erdogan to Cancel Athens Visit

On June 20 Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan cancelled a planned trip to Athens. Although his health condition was offered as the reason for the last-minute cancellation, it did not prevent speculation that Erdogan sought to use the pretext of his health concern to protest... MORE

The Ural Summits: BRIC and SCO

On June 15-16 Russia managed to hold two major heads-of-state summit meetings in the city of Yekaterinburg. That Yekaterinburg was chosen as the site is perhaps fitting, because it marks the geographical beginning of Russian Asia. These two summits were, for the most part, about... MORE

Moldova Embarks on Electoral Campaign in Tension-Filled Atmosphere

Exercising his interim powers under the constitution, Moldova's outgoing president Vladimir Voronin has dissolved the parliament that was elected on April 5 and has called new parliamentary elections for July 29. Voronin's decree, issued on June 15, had become unavoidable after the opposition twice boycotted... MORE

Tremors Shake the Three Pillars of Putin’s Regime

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signed a revised anti-crisis program for 2009 last week, asserting that the previous plan had been accomplished and setting the first priority on the fulfillment of the state's social obligations for the population and the second - on preserving and developing... MORE

Erdogan Avoids Confrontation with the Military over Alleged Plot

Since the publication of a document, allegedly prepared by Colonel, Dursun Cicek, outlining a plan to undermine the governing AKP and the Gulen movement last week, Turkish domestic politics has focused on the future of civil-military relations (EDM, June 15). Nonetheless, fears over a split... MORE