GEORGIA’S REVOLUTION TAKES A DANGEROUS TURN
By Nino Tetelashvili (5/5/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: Abashidze has until recently prohibited the activities of opposition political parties, journalists and civil society activists; brazenly manipulated electoral processes; and refused to share customs and taxes with the federal government or even to visit Tbilisi. Since his election as Georgia’s president in January, Mikhail Saakashvili has consistently applied ever greater degrees of pressure against Abashidze and has obtained significant concessions. Presently, Georgian media, opposition parties, and civil society leaders operate freely in Ajaria and are not harassed in their activities.UZBEKISTAN’S REACTION TO TASHKENT BOMBINGS GENERATE DOUBTS ON EFFICACY
By Hooman Peimani (4/21/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: Armed opposition groups advocating violence to achieve their political goals emerged in Uzbekistan around the mid-1990s. Among them, the most organized one was the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), a group mainly based in the Ferghana Valley seeking the overthrow of the Uzbek government and the establishment of a fundamentalist Islamic state. It has since been implicated in a variety of violent activities against the Uzbek security forces, including a series of bombings in Tashkent in 1999.KAZAKHSTAN’S ELECTION LAW
By Olivia Allison (4/21/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: Both houses of parliament overwhelmingly approved the draft in its second reading Feb. 20, and the law passed a third reading shortly after that. President Nursultan Nazarbaev had presented the first governmental version Sept.THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE AJARIAN CRISIS
By Mamuka Tsereteli (4/21/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: The uncertainty created by the deteriorating relationships between the Georgian central government in Tbilsi and the Ajarian leadership in Batumi has caused producers and shippers from the Caspian to seek alternative transportation routes. This process has accelerated since the “economic blockade” of Ajaria in March. Although it was in theory a blockade of Ajaria only, its impact was felt from Caspian producers to European refineries.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.