News Digest
WORLD CONGRESS OF KYRGYZ OPENS IN BISHKEK
By empty (9/28/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
A World Kurultai (congress) of Kyrgyz opened on 28 August in Bishkek. Three hundred ethnic Kyrgyz, half of whom are citizens of Kyrgyzstan while the rest represent the Kyrgyz diaspora, are reported to be attending the event, which will end on 1 September following ceremonies celebrating the purported 2,200 years of Kyrgyz statehood and Kyrgyzstan\'s 12 years of independence, and honoring the Kyrgyz victims of tsarist repression in 1916. The event has stirred controversy because of its emphasis on Kyrgyz ethnicity, which has disturbed many of the country\'s ethnic Russians, and because of President Askar Akaev\'s intention to ask the congress to adopt a \"Democratic Code for Kyrgyzstan.KAZAKH SECURITY SERVICE SHUTS DOWN ALLEGED HIZB UT-TAHRIR PRINT SHOP
By empty (9/28/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The Kazakh National Security Committee has shut down an underground print shop that was allegedly turning out literature for the illegal Muslim extremist organization Hizb ut-Tahrir in Shymkent,the head of the security committee office in South Kazakhstan Oblast Vladimir Nakisbaev told Interfax Kazakhstan. Shymkent is the administrative center of South Kazakhstan Oblast. Nakisbaev said that the secret print shop was discovered on 25 August during a series of raids intended