News Digest
GEORGIAN PRESIDENT INTENDS TO TAKE CONTROL OF AJARIA
By empty (3/5/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, after returning to Tbilisi from Baku on Friday, commented on Ajarian leader Aslan Abashidze\'s statement about the Georgian authorities\' intention to take total control of Ajaria. \"I declare that I do want to take control of Ajaria, and I will take it,\" Saakashvili said. \"Enough with disorder and lawlessness; I am not [former president] Shevardnadze, and I do not intend to break up Georgia,\" Saakashvili said.12 JAILED FOR POSTELECTION CLASHES IN AZERBAIJAN
By empty (3/5/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
In five separate court cases that ended on 4 and 5 March, 12 people have been sentenced to prison terms of three to six years for their alleged participation in the clashes in Baku between police and opposition supporters in the wake of the disputed 15 October presidential election. A further 26 defendants received suspended sentences. In a statement released on 5 March, the opposition Musavat Party condemned the sentences as based on fabricated charges substantiated by false testimony and false witnesses.GEORGIA AND AZERBAIJAN BUILD ON PIPELINE TIES WITH SAAKASHVILI VISIT
By empty (3/4/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Georgia\'s President Mikhail Saakashvili met with his Azeri counterpart Ilham Aliyev during a visit designed to reinforce friendly ties between the two neighbours and partners in a strategic oil pipeline project. Good relations between the two nations are seen as crucial to the multi-billion-dollar (euro) Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, which will export crude from the landlocked Caspian Sea, across Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, to world markets. It was the first time the leaders of the two former Soviet republics in the Caucasus had met.43 ABDUCTED IN CHECHNYA IN 2004 - HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS
By empty (3/4/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Forty-three citizens were kidnapped in Chechnya in 2004, Executive Director of the Memorial human rights center Tatiana Kasatkina told Interfax on Thursday. \"As far as we know, 37 people went missing in January, five in February and one in March,\" she said, adding that this information is incomplete. The number of abductions could increase in February, Kasatkina said.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.