Although the newly-elected Kyrgyz President, Almazbek Atambayev, received significant Kremlin support in the run up to last year’s elections, Turkey was his first formal destination as the head of state. During a meeting with the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Atambayev invited Turkey, along... MORE

On December 29, 2011, 41-year old Yerik Ayazbayev, the leader of a Jund al-Khilafah (JaK – Army of the Caliphate) cell based in the Almaty suburb of Boraldai Village, was killed in the Southern Kazakhstan city of Kyzylorda (Interfax [Astana], December 30). Five of his... MORE

Kazakhstan held parliamentary and local elections a month after clashes between protesting oil workers and police left 17 dead in the western city of Zhanaozen on December 16, 2011. The violent riots followed by police shooting took place on the day Kazakhstan celebrated the twentieth... MORE

On December 20, 2011, members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) reached an agreement that makes it impossible for any individual country in the group to host a foreign military base on its territory without the full consent of all other members of the... MORE

Hoji Akbar Turajonzoda, an influential Tajik cleric and political figure, and his brother Nuriddin (aka Eshoni Nuriddin) have come under fire for accusing the head of Tajikistan’s Council of the Ulema, Saidmukarram Abduqodirzoda, of sympathizing with the beliefs of the banned Islamic group “Salafia” (BBC... MORE

Prominent Tajik religious and political figure, Hoji Akbar Turajonzoda, and his brothers, Nuriddin and Muhammadjon, have, in recent weeks, come under increasing pressure from the authorities. On December 6, 2011, the Council of Ulamo (CoU), a government-controlled body regulating Islamic activities in the country, accused... MORE

Calm has been restored in the oil-rich western part of Kazakhstan after clashes between police and protesters on December 16-17 that left at least 16 people dead and more than 100 injured, including striking oil workers. But Kazakhstan’s cultivated image as a bastion of stability... MORE

Tensions between ethnic Russians and Tatars in the Republic of Tatarstan increased in 2011. Ethnic Russian activists were particularly angered by Tatar TV journalist Elmira Israfilova after she lashed out at the Russian protesters. Israfilova reportedly called the Russians occupiers and suggested that those among... MORE

Central Asian leaders rushed to recognize Russia’s December 4 parliamentary elections in spite of international criticism of mass falsifications in favor of the ruling United Russia party. Developments in Russia are closely watched in Central Asia both by the regime holders and ordinary citizens. To... MORE

Jund al-Khilafa (JaK) has carried out a string of deadly attacks within Kazakhstan since October. While JaK has come no closer to achieving its goal of bringing down the government of Nursultan Nazarbayev and creating an Islamic state, it has rattled Kazakhstan in a way... MORE