News Digest
PUTIN CALLS GEORGIAN PRESIDENT\'S OUSTER \'LOGICAL RESULT’
By empty (11/25/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
At a 24 November cabinet session, President Vladimir Putin said that the change of leadership in Tbilisi was \"the logical result of serious systemic mistakes in foreign, domestic, and economic policy\" made under former President Eduard Shevardnadze, ORT and RTR reported. Putin said Shevardnadze\'s foreign policy ignored \"the historic and cultural roots of the Georgian people,\" while domestic policy was \"helpless maneuvering between different political forces\" and economic policy was \"reduced to a demeaning struggle for handouts from abroad.\" Relations between Russia and Georgia have not been simple in recent years, but it should be stressed that Shevardnadze was not a dictator, noted the Russian president.TURKMEN MOSQUE CLOSED DOWN FOR REFUSING TO PLACE PRESIDENT\'S BOOK NEXT TO KORAN
By empty (11/24/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
A mosque in a Turkmen town outside Ashgabat has been closed down by authorities because its imam refused to display President Saparmurat Niyazov\'s book on Turkmen history and traditions, the \"Rukhnama,\" beside the Koran, according to Norwegian-based Forum-18, a group that monitors religious freedom in the former Soviet Union. The town in which the incident took place was not identified, apparently out of fear of retaliation against the imam. Prior to the closure of the mosque by national security agents, a television crew had demanded to film the Koran lying next to the \"Rukhnama\" in order to show that Muslims honored both books equally.GEORGIA\'S NEW LEADER REPLACES MENTOR
By empty (11/24/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The former Soviet republic of Georgia has undergone a political upheaval, with opposition forces taking over the country\'s parliament and forcing the resignation of President Eduard Shevardnadze. Nino Burjanadze, 39, the woman who has become the acting president of Georgia, has replaced the man who was once her mentor. The mother of two, who comes from a well-connected and wealthy family in Georgia, was initially closely associated with the ousted president, Eduard Shevardnadze.U.N. AGENCY PULLS STAFF FROM AFGHANISTAN
By empty (11/18/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Unable to protect its staff from Afghanistan\'s cascade of violence, the U.N. refugee agency on Tuesday pulled international workers out of the volatile south and east and suspended all aid to refugees returning from Pakistan.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.