Field Reports
TURKMENISTAN: CHEAP NEW LABOR FORCE TO BE DISPATCHED
By Muhammad Tahir (2/22/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)
‘We have 3,000 students at agricultural universities and after graduating, none of them go to work in farms. This is not what we need,’ said Sapamurat Niyazov, President for Life of the autocratic regime of Turkmenistan. During his announcement at a the agriculture university of Turkmenistan on 26 January 2006, he ordered that school graduates must work on state farms under the guidance of their teachers in order to be allowed admission to higher education institutions.GEORGIA’S GAS CRISIS ENDS; IMPLICATIONS REMAIN
By Kakha Jibladze (2/22/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Regardless of who was ultimately responsible for the damage – Russia maintains it was terrorists while Georgia is unconvinced – millions of Georgians suffered through record cold temperatures without gas or electricity for over a week. In Tbilisi, where natural gas is normally supplied, citizens waited in line for hours to fill plastic containers with fuel.The Georgian government took several steps to provide for the population quickly.
SUSPECTED IMU MEMBER ESCAPES FROM TAJIK PRISON
By Zoya Pylenko (2/22/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)
According to Tajik authorities the (armed) IMU has become increasingly active since the uprising in the Uzbek city of Andijon in May last year, which was subsequently violently repressed. It is difficult to verify such claims. But according to the prosecutor’s office for northern Tajikistan, the IMU has by now again become more dangerous than the other banned (but purportedly peaceful) Islamic movement, Hizb-ut-Tahrir, which wants to establish a world-wide Islamic caliphate.THE ARAL SEA: A DISASTER KNOCKING ON THE DOOR
By Muhammad Tahir (2/8/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)
According to the UNDP’s report for 2005, the Aral Sea, once considered one of the world’s largest inland lakes, is now not only losing this position but is also turning into a disaster zone for surrounding regions, affecting Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and now Turkmenistan. The Sea has increasingly become a dead body of water, leaving behind a harmful layer of chemicals, pesticides and natural salts blown by the wind into noxious dust storms. This not only raises tremendous health risks, but also creates huge economic problems for the region.Visit also
Staff Publications
Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, U.S. Policy in Central Asia through Central Asian Eyes, May 2023.
Analysis Svante E. Cornell, "Promise and Peril in the Caucasus," AFPC Insights, March 30, 2023.
Oped S. Frederick Starr, Putin's War In Ukraine and the Crimean War), 19fourtyfive, January 2, 2023
Oped S. Frederick Starr, Russia Needs Its Own Charles de Gaulle, Foreign Policy, July 21, 2022.
Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, Rethinking Greater Central Asia: American and Western Stakes in the Region and How to Advance Them, June 2022
Oped Svante E. Cornell & Albert Barro, With referendum, Kazakh President pushes for reforms, Euractiv, June 3, 2022.
Oped Svante E. Cornell Russia's Southern Neighbors Take a Stand, The Hill, May 6, 2022.
Silk Road Paper Johan Engvall, Between Bandits and Bureaucrats: 30 Years of Parliamentary Development in Kyrgyzstan, January 2022.
Oped Svante E. Cornell, No, The War in Ukraine is not about NATO, The Hill, March 9, 2022.
Analysis Svante E. Cornell, Kazakhstan’s Crisis Calls for a Central Asia Policy Reboot, The National Interest, January 34, 2022.
Book S. Frederick Starr and Svante E. Cornell, Strong and Unique: Three Decades of U.S.-Kazakhstan Partnership, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, December 2021.
Silk Road Paper Svante E. Cornell, S. Frederick Starr & Albert Barro, Political and Economic Reforms in Kazakhstan Under President Tokayev, November 2021.