News Digest
FORMER BAKU MAYOR CHALLENGES DATE OF AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENT\'S DEATH
By empty (12/7/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
In an interview published on 7 December in the opposition daily \"Yeni Musavat,\" former Baku Mayor Rafael Allakhverdiev claimed that he saw the casket containing the body of President Heidar Aliyev being loaded on to a plane at Ankara airport on 6 August 2003. Aliyev was transported to the Turkish military hospital in Gulhane near Ankara in early July 2003; in early August, Azerbaijani officials refuted persistent rumors that he had died. On 6 August 2003, it was announced that Aliyev had been flown from Ankara to the United States for treatment at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.NORTH CAUCASUS OFFICIAL SURVIVES ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT
By empty (12/7/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Mukhtar Altuev, a Justice Ministry official in the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, was injured and his teenage son was killed on 7 December when unidentified assailants opened fire on their car in Nalchik. (ITAR-TASS).KAZAKH PRESIDENT SIGNS DECREE ON LOCAL ELECTIONS
By empty (12/7/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Nursultan Nazarbaev signed a decree on 6 December instructing the Central Election Commission to set up rules for electing the heads of oblasts, towns, and villages starting in 2005, Khabar TV reported. The decree provides for mayoral elections in Astana and Almaty in August 2005. At present, oblast and city heads are appointed, and the opposition has long demanded that they be elected.FORMER KAZAKH SPEAKER HEADS OPPOSITION COUNCIL
By empty (12/7/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Zharmakhan Tuyakbai, former speaker of the Mazhilis (lower chamber of parliament) and a former member of the ruling Otan party, has been elected chairman of the Kazakh opposition\'s Coordinating Council of Democratic Forces. The council announced at a news conference in Astana on 7 December that the decision was made at a session chaired by Galymzhan Zhaqiyanov, the leader of Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan, who is currently under house arrest. The council brings together the opposition Ak Zhol, the Communist Party, and Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan.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.