By empty (2/17/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Several members of the Kyrgyz Legislative Assembly walked out of a parliamentary session on 16 February to protest what they called discrimination against the state language. Opposition parliamentarian Azimbek Beknazarov later told akipress.org that he refused to look at a draft law submitted by the government in Russian, which in Kyrgyzstan has the status of \"official language,\" and a number of other parliamentarians agreed with him.

By empty (2/17/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

A press secretary for Kazakhstan\'s Agency for Extreme Situations, Kairzhan Turezhanov, told Deutsche Welle on 17 February that the collapse of the Turkish-built aqua park in Moscow has prompted Kazakh officials to approve a check of all Turkish-built structures in Almaty and Astana. The agency had already intended to look closely at such structures built in seismic zones, but the tragedy in Moscow motivated the agency to ask the government to agree to begin the inspections as quickly as possible and to expand its scope to include all buildings constructed by Turkish firms in recent years. Turkish construction firms have been prominent in the building boom in Almaty in the last five years, and have been responsible for more than 60 percent of construction projects in Astana since that city became the capital.

By empty (2/16/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Mirmahmud Fattaev, who heads the conservative wing of the divided Azerbaijan Popular Front Party (AHCP), told journalists in Baku on 16 February that the two parties that split in recent years from the AHCP have responded favorably to his 10 February proposal that they reunite. Fattaev advocated the reunification of his AHCP wing with the AHCP progressive wing headed by Ali Kerimli and the so-called Three G Group (Gruppa Gudrata Gasankulieva) headed by Gudrat Gasanquliyev. Kerimli\'s faction has signaled its willingness to realign with Fattaev\'s party, but ruled out any rapprochement with the Three Gs group, which is widely suspected of cooperating clandestinely with the Azerbaijani authorities.