News Digest
KAZAKHSTAN, UZBEKISTAN DIFFER ON BORDER INCIDENT
By empty (6/4/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Kazakh and Uzbek officials advanced differing versions on 3 June of a fatal shooting incident on the Kazakh-Uzbek border on 1 June even as a Kazakh Foreign Ministry spokesman stressed that the event will not harm relations between the two countries. KazInform quoted a press release from Uzbekistan\'s National Security Service (SNB) as saying that \"weapons were used lawfully against a violator of the border.\" The SNB noted that a crowd of 15 Kazakh nationals gathered at the border crossing after a car attempted to enter Uzbekistan illegally.TAJIKISTAN INTRODUCES DEATH PENALTY MORATORIUM
By empty (6/3/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The lower chamber of Tajikistan\'s parliament unanimously passed a moratorium on capital punishment on 2 June. Speaker Saydullo Hayrulloev told the news agency that the moratorium is retroactive to 30 April 2004, no matter when the upper chamber passes it and the president signs it into law. The draft law not only stays all death sentences handed down after 30 April, but replaces the death penalty with a 25-year prison term.RUSSIA \'CONCERNED\' AT TURKMEN DIPLOMA POLICY
By empty (6/3/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Russia\'s Foreign Ministry issued a statement on 3 June expressing concern at a new Turkmen policy on recognizing foreign diplomas. According to numerous reports, on 1 June Turkmenistan stopped recognizing foreign diplomas earned after 1993; Turkmen officials have said recently that they are merely \"verifying\" the validity of foreign degrees, however. The Foreign Ministry statement charges that Turkmenistan has mothballed a 2001 Russian proposal to conclude a joint diploma-recognition accord.UN WARNING ON AFGHANISTAN OPIUM
By empty (6/1/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The head of the United Nations drugs control agency has told the BBC that efforts to tackle Afghanistan\'s growing drugs trade are failing. Antonio Maria Costa said that the country would face a dangerous future if it was not brought under control. According to Mr Costa, up to 90% of the opium from Afghanistan\'s poppy fields is turned into heroin inside the country\'s borders.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.