Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
GOING FOR A SONG: TURKISH COURT ACQUITS CHILDREN OF TERRORIST PROPAGANDA
On June 19 a court in the city of Diyarbakir in the predominantly Kurdish southeast of Turkey acquitted three young boys of charges of terrorist propaganda after a choir of which they were members sang a song in Kurdish at a World Music Festival in... MORE
MOSCOW READY FOR MAJOR CONFRONTATIONS WITH PRO-WESTERN GEORGIA AND UKRAINE
In the past Russia strongly protested the expansion of NATO to include Central European states that were Soviet clients and former Warsaw Pact members during the Cold War, as well as the Baltic republics that were part of the Soviet Union. In the end, however,... MORE
GEORGIAN OPPOSITION RIVEN BY MULTIPLE SPLITS AS NEW PARLIAMENT OPENS
As anticipated on the eve of Georgia's parliamentary elections (see EDM, May 19), the composition of the new parliament should guarantee the stability and continuity of the incumbent leadership's liberal economic policies and security alignment with the West. The governing National Movement won 119 out... MORE
MODUS VIVENDI AGREED WITH MODERATE OPPOSITION IN THE GEORGIAN PARLIAMENT
The upstart Christian-Democrat Movement follows its own game plan, positioning itself as the main parliamentary opposition party and emphasizing moderation in contrast to the irreconcilable opposition leaders. Party leader Giorgi Targamadze created this organization from scratch, shortly before the electoral campaign. Targamadze capitalized on his... MORE
GROWING INTERNET CENSORSHIP IN TURKEY
On June 18 and 19 Turkish lawyers, academics and Internet professionals met in the mountain resort of Abant in the Bolu mountains of northwest Turkey to discuss the increasing censorship of the Internet in Turkey through the use of court orders to block access to... MORE
UKRAINE PREPARING LEGAL PROCEDURES FOR RUSSIAN FLEET’S WITHDRAWAL ON SCHEDULE
Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers is drafting a bill for submission to the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) on preparations for terminating the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s deployment in Ukraine in 2017. Concurrently with that draft law, the Cabinet is working on a comprehensive assessment of the economic,... MORE
RUSSIA STALLING TALKS ON FLEET WITHDRAWAL FROM UKRAINE
Moscow opposes Kyiv's suggestions to begin discussing preparations for the withdrawal of Russia's Black Sea Fleet from Ukraine's Crimea, with sufficient lead time to complete the multi-year process by the 2017 deadline. Russia's position seems to imply that the withdrawal process might only get underway... MORE
MEDVEDEV REPORTEDLY SET TO NAME AN ANTI-CORRUPTION AIDE
President Dmitry Medvedev is reportedly planning to create a new post of presidential aide for the fight against corruption and may sign a presidential decree to that effect before the end of June. According to Nezavisimaya gazeta, in setting up the post of anti-corruption aide,... MORE
TURKISH GENERAL PILLORIED BY THE FUNDAMENTALIST PRESS
Since the founding of the Republic of Turkey 85 years ago, the Turkish Armed Forces (Turk Silahli Kuvvetleri--TSK) has seen itself as the guardian of the nation’s secular Kemalist traditions. The unresolved tension between the country’s Islamic heritage and its secular traditions is rising due... MORE
NEW TWISTS IN THE RUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN DISPUTE
The continuing Ukrainian-Russian war of words took on a new twist on June 13, when the Russian Foreign Ministry accused Ukraine of acting jointly with unnamed foreign companies to develop oil and gas fields illegally off the Crimean coast of the Black Sea shelf, claiming... MORE