Field Reports
Tajikistan Blocks Radio Ozodi Website
By Oleg Salimov (the 03/05/2014 of the CACI Analyst)
Internet users in Tajikistan were unable to access the website of Radio Ozodi (Freedom) for about a month in February this year. Access was blocked by Tajik internet providers following the request of Tajik State Communication Services, as was announced by the administration of the radio. Radio Ozodi is the Tajik bureau of the nongovernmental nonprofit news agency Radio Free Europe/Radio Freedom, broadcasting from Czech Republic. It covers local news in the countries of the former Soviet Union with a particular focus on the development of democratic, economic, human rights, and social institutions. The on-air broadcasting of Radio Ozodi is banned in Tajikistan for political reasons. The radio offers an alternative to official information on events, analysis, and opinions. It also conducts anonymous polls on political, economic, and social issues in Tajikistan and abroad.
The recent blockage of Radio Ozodi website in Tajikistan is not a single occurrence. The internet access to opposition or government-critical websites is usually limited during various political events in the country. Among the most recent, it was reported that Radio Ozodi and a few other websites were blocked before Tajikistan’s parliamentary elections in the winter of 2010, during Tajikistan’s military operation in the Autonomous region of Badakhshan in the summer of 2012, after the President’s son Rustam Emomali’s wedding in the spring of 2013, before the presidential election in the fall of 2013, and during political protests in Ukraine in the winter of 2014. Radio Ozodi was live-streaming the protests in Kiev when the website became unavailable to Tajik internet users. Radio Ozodi states that, in their effort to create an illusion of technical difficulties rather than governmental control, Tajik officials frequently practice partial cutoff of internet access to the website, while it remains accessible in some regions of the country.
The last blockage of the Radio Ozodi website prompted a note of concern from the U.S. Embassy in Tajikistan, posted on the embassy’s website on February 24. In its note, the Embassy highlighted the repeated practice of Tajikistan’s government to limit internet access and block mass media websites, and expressed its support for freedom of expression and exchange of information. According to Radio Ozodi, the official response from the Tajik government stated that the government is unaware of any limitation or blockage of the website. However, shortly after the statement of the U.S. embassy, full access to the website was restored.
Due to the heavy control of TV, radio, and print media by the Tajik government, internet remains the main platform for uncensored expression of public concerns, complaints, and opinions as well as the only source of alternative and reliable information for Tajiks. However, as of 2012, only a little over a million out of 7.9 million Tajiks had access to the internet, according to Internet World Stat. Low income and underdevelopment are some of the main causes of internet unavailability. Regardless of a relatively small number of users, the Tajik government regularly bocks certain websites. Alongside Radio Ozodi, the list of frequently blocked websites also includes Facebook, Youtube, Russian social network “VKontakte,” and various foreign and local news websites.
The systematic blockage of internet websites resulted in an open letter to Tajik head of communications, Beg Zukhurov by Reporters without Borders in 2012. Also, the internet blockage and suppression of press were addressed by OCSE free media representative Dunja Mijatovic in a letter to Tajik Foreign Minister Khamrokhon Zarifi in July of 2012. However, the continuous practice of limiting access to news and social network websites demonstrates the Tajik government’s indifference to such appeals. The website blackouts are frequently carried out under the pretense of technical difficulties, scheduled maintenance, or unawareness of such problems.
Based on the frequency and selectiveness of website cutoffs, it can be concluded that the Tajik government is highly interested in establishing internet censorship in the republic. Lessons from the Arab Spring demonstrate the efficiency of masses collaboration and coordination against regimes via the internet and social networks. Radio Ozodi and other similar websites provide Tajik internet users with information and services which would otherwise be unavailable. While Tajikistan, under pressure from Western partners and human rights organizations, abolished the criminal penalty for defamation in 2012 which was perceived as a threat to journalists, the freedom of expression and free media is still suppressed and intimidated by the government. Tajik officials monitor information and sources thought to be malicious to the regime and employ administrative tools of control when necessary. The government realizes that although not comprehensively developed in Tajikistan, internet usage is a potential tool for fanning political upheaval and as a result, the reoccurring blockage of Radio Ozodi in Tajikistan is likely to persist.
Azerbaijani Journalist Charged with Spying for the U.S.
By Mina Muradova (the 03/05/2014 of the CACI Analyst)
Azerbaijani investigative reporter Khadija Ismayilova, well-known for her reporting on high-level corruption, is again under prosecution charged with spying for the U.S.. The U.S. Embassy has expressed its “deep disturbance” by “the ongoing, targeted harassment” of Ismayilova and described as “absurd” claims that she was passing along intelligence information to two American officials who met Ismayilova in late January.
Ismayilova works with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and hosts a daily analytical talk-show on Radio Azadliq, an RFE/RL channel in Azerbaijani. According to OCCRP, her award-winning investigations uncovered high-level corruption in Azerbaijan, including lucrative business deals of the Azerbaijani president’s family members, hidden interests of the president’s siblings in national contracts and mismanagement in the state financing sector.
