Field Reports
KOCHARYAN UNLIKELY TO PARTICIPATE IN ARMENIAN ELECTIONS BEFORE 2018
By Haroutiun Khachatrian (11/2/2011 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The return of Armenia’s second President Robert Kocharyan to national politics is unlikely to affect the parliamentary elections in May 2012, since Kocharyan is officially a non-partisan and does not enjoy the support of any political party. However, the question of Kocharyan’s potential return to politics has attracted significant attention in the Armenian press in the context of pre-election developments in Russia. When the decision that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will most likely replace Dmitry Medvedev as Russian President was announced on September 24, many Armenian media outlets argued that a similar arrangement is possible in Armenia, due to the country’s close ties with Russia.
NEW LAW ON RELIGIONS IN KAZAKHSTAN CRITICIZED BY MUSLIMS AND NGOs
By Georgiy Voloshin (10/19/2011 issue of the CACI Analyst)
On October 13, Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed into law a new bill regulating the activities of religious organizations, both domestic and international. This law, whose adoption by the Parliament’s lower and upper chambers took only a few weeks, has quickly become a source of serious controversy, with its detractors constantly referring to the discriminatory effect of its several clauses, in a country with a multitude of religious confessions.
The most controversial provision of the newly adopted law is contained in Article 7, which states that public authorities and state-run organizations should no longer be open to any kind of religious rituals, for example including Muslim prayers, still practiced even by some high-ranking officials.
GEORGIAN BILLIONAIRE ANNOUNCES POLITICAL AMBITIONS
By Maka Gurgenidze (10/19/2011 issue of the CACI Analyst)
In written statements released on October 7 and 12, Georgian tycoon and philanthropist Bidzina Ivanishvili publicly expressed his intention to win the 2012 parliamentary elections by an absolute majority. Although the Civil Registry Agency launched procedures for revoking the Georgian citizenship of the billionaire-turned-politician, depriving him the right to establish and finance a political party, Ivanishvili’s announced ambitions triggered vast speculation on a probable redesign of Georgia’s political landscape.
Ivanishvili, who amassed the major portion of his US$ 5.
SARKOZY’S VISIT COULD OPEN NEW PERSPECTIVES FOR ARMENIA
By Armen Grigoryan (10/19/2011 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The approach adopted by the Turkish government – setting resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as a precondition for normalizing its relations with Armenia – has not produced the expected result. Quite the contrary, such an approach induced Armenia’s government to adopt a more confrontational stance, which has been emphasized by President Serzh Sargsyan’s statements at various forums, including the UN General Assembly, about recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh’s independence as the only feasible solution, as well as by the big military parade in Yerevan on 21 September – Armenia’s Independence Day.
Several factors are allowing Sargsyan to use harsher rhetoric.
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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.