By Marat Yermukanov (1/10/2007 issue of the CACI Analyst)

A mass fight involving hundreds of Turkish and Kazakh workers of a construction company hired by Tengizchevroil which broke out in Atyrau (West Kazakhstan) on October 20 led, according to eyewitness reports, to deaths and dozens of heavy injuries, and triggered public anger in Kazakhstan. Last year, some workers were beaten to death in a similar brawl between local and foreign workers employed by the Turkish company GATE Inshaat in that region. But the Foreign Ministry of Kazakhstan and the Turkish Embassy reacted calmly and made simultaneous statements assuring that the incident would not affect in any way friendly relations between the fraternal countries.

By Bobby Anderson (1/10/2007 issue of the CACI Analyst)

This construction is about much more than transportation; it will bring a traditionally lawless area under the sway of Kabul and put coercive state elements within rapid striking distance of previously-unchallenged peripheral elites. Afghanistan will be one step closer to being a unified state.

In Afghanistan’s lawless northwest, the ring road has always been a dilapidated dirt track which signifies a four day ride from Herat to Mazar-i-Sharif.

By Kakha Jibladze (12/13/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)

On November 12, the people of the unrecognized South Ossetia participated in two equally unrecognized elections and referendums. As a result, the conflicted territory now boasts two de facto presidents and their respective governments: Eduard Kokoity, the winner of the de facto election in the Tskhinvali region and other parts of the territory, and Sanakoev, who received votes from the Georgian-controlled part of the territory.

According to analysts close to the peace negotiations, Sanakoev represents a solution to a long-standing problem: while Kokoity boasts the support of the Ossetian population, there was no forum for the Georgian population which remains in the territory of the former Soviet Autonomous Region of South Ossetia.