After years of concerted efforts by the Kazakh authorities and hired foreign public relations firms to burnish Kazakhstan’s international profile, the long nourished and cherished image of an open and modern country was brought down like a house of cards over the past month. Firstly,... MORE

On January 16, labor migrants from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and other countries joined an anti-fascist rally in Moscow to commemorate the memory of the slain human rights activists Stanislav Markelov and Anastasiya Baburova. Both fought against racial and national discrimination, and were killed three years ago... MORE

The elections just held in Kazakhstan have successfully accomplished the limited goal of moving from a single-party to a multi-party parliament. This political opening has come about by decision of the state leadership. This decision marks one step in an evolutionary process of broadening political... MORE

Kazakhstan’s President, Nursultan Nazarbayev, indicated at the time of his re-election in 2011 that conditions were ripe for moving from a single-party to a multi-party parliament. Toward that goal, pre-term elections were held on January 15, 2012 to the parliament’s lower chamber, the 107-seat Majlis.... MORE

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