News Digest
AZERBAIJANI PROSECUTOR CALLS FOR PRISON TERM FOR POPULAR IMAM
By empty (4/1/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The prosecutor has called for Ilgar Ibrahimoglu, the popular imam of Baku\'s Djuma Mosque, to be sentenced to 4 1/2 years\' imprisonment for his alleged role in the clashes in Baku on 16 October in the wake of the previous day\'s disputed presidential election. Ibrahimoglu, who also heads the Center for the Defense of Freedom of Conscience and Religious Belief, was accompanying a group of OSCE election observers who witnessed, but did not participate in, the 16 October clashes between police and opposition supporters. In his closing statement he told the court that \"I feel like a victim of the inquisition.DONORS PLEDGE $8.2BN AFGHAN AID
By empty (4/1/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Donor countries have pledged $8.2bn (£4.4bn) in aid for Afghanistan over the next three years, said Afghan Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani.78 ABDUCTED IN CHECHNYA IN 2004
By empty (3/31/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Seventy-eight Chechen residents have been kidnapped in the republic since the beginning of the year, the Memorial human rights center said. \"Our tentative report suggests that 78 residents have been abducted in Chechnya since the beginning of 2004. Of them, 33 have been released, 41 are believed to have gone missing and four have been found dead,\" Memorial spokesman Dmitry Grushkin told Interfax on Wednesday.GEORGIAN RIGHT-WING OPPOSITION FEARS REVISION OF ELECTION OUTCOME
By empty (3/31/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Gogi Topadze and David Gamkrelidze, co-leaders of the Industrialists-New Rightists election alliance, told journalists in Tbilisi on 31 March that they suspect the Georgian authorities of planning to annul the 28 March election results in constituencies in Akhaltsikhe, Akhmeta, Kareli, Gardabani, and Sighnakhi where their bloc collected a large number of votes. As of late 30 March, with 93 percent of the ballots counted, the ruling National Movement-Democrats had 67.7 percent, followed by the Industrialists-New Rightists with 7.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.