News Digest
ABKHAZIA BOYCOTTS TALKS UNDER UN AEGIS
By empty (2/16/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The Abkhaz leadership has declined to send a delegation to attend talks in Geneva on 17-18 February on the Abkhaz conflict. The talks involve UN Secretary General Kofi Annan\'s special envoy Heidi Tagliavini, and representatives of the Georgian government and of the five countries (Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany) that belong to the Friends of the UN Secretary-General group tasked with seeking a solution to the conflict. Abkhaz Foreign Minister Sergei Shamba said the unrecognized republic will not send a representative, as the meeting is to discuss a UN-drafted proposal that assumes Abkhazia is an integral part of Georgia.UZBEKISTAN BLAMES KYRGYZSTAN FOR CURRENT WATER PROBLEMS IN SYR DARYA BASIN
By empty (2/16/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Uzbek President Islam Karimov sent a letter to his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbaev on 14 February blaming the current excess of water in the basin of the Syr Darya River on Kyrgyzstan\'s carelessness in releasing water from the Toktogul reservoir. Karimov said this is not the first year that Kyrgyzstan has put its own needs for power generation before the irrigation needs of its downstream neighbors, adding that all the countries of the Syr Darya basin should be involved in decisions about the river\'s water. Kyrgyzstan has argued that it needed to generate additional electricity to meet a contract to sell power to Russia.AZERBAIJANI PRINTING HOUSE APPEALS TO ECONOMIC COURT
By empty (2/14/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The independent publishing house Chap Evi has appealed to the Economic Court the decision by the power-distribution concern Barmek to deprive it permanently of electricity. The publishing house is demanding 40 million manats ($8,115) in damages. Meanwhile, the owner of the building in which the publishing house is located has asked Chap Evi director Shahbaz Khudaoglu to vacate the premises within five days.CENTRAL ASIAN STATES REACH FLOODING DEAL
By empty (2/13/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Four Central Asian governments have reached agreement in a bid to avert serious flooding from a huge reservoir which is threatening to break its banks.Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan struck the deal in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek to implement measures to prevent the Chardara reservoir from submerging nearby districts.Water levels in the reservoir, which lies in southern Kazakhstan but is also used by Uzbekistan, have been rising for several months.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.