Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
AKP PUSHES AHEAD WITH NUCLEAR POWER TENDER
Despite calls for a delay, Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is pushing ahead to award the tender for building the country’s first nuclear power plant. On September 24 the state-owned Turkish Electricity Trading and Contracting, Inc., (TETAS) will open the bids for building... MORE
NEW CSTO MILITARY FORCE PLANNED
The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), long regarded by Western military experts as something of a “paper tiger,” will become increasingly active in Central Asia as Russia’s President Medvedev presses for the militarization of the organization. CSTO General Secretary Nikolay Bordyuzha has referred to the... MORE
POLL SHOWS ELITE SUPPORT THE RULE OF LAW AND HONEST COMPETITION
A poll conducted earlier this year found that the country’s professional classes are less than fully supportive of its current ruling political-economic system and want the system democratized and opened up. The man in charge of the research, Mikhail Afanasyev, director for strategies and analysis... MORE
FACT, FANTASY, AND FARCE AS MORE ARE DETAINED IN ERGENEKON PROBE
On September 18 the Turkish security forces detained 19 more people as part of the continuing judicial investigations into a shadowy ultranationalist group known to the Turkish media as Ergenekon (see Terrorism Focus, January 29). The Ergenekon investigation was launched following the discovery of a... MORE
AZERBAIJAN EXPANDS COMMITMENT TO NATO TROOPS IN AFGHANISTAN
Last month's confrontation between Russia and Georgia over South Ossetia and Abkhazia had an immediate impact on Georgia's neighbor Azerbaijan, highlighting the vulnerability of its oil exports to hostile military action. Azeri oil exports through Georgia, already diminished by the August 5 closing of the... MORE
SOUTH OSSETIA TESTS KAZAKHSTAN’S FOREIGN POLICY PRIORITIES
Speaking at the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) summit in Moscow on September 5, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev went out of his way to show his country’s commitment to this heavily militarized organization, which unites four Central Asian countries, Armenia, and Belarus under the watchful... MORE
ERDOGAN LAMBASTS EU OVER SLOW PACE OF TURKISH ACCESSION
On September 16 Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan harshly criticized the EU for the slow pace of Turkey’s accession negotiations. Speaking at an iftar—the meal at sunset at which Muslims break their daytime fast during the month of Ramadan—held for foreign ambassadors in Ankara,... MORE
WILL MORE MONEY HELP BUY MORE MODERN WEAPONS?
The 27,000-strong Georgian military is a 40th the size of the Russian military of over one million. Only several thousand solders from each side were directly involved in the war last month, which lasted three days before the Georgian forces were ordered to withdraw. Russia... MORE
BELARUS PREPARES FOR PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS
Preparations for the parliamentary elections scheduled for September 28 are well under way. Chair of the Central Election Commission Lidziya Yarmoshyna has declared that the election is intended to "smash stereotypes" about Belarus (Moscow Times, September 14). Although some opposition parties are taking part, Charter... MORE
RUSSIA OFFERS SUPPORT AMID KYRGYZSTAN’S ECONOMIC CRISIS
Following a bilateral meeting in Moscow, Kyrgyz Prime Minister Igor Chudinov announced an agreement with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to begin cooperation in the hydro-energy sector (www.24.kg, September 17). Furthermore, Russian Gazprom will explore natural gas reserves in Kyrgyzstan. Chudinov was vague about how... MORE