News Digest
KYRGYZ PRESIDENT APPEALS FOR \'PEACE AND UNITY\'
By empty (5/20/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Addressing the upper chamber of the Kyrgyz parliament on 17 May, a visibly strained President Askar Akaev appealed to the opposition to help find a peaceful solution to the mass demonstrations and protests that have wracked the country in recent months. He said the pickets in Bishkek and elsewhere to protest the parliament\'s ratification of the 1999 border agreement with China \"run counter to our laws.\" Also on 17 May, a government commission headed by Deputy Prime Minister Bazarbai Mambetov left Bishkek for the south of the country to meet with the thousands of protesters who have been blocking traffic on the main Bishkek-Osh highway since 13 May.ARMENIAN OPPOSITION CLAIMS DOZENS OF ACTIVISTS ARRESTED
By empty (5/20/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Representatives of the 13 opposition parties that organized a series of mass demonstrations over the past six weeks to demand President Kocharian\'s resignation claimed on 17 May that police have resorted to an \"unprecedented\" crackdown, arresting dozens of activists and imposing fines on others for their participation in \"unsanctioned\" street protests. Artak Zeynalian of the opposition Hanrapetutiun party said police forced their way into apartments to carry out such arrests, while Democratic Party of Armenia Chairman Aram Sarkisian said that the court proceedings that culminated in some activists being fined were carried out in violation of correct legal procedure. (RFE/RL) .GEORGIAN, ABKHAZ GOVERNMENT DELEGATIONS MEET
By empty (5/20/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)
During talks in Gali on 20 May, Georgian and Abkhaz government delegations failed to reach agreement on measures to clarify the situation in the Kodori Gorge. The Abkhaz side continues to insist on the creation of a stationary post manned by CIS peacekeepers and UN observers in the village of Azhara in the upper, Georgian-controlled reaches of the gorge; the Georgians oppose this. The two sides did agree, however, to cooperate on the restoration of the Inguri hydroelectric power station, which is to be financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank at a cost of some $38 million.OPPOSITION LEADER, GEORGIAN PRESIDENT TRADE CHARGES
By empty (5/20/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)
In his traditional Monday radio broadcast, President Shevardnadze said on 20 May that he considers the local election slogan of the opposition National Movement-Democratic Front (EMDP) headed by Mikhail Saakashvili, which advocates \"Georgia Without Shevardnadze\" as anticonstitutional, illegal, and intended to destabilize the domestic political situation. Shevardnadze stressed that he was popularly elected, and expressed doubt that the population at large would support the EMDP slogan. Saakashvili for his part responded the same day that in a democratic society everyone has the right to criticize the president if such criticism is merited.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.