News Digest
LAWYER SAYS ARRESTED AZERBAIJANI YOUTH LEADER SUBJECTED TO \'TORTURE\'
By empty (8/17/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Elchin Gambarov, an attorney representing Ruslan Bashirli, leader of the opposition youth group Yeni Fikir, was quoted on 17 August by echo-az.com as saying that Bashirli was systematically beaten the day following his arrest earlier this month in such a way as not to leave marks on his body. Bashirli was taken into custody on 3 August shortly after returning from a visit to Tbilisi during which -- to judge from video footage shown on Azerbaijani television -- he accepted money from men identified as Armenian intelligence agents and pledged to destabilize the political situation in Azerbaijan.BLAIR SEEKS DECISION ON UZBEKS IN LINE WITH UN CONVENTIONS
By empty (8/16/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he hopes that a decision on the 15 Uzbek refugees being held at a pre- trial detention center in the Kyrgyz city of Osh will be made in compliance with UN conventions in a letter to Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who was inaugurated on August 14, 439 Uzbek refugees who fled to Kyrgyzstan after a May uprising in the southern Uzbek city of Andizhan have already been flown to third countries. The Uzbek authorities accuse the 15 remaining refugees of being involved in serious crimes and demand their extradition. Meanwhile, the UN refugee agency has so far granted refugee status to 12 of them.TURKMENISTAN NEARLY COMPLETES SHAKE-UP OF OIL AND GAS SECTOR
By empty (8/16/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Presidential fury completed Monday full circle of the oil and gas sector of Turkmenistan when the head of Turkmengeoligia was removed from his job. State minister and chairman of state concern Turkmengeologia, Orazmuhammet Agageldiyev, was removed through a presidential decree because of ‘serious drawbacks’ in his work. He has been replaced by Ishanguly Nuriyev, who would be on probation for a period of six months.RUSSIA TELLS GEORGIA TO RETURN CARGO SEIZED FROM PEACEKEEPERS
By empty (8/15/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The Russian embassy in Tbilisi has described as a provocation the seizure of a cargo for Russian peacekeeping forces in the zones of the Georgian-Abkhazian and Georgian- Ossetian conflicts. \"On August 12, Georgian officials stopped two trucks of the Collective Peacekeeping Force and the Joint Peacekeeping Force, carrying cargo for the peacekeeping battalions, despite the fact that both vehicles had signs identifying them as belonging to the peacekeeping battalions, as well as accompanying documents,\" The Russian embassy in Georgia said in a statement on Friday. \"This action violates existing agreements.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.