Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
RUSSIA REINFORCES FORCES IN ABKHAZIA AS A POSSIBILITY OF ARMED CONFLICT LOOMS
On April 29 the Russian Foreign Ministry accused Georgia of concentrating forces and weapons in the upper part of the Kodori Gorge in Abkhazia. An official foreign ministry communiqué stated, "More than 1,500 Georgian army and police personnel are already in the Kodori Gorge." According... MORE
RUSSIA MULLS STRONGER PARTNERSHIP WITH UZBEKISTAN
The Kremlin has moved to strengthen ties with Uzbekistan, Central Asia's most populous nation, through the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) as well as major energy projects. CSTO Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha was in Tashkent from April 27 to 29 to meet top Uzbekistan... MORE
TAJIKISTAN COMES IN FROM THE COLD
Of all the post-Soviet Central Asian “Stans,” Tajikistan has had the roughest path toward stability and prosperity. The year after the USSR collapsed in December 1991, Tajikistan descended into a brutal civil war. By the time it ended with a UN-brokered agreement in 1997, fratricidal... MORE
TURKISH MEDIA REPORTS THAT ANKARA HAS OFFERED TO TRAIN THE IRAQI ARMY
On May 2 the Turkish daily Milliyet reported that Turkey had offered to provide training to the Iraqi army as part of an attempt to strengthen the central government in Baghdad and prevent the breakup of the country (Milliyet, May 2). In recent years, Turkey’s... MORE
ANNEXATION AND MILITARIZATION OF ABKHAZIA CONTINUE APACE
Russia has again challenged Georgia and the West in Abkhazia, this time with military action. Its first challenge had been President Vladimir Putin’s April 16 decree, authorizing direct official relations between Russian government bodies and the secessionist authorities in Georgia's Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions... MORE
TAJIK GOVERNMENT ASKS FOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO BUILD ROGUN HYDROPOWER STATION
Dushanbe Mayor Makhmadsaid Ubaidullayev called on the city’s residents to donate half of their May and June income for the construction of the Rogun hydropower station on the Vakhsh River. According to Ubaidullayev’s calculations, these donations would amount to over $10 million and become a... MORE
WILL TURKMEN GAS GO SOUTH AS WELL AS WEST?
Most commentary on Turkmenistan’s energy future has focused on the possibility of its being able to sell gas directly to Europe instead of having to go through Russia to do so. Thus, international attention has been focused on the projected Nabucco or trans-Caspian pipeline that... MORE
AKP PRESENTS DEFENSE AS POLL SUGGESTS POPULAR SUPPORT WAVERING
On April 30, Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) presented its preliminary defense to the country’s Constitutional Court in the case filed for its closure by Public Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya on March 14 on charges of becoming a center for anti-secular activities (see EDM,... MORE
RUSSIA’S ROLE AS PUTIN BUILDS A POWERFUL PREMIERSHIP
In a question-and-answer session with journalists at the offices of the weekly Argumenty i Fakty on April 29, President-elect Dmitry Medvedev was asked whether a second “ruling party,” other than United Russia, might appear. “No one knows what the political system’s final configuration will be,... MORE
BAKIYEV SUPPRESSES PROTESTS AGAINST BORDER CONCESSIONS TO KAZAKHSTAN
On April 24 Kyrgyz president Kurmanbek Bakiyev signed a decree ceding 620 hectares of Kyrgyzstan's northeastern territory to Kazakhstan. The process has been unfolding gradually since 2001, but Bakiyev was only recently able to pass the decree in parliament. What began as a deal between... MORE