News Digest
ABDUCTED GEORGIAN NGO HEAD RELEASED
By empty (3/26/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
David Badzagua, who was abducted by Abkhaz gunmen in Abkhazia\'s Gali Raion in January, was handed over to Georgian police on 26 March. Badzagua told the independent Georgian TV station Rustavi-2 that his captors informed him that he was taken hostage because of his activities as head of an NGO that promotes friendship between young Georgians and Abkhaz. (Caucasus Press).AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENT DENIES EXISTENCE OF AGREEMENTS ON KARABAKH SETTLEMENT
By empty (3/26/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Ilham Aliyev told journalists in Baku on 24 March on his return from an official visit to Tashkent that there is no truth to Armenian claims that during talks in early 2001 in Paris and Florida, his father and predecessor, former President Heidar Aliyev, reached agreement with Armenian President Robert Kocharian on resolving the Karabakh conflict. Armenian officials have repeatedly said the two presidents reached an informal agreement, but the late Azerbaijani president and other senior Azerbaijani officials have steadfastly denied it. Addressing a conference in Bratislava last week, Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian said Heidar Aliyev and Kocharian committed to paper in Florida in April 2001, but did not sign, an agreement reached orally in Paris two months earlier.GEORGIAN PRESIDENT ACCUSES ADJAR LEADER OF SEEKING TO RECRUIT MERCENARIES
By empty (3/25/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
President Saakashvili told journalists on 24 March that he has information that Adjar State Council Chairman Aslan Abashidze is seeking to hire foreign mercenaries in Chechnya and Ukraine for use in the event of an armed standoff with the central Georgian government. Abashidze denied those allegations. In Kyiv, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry summoned Georgian Ambassador Grigol Katamadze on 25 March and demanded an explanation of Saakashvili\'s remarks, which it termed \"inadmissible\" in the light of Ukraine\'s efforts to help resolve the Abkhaz conflict.U.S.-GEORGIAN BILATERAL SECURITY AGREEMENT SIGNED
By empty (3/24/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania and U.S. Ambassador to Georgia Richard Miles signed a new bilateral agreement on security assistance on 23 March, Civil Georgia reported.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.