By Gulnara Imsailova (11/5/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

The Head of the Central Electoral Commission Mazahir Panahov declared that the elections were free and fair. Simultaneously the secretary of the CEC from the opposition, Vidadi Mahmudov, declared that everyone knew in advance that some provisions of the Election Code were “in the hands of \" the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan Party, and it consequently became an obstacle for carrying out democratic elections.

In a ceremony on October 31, President Aliyev was inaugurated in the Republic palace, with 2000 guests.

By Maria Utyaganova (11/5/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

The airbase in Kant, a small town 20 km away from the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek, was established as a part of the rapid deployment force under the auspices of the Collective Security Treaty Organization. The CSTO was formed two years ago by six former Soviet republics: Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Tajikistan and Belarus. At the press conference following the opening ceremony, the Russian president said that “by creating an air shield here in Kyrgyzstan we expect to strengthen security in the region, whose stability has become a tangible factor affecting the development of the international situation”.

By Rustam Mukhamedov (10/22/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

In the past, the territory of Uzbekistan was famous for its Islamic schools, which were located in Bukhara and Samarkand, and for theologians like Imam Al-Bukhari, who was one of the several scholars in the Islamic world, who collected the majority of the Hadith (the stories from the life of Prophet Mohammed). Being an Islamic center in Central Asia, the population of Uzbekistan is on the whole composed of more pious followers of Islam than the people of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. But today, Uzbekistan’s government tries to build a secular state, while fighting against radical movements such as the Islamic movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), Wahhabi and Hizb-ut-Tahrir.