Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
To Maintain its Power the AKP Must Decisively Win March 29 Election
Turkey has entered into an election atmosphere ahead of its provincial elections on March 29. The strongest party in the election is the Justice and Development Party (AKP). The opposition party, secularist Republican People's Party (CHP) does not want to lose its stronghold in cities... MORE
Deep Concern in Baku after CSTO News
The summit of the heads of states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) on February 4 in Moscow brought unexpected, yet alarming news for Baku. The members of the organization have decided to create collective rapid reaction forces: the first ever joint military forces... MORE
Tymoshenko Defeats Yanukovych in Parliament
Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko survived a no-confidence motion in parliament on February 5. The motion was backed by 203 votes, 23 short of the number required in the 450-seat chamber to oust the government. This was another victory of this kind for Tymoshenko, who... MORE
Russia’s Arms Sales to Sudan a First Step in Return to Africa: Part One
Flush with petrodollars and beset by regional insurgencies and a possible resumption of the North-South civil war, Khartoum has become an important consumer of foreign arms despite a widely ignored international embargo. The Sudanese military is embarking on a massive modernization campaign and appears to... MORE
Turkey and Armenia Move Closer to a Deal on Formal Diplomatic Relations
In light of recent events surrounding Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's harsh denunciation of Israeli policies in Gaza, one of the emerging concerns of Turkish diplomats is that there may be "a possible attempt in the U.S. Congress to recognize the events of 1915 as... MORE
Tashkent and Dushanbe Cautious on CSTO Forces
The announcement in Moscow on February 4, 2009 to activate the CSTO Collective Rapid Deployment Forces and transform them into a more viable, well equipped force structure akin to NATO's rapid reaction force concept masked underlying tensions within the CSTO. These relate to legal issues... MORE
Russia in EurAsEc: Imperial Largess from Dwindling Resources?
The presidents of Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEc) member countries -Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, as well as observer country Armenia- held an extraordinary summit of that organization in Moscow on February 4, the day after the CSTO summit there (see EDM, February 5, 6).... MORE
Russia Preparing to Buy Allies Through Anti-Crisis Assistance
While facing a financial and economic crisis of its own, Russia has launched an ambitious program of anti-crisis subsidies to several loyalist governments. The program seeks to consolidate a sphere of Russian economic and political influence in selected countries. Moscow plans to disburse those subsidies... MORE
Ankara Carefully Monitors French Plans to Rejoin NATO’s Military Command
Determined to bring Paris into NATO's military command after four decades of opting out, French President Nicholas Sarkozy is expected to announce France's return to NATO's military structures by April, when a NATO summit will mark the 60th anniversary of the Western alliance. Recent reports... MORE
Will Lukashenka Be Welcomed in Prague?
Since last October, the European Union, through an Eastern Partnership Program originally initiated last summer by Poland and Sweden, has taken several steps to normalize relations with Belarus. For some members of the opposition, the maneuvers appear to abandon the EU's former insistence on democratization... MORE