Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
FORMER TURKISH COMMANDERS DISCUSS COSTS AND BENEFITS OF CROSS-BORDER OPERATION AGAINST PKK
As Turkey continues to mull its options against elements of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) based in northern Iraq, the center-right daily Milliyet has been running a series of interviews with former leading Turkish commanders evaluating the costs and benefits of a cross-border military operation... MORE
MAJORITY OF TURKISH MEDIA CLAIMS BUSH GAVE TURKEY GREEN LIGHT FOR MILITARY OPERATION
The majority of the Turkish media believe that U.S. President George W. Bush effectively gave Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan a green light for a military operation against elements of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in northern Iraq during their November 5 meeting. Although... MORE
GEORGIAN OPPOSITION ON A FREE RIDE, part two
Billionaire businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili has turned his Imedi Television, which broadcasts across the country, into a stronghold of political opposition to the government. Along with that move in 2006, he sold a 49% stake in Imedi TV to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. In October 2007,... MORE
NATO TREADS WARILY IN KAZAKHSTAN, AS RUSSIA WATCHES
Kazakhstan’s military cooperation with the NATO Alliance appears to be progressing steadily, despite the problems emerging between NATO and Russia. On October 31 Robert Simmons, NATO representative for Central Asia and South Caucasus, met Kazakhstan’s Defense Minister Daniyal Akhmetov in Astana. An official press release... MORE
PRESIDENT’S PARTY IS WEAKEST LINK IN ORANGE COALITION
Friday, November 2, was the last day that the Our Ukraine-People’s Self Defense (NUNS) bloc could collect signatures to support a “democratic” (orange) coalition with the Yulia Tymoshenko bloc (BYuT). BYuT deputies have openly expressed their fear that disunity in NUNS will lead to an... MORE
GEORGIAN OPPOSITION ON A FREE RIDE
On Friday, November 2, at least 50,000 people (as estimated by most local and foreign observers at the scene) demonstrated in downtown Tbilisi for regime change and early presidential elections in Georgia. The number decreased to some 12,000 on November 3. The demonstrations were peaceful... MORE
UPCOMING PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS WILL TEST POLITICAL PARTIES IN KYRGYZSTAN
Following the national referendum in Kyrgyzstan on October 21, the Kyrgyz constitution and electoral law have been amended, leading to the dissolution of the parliament and government. Although the legitimacy of the referendum has been contested due to allegations of widespread electoral fraud, Kyrgyz President... MORE
VLADIMIR MILOV: PUTIN TRAPPED IN A FOROS OF HIS OWN MAKING
Russian political analysts and other observers are watching the power struggle inside Russia’s security and law-enforcement establishment. The conflict broke out into the open in early October with the arrest of the head of the operational department of the Federal Narcotics Control Service (FSKN), Lieutenant-General... MORE
EU REPORT TO PRESS TURKEY ON MINORITY RIGHTS
The European Commission’s annual Progress Report on Turkey’s candidacy for EU membership, which will be published tomorrow, November 6, will press Ankara to grant greater rights to the country’s ethnic and religious minorities, including its sizeable Kurdish community. The report will be made public amid... MORE
DAYS OF REMEMBRANCE IN MINSK
Today, November 2, members of the European diplomatic corps, including ambassadors and their families, will visit the mass burial site of Kurapaty, recalling the 70th anniversary of executions conducted by the Stalin regime in Belarus. This event follows closely upon the commemoration on October 28—the... MORE