News Digest
AZERBAIJANI PARLIAMENT APPEALS TO NATO
By empty (9/11/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Azerbaijani lawmakers adopted an appeal on 10 September to NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer to rescind the invitation to Armenia to send a delegation to participate in military maneuvers to be held in Azerbaijan between 13-27 September under the aegis of NATO\'s Partnership for Peace program. On 11 September, the Azerbaijani daily \"Ekspress\" quoted unnamed Azerbaijani diplomatic sources as saying that as a results of talks in Brussels between NATO officials and Azerbaijani Foreign and Defense ministry representatives, it was agreed that three Armenians -- two officers and a military doctor -- will be permitted to attend the maneuvers as observers, rather than participants. Also on 11 September, police in Baku dispersed a protest organized by the Karabakh Liberation Organization and other political organizations against the anticipated Armenian participation in the upcoming NATO exercises.GEORGIAN PRESIDENT AFFIRMS THAT ABKHAZIA REMAINS \'PRIORITY\'
By empty (9/11/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Meeting on 11 September in Tbilisi with members of the Tbilisi-based Abkhaz parliament in exile, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili stressed that restoring Georgian hegemony over the breakaway Republic of Abkhazia remains a priority for him. Saakashvili stressed that the Georgian Army is being strengthened to deter foreign aggression, rather than in preparation for a military reconquest of Abkhazia. But at the same time, he said that \"we must prevent illegal actions\" in Abkhazia, including the 3 October presidential ballot.AIRLINE EMPLOYEE, TICKET SCALPER ARRESTED IN CONNECTION WITH TWIN AIRPLANE EXPLOSIONS
By empty (9/9/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Two men have been arrested in Moscow in connection with the investigation into the apparent terrorist bombing of two jet airliners on 24 August that killed 90 people, \"Rossiiskaya gazeta\" reported on 9 September. One of the men was identified as Krasnodar resident Armen Artyunov, who reportedly specializes in securing tickets for sold-out flights. Artyunov reportedly arranged for the purchase of the tickets of the two Chechen women who are believed to have been involved in the destruction of the aircraft and helped them to get aboard the planes.NOTED JOURNALIST BLASTS EUROPEANS WHO QUESTION RUSSIA\'S CHECHEN POLICY
By empty (9/9/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
In a commentary published in \"Rossiiskaya gazeta\" on 8 September, \"Nezavisimaya gazeta\" founder Vitalii Tretyakov accused Europeans who have questioned Russia\'s Chechen policy of having \"double standards.\" \"The European human rights advocates have become so keen on protecting the rights of the killers that they think less and less about the rights of their victims,\" Tretyakov wrote. \"If somebody in Europe is thinking that the Russian soldiers in Chechnya are defending the imperial ambitions of Russia or the popularity of its president, such thinking cannot be called anything other than intellectual idiocy.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.