News Digest
INTERIOR MINISTRY TROOPS SENT TO SOUTHERN GEORGIA
By empty (5/11/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Some 100 Interior Ministry troops were sent to the mountainous southern district of Tsalka on 11 May in response to a request by the local Georgian minority population. Violent clashes in Tsalka between Georgians and Armenians, who account for up to 80 percent of the district\'s population, have been reported sporadically for several years, but they have apparently become more frequent in recent months. Several people were injured in violence there on 9 May.ARMENIAN PRESIDENT NOT TO ATTEND NATO SUMMIT
By empty (5/11/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Due to the lack of progress in improving Armenian-Turkish relations, President Kocharian will not attend the 28-29 June NATO summit in Istanbul, a presidential press spokesman told journalists in Yerevan on 10 May, RFE/RL\'s Armenian Service reported. The spokesman added that Kocharian\'s decision \"has nothing to do with Armenian-NATO relations, which are currently on the rise.\" A series of meetings over the past year between the Armenian and Turkish foreign ministers fueled speculation that Ankara might reopen its border with Armenia, but more recently Turkish officials have assured Azerbaijan\'s President Ilham Aliyev that any such move is contingent on a solution to the Karabakh conflict that would formally preserve Azerbaijan\'s territorial integrity.RUSSIA TO BOOST CHECHNYA FORCES
By empty (5/11/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Russian President Vladimir Putin has paid a rare visit to Chechnya and pledged to send extra troops following the assassination of a key ally there. Mr Putin described the killing of Moscow-backed Chechen leader Akhmad Kadyrov as a \"lesson\" to Russia. More than 1,000 extra Russian troops will be sent to the Caucasus republic.CHECHEN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS TO TAKE PLACE IN SEPTEMBER
By empty (5/11/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Chechnya will elect its new president in September, Abdul-Kerim Arsakhanov, chairman of the republic\'s elections commission, told Interfax Tuesday. \"Under legislation, new presidential elections should be held in September,\" Arsakhanov said over the telephone from Grozny. Under the Chechen constitution, new presidential elections are to be held within 120 days after the republic\'s incumbent president stops performing his duties before the expiration of his presidential term.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.