Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
TURKEY SPEAKS VOLUMES WITH A MUTED RESPONSE TO EU SNUB
Turkey’s muted response to the EU’s refusal to include an explicit reference to the country’s accession in its recent statement on enlargement is yet another indication of the waning enthusiasm in Turkey for what was once the country’s overriding foreign policy goal. At the conclusion... MORE
WILL KREMLIN USE 1990s PRIVATIZATIONS TO STRENGTHEN ITS GRIP ON BUSINESS?
Analysts and observers both inside and outside Russia have pointed to President Vladimir Putin’s apparent choice of First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to be his designated successor as a sign that Kremlin policy, at least in the realm of economics, may be moving toward... MORE
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS PERSIST ABOUT IMEDI TELEVISION IN GEORGIA
Imedi Television’s reopening on December 12 (see EDM, December 13) leaves key questions about the channel’s ownership and management unanswered. The issue of responsibility for possible violations of the law remains equally blurred. Imedi TV had been forced temporarily off the air by the authorities... MORE
TURKMENISTAN, NATURAL GAS, AND THE WEST
What a difference a year makes. One of the final diplomatic triumphs of Turkmen leader Saparmurat Niyazov before his death last December was to renegotiate Turkmenistan's exclusive natural gas contracts with the Russian energy giant Gazprom from a bargain rate of $65 per thousand cubic... MORE
REACTIONS TO CHIEF OF STAFF’S COMMENTS UNDERSCORE RIFT BETWEEN TURKISH MILITARY AND NATIONALIST MHP
Recent remarks by General Yasar Buyukanit, the chief of the Turkish General Staff (TGS), that the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) had become both politicized and legalized have triggered a furious reaction from some of the leading members of the ultranationalist Nationalist Action Party (MHP) and... MORE
TYMOSHENKO VOTE SHOWS COALITION’S LIMITATIONS
The coalition of President Viktor Yushchenko's Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defense bloc (NUNS) and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc (BYuT) has failed to ensure Tymoshenko's return to the post of prime minister, from which Yushchenko fired her in fall 2005. This time it is not disagreements within the... MORE
IMEDI TELEVISION REOPENS AMID GEORGIA’S PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN
Georgia’s pro-opposition Imedi Television resumed broadcasting its political programs on Wednesday, December 12. The authorities had temporarily closed Imedi TV on November 7 as part of a state of emergency. The channel had instigated unlawful actions against state authorities during the November 2-7 opposition rallies... MORE
BAISALOV FACES PROSECUTION AHEAD OF KYRGYZ ELECTIONS
Two major Kyrgyz opposition parties – Ata Meken and the Social-Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan (SDPK) – have been experiencing extreme pressure from the government ahead of parliamentary elections on December 16. After SDPK member Edil Baisalov’s published a sample ballot on his personal blog on... MORE
ILLEGAL MIGRATION STRAINING TURKEY’S TIES WITH GREECE, EU
The December 10 sinking of an overcrowded boat carrying illegal migrants from Turkey to Greece has highlighted Turkey’s increasing importance as a transit point for illegal migrants seeking to gain entry to the countries of the EU. The issue has begun to strain Turkey’s relations... MORE
MEDVEDEV – A FACELESS FUTURE RUSSIAN PRESIDENT
Russian President Vladimir Putin has finally designated First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev as his preferred successor. Almost immediately, Medvedev announced that he will ask Putin to be his prime minister "in the interests of the continuity of Putin's internal and foreign policies" (RIA-Novosti, December... MORE