In early 2012, she was targeted by a smear campaign in which an explicit video appeared on the Internet containing intimate and illegally obtained images of the journalist. In 2012 the Zeit Stiftung and Fritt Ord Foundation awarded Ismayilova with the Gerd Bucerius Free Press of Eastern Europe Award, while the Washington-based International Women Media Foundation gave her the Courage of Journalism Award.
The campaign intensified in August 2013 before the October Presidential elections when a new video appeared on the Internet and on February 13, Haqqani.az, a pro-governmental website, accused Ismayilova of passing information discrediting Azerbaijan’s opposition members to two congressional staffers who allegedly gather intelligence in Baku. The article was picked up by other pro-government media and amplified by parliamentarians, who demanded an investigation of Ismayilova and referred to RFE/RL as a "spy network of the U.S. in Azerbaijan."
The situation escalated when Ismayilova posted a scan on her Facebook page that appears to be evidence that the Ministry of National Security (MNS) hires an informer inside opposition circles. “On Feb 16 following the statements by government and pro-government media propaganda that I am involved in espionage, I posted on FB the picture - the scan of a so-called report leaked to me by a former employee of MNS,” Ismayilova said in her Facebook statement under the headline “Prosecutor is calling - Ministry of National Security is in trouble”. According to Ismayilova, the paper was an “alleged report by an MNS employee to his chief about the guaranteed cooperation with one member of a small opposition party.”
Stipulating terms and threatening blackmail, the document suggests an active government effort to infiltrate the political opposition. The paper reads that the informer receives 600 AZN as a monthly fee from the MNS Internal Intelligence Department for informing and creating conflicts within the opposition. Besides, the paper alleged that the MNS has additional means for pressuring the informant in the form of intimate videos.
“If the prosecutor's office opens this case, it means that the document is authentic and that the MNS has been spying on the private lives of opposition members and blackmailing them with the video,” - Ismayilova said in her Facebook statement.
On February 18, Ismayilova was summoned as a witness to the Prosecutor’s Office within an investigation into the leaking of state secrets. The U.S. Embassy dismissed the espionage charges and stated that "congressional staff delegations routinely visit Azerbaijan to meet with embassy staff, Azerbaijani officials, and civil society representatives. They do so to better inform our government’s legislative efforts regarding Azerbaijan and the rest of the region."
Ismayilova confirms that she had a routine meeting with congressional staffers, but nothing more. She noted that the Prosecutor’s Office was focusing "mainly on my dinner in Baku's Art-Garden restaurant with two visiting U.S. Senate staffers in late January. The prosecutor told me that they have information that I allegedly passed some kind of state secrets to the visiting Americans. I said that it is impossible, since I don't have any state secrets in my possession. This is an absurd allegation."
Ismayilova was charged under Article 284 of Azerbaijan’s criminal court for “revealing a state secret”.
This case was officially initiated after a Member of Parliament from the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan party, Jeyhun Osmanli, submitted an audio recording to prosecutors that he claimed to have secretly in a Baku restaurant, when Ismayilova was talking to “foreign nationals.” On his Facebook page, Osmanli declared that “betrayal of the Motherland will not be forgiven.” Eldar Sultanov, a spokesman for the Prosecutor General’s Office, confirmed that Osmanli provided prosecutors with the audio recording of Ismayilova’s conversation in the restaurant. “This audio recording is under thorough investigation and a relevant decision will be taken,” he said.
On February 22, another RFE/RL journalist, Yafez Hasanov, posted on Facebook that he had received death threats over his critical reporting on human rights violations in Nakhchivan and appealed to the Interior Minister and General Prosecutor provide him with necessary security measures.
In an open letter, U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (MD), Chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (U.S. Helsinki Commission) called on the Government of Azerbaijan to stop its harassment of all journalists and to respect freedom of the media, a commitment it has undertaken. Cardin noted that this harassment is a part of an “unfortunate string of politically-motivated arrests of Azerbaijani’s who are exercising their rights to free speech.” He termed the list of those jailed on criminal charges in the period prior to the 2013 presidential election, as “troubling.”
Kyrgyzstan's President Announces 2014 as Year of Strengthening Statehood
By Jamil Payaz (the 19/02/2014 of the CACI Analyst)
On January 30, President Almazbek Atambayev signed a decree announcing 2014 as the year of strengthening statehood. He stated that the main threats to Kyrgyzstan’s statehood emanate from tensions within the political elite and irresponsible activities of some politicians that jeopardize national security and people’s unity. The decree comes at a time when the opposition has grown increasingly weak after a number of corruption cases have been launched against its leaders. Critics say the government’s campaign for enforcing the rule of law and against corruption are applied selectively.
Tajikistan Ratifies Agreement with Russia on Tajik Labor Migrants
By Oleg Salimov (the 19/02/2014 of the CACI Analyst)
As reported by an official press release on February 12, 2014, Tajikistan's parliament ratified the recently signed "Protocol of amendments to the Tajikistan-Russia governmental agreement on labor activities of their citizens in the host countries." This protocol came in addition to an earlier agreement signed on October 16, 2004. The ratified amendments extend the validity of work permits issued by Russia to Tajik labor migrants from one to three years. Tajik labor migrants can now stay in Russia longer, without needing to leave and reenter the country every year as was provisioned by the initial agreement.
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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.