News Digest
AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENT RULES OUT INDEPENDENCE FOR KARABAKH
By empty (7/21/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)
President Ilham Aliyev told a cabinet session in Baku on 21 July that the independence of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic cannot be a subject of discussion \"today, tomorrow, in 10 years, or in 100 years.\" He predicted that \"the occupation of Azerbaijani territory will not last forever,\" but stressed that those territories will be liberated \"peacefully, by means of negotiations.\" Aliyev again advocated a step-by-step approach to resolving the conflict, saying that the occupied territories should be liberated and the former residents of those districts repatriated prior to discussion of the future status of the NKR.TAJIK NATIONAL DEBT CLOSE TO $1 BILLION
By empty (7/21/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Tajik Finance Minister Safarali Najmuddinov told a news conference in Dushanbe on 20 July that Tajikistan\'s national debt now stands at $905 million, or 40 percent of GDP, RFE/RL\'s Tajik Service reported. The national debt in 2000 was $1.3 billion, or 70 percent of GDP, Najmuddinov said.AZERBAIJANI GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL IMPLICATES TOP MUSLIM CLERGYMAN IN
By empty (7/20/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Speaking recently on the independent television station ANS TV, State Council for Religious Affairs Chairmen Rafik Aliev alleged that on two occasions within the past three months state customs officials have intercepted and confiscated consignments of radical Islamic literature addressed to the Caucasus Muslim Board (UMK). Aliev said the first consignment of books weighed 14 tons and the second 10 tons. But UMK officials claimed that the literature in question was in Arabic, Uzbek, and Kazakh, and was intended for shipment to Uzbekistan.RUSSIA PLANS TO LAUNCH IRAN\'S FIRST SATELLITE
By empty (7/20/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Russia plans to launch Mesbah, the first Iranian communications satellite, by the end of this summer, RIA-Novosti reported on 20 July. The Mesbah satellite will be used to control power-supply systems and pipelines, as well as collect data on ground and water resources. According to an agreement signed in January, Russia will launch a second satellite for Iran in 2007.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.