News Digest
NEW LAW ON RELIGION GOES INTO EFFECT IN TURKMENISTAN
By empty (11/10/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
A new, more restrictive law on religious activities went into effect in Turkmenistan on 10 November. The new law formally criminalizes religious activities by any confession that is not registered by the Justice Ministry -- in effect, any confession other than Sunni Islam and Russian Orthodoxy. Violators may be sentenced to one year of corrective labor.TAJIK FOREIGN MINISTRY RAISES LATEST LAND-MINE INCIDENT WITH UZBEKISTAN
By empty (11/10/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The Tajik Foreign Ministry has sent a note to the Uzbek Embassy in Dushanbe expressing concern over the latest incident of Tajik citizens being killed and wounded by land mines planted on the Tajik-Uzbek border by the Uzbek military. Two Tajik citizens were killed by Uzbek landmines on 4 November and three others were wounded. In its note, the Tajik ministry pointed out that since Uzbekistan mined the border with Tajikistan\'s Sughd Oblast in 2000, more than 80 Tajik citizens have been killed or injured, and appealed to the Uzbek authorities to take the necessary measures to prevent further incidents.FORMER KAZAKH AMBASSADOR BECOMES OPPOSITION PARTY LEADER
By empty (11/10/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The third congress of the Kazakh opposition party Ak Zhol (Bright Path) on 9 November elected Altynbek Sarsenbaev, the recently recalled Kazakh ambassador to Russia, to the post of party co-chairman, along with four others. Before he represented Kazakhstan in Moscow, Sarsenbaev served as secretary of the Kazakh Security Council. He has reportedly described his return to Kazakhstan as the return of a \"heavyweight\" to the domestic political scene.EXXON STARTS CASPIAN\'S DEEPEST WELL OFF AZERBAIJAN
By empty (11/10/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
U.S. oil giant Exxon Mobil said on Monday it had started drilling an oil well of a depth of 6.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.