News Digest
THOUSANDS CONTINUE PROTESTS IN KYRGYZSTAN
By empty (2/23/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Thousands of demonstrators continued to block roads in Kyrgyzstan for the second day on 23 February to protest decisions by regional election commissions to remove opposition candidates from the 27 February parliamentary elections, RFE/RL\'s Kyrgyz Service reported. In the Tong district, where 2,000 protesters initially surrounded the local administration to protest the removal of candidate Arslan Maliev, demonstrators eventually took over the building, demanding Maliev\'s reinstatement and the resignation of regional head Nurbek Aliev. In Kochkor district, 5,000 protesters blocked the Bishkek-Torugart highway demanding the reinstatement of candidates Akylbek Japarov and Beishin Bolotbekov and the resignation of Governor Shamshybek Medetbekov.KAZAKH FOREIGN MINISTER DETAILS PRESIDENT\'S \'CENTRAL ASIAN UNION\' PROPOSAL
By empty (2/23/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Foreign Minister Qasymzhomart Toqaev told \"Kazakhstanskaya pravda\" in a 23 February interview that President Nazarbaev\'s 18 February appeal to form a union of Central Asian states was not a call for the creation of a single state. Toqaev said that Nazarbaev \"did not mean the setting up of a \'union state\' that would clearly swallow national sovereignty..KAZAKH PRESIDENT PROPOSES CENTRAL ASIAN UNION ON THE EU MODEL
By empty (2/23/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)
President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan has proposed the forming of a \"Central Asian Union\". \"The Treaty of eternal friendship between Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan can serve as a solid foundation for such union,\" Nazarbayev said during his annual appeal at the joint session of both houses of Kazakhstan\'s parliament. Other countries of the region (Tajikistan and Turkmenistan) can join the new union.UZBEK PROTESTORS DECRY ILL EFFECTS OF TAJIK ALUMINUM PLANT
By empty (2/22/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)
A group of residents from Uzbekistan\'s Surkhandarya Province held a demonstration outside the Tajik Embassy in Tashkent on 18 February to protest the ill effects that emissions from the Tajik Aluminum Plant are having on their region, RFE/RL\'s Uzbek Service reported. The protestors stated that the emissions are causing increased rates of illness and birth defects. In a written appeal to Tajik President Imomali Rakhmonov signed by more than 3,000 Surkhandarya residents, they expressed concern at plans to increase production at the plant, which is located near the Tajik-Uzbek border, and to construct additional production facilities.Visit also
Staff Publications
Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, Greater Central Asia as A Component of U.S. Global Strategy, October 2024.
Analysis Laura Linderman, "Rising Stakes in Tbilisi as Elections Approach," Civil Georgia, September 7, 2024.
Analysis Mamuka Tsereteli, "U.S. Black Sea Strategy: The Georgian Connection", CEPA, February 9, 2024.
Silk Road Paper Svante E. Cornell, ed., Türkiye's Return to Central Asia and the Caucasus, July 2024.
Book Svante E. Cornell, ed., "The Changing Geopolitics of Central Asia and the Caucasus" AFPC Press/Armin LEar, 2023.
Silk Road Paper Svante E. Cornell and S. Frederick Starr, Stepping up to the “Agency Challenge”: Central Asian Diplomacy in a Time of Troubles, July 2023.
Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, U.S. Policy in Central Asia through Central Asian Eyes, May 2023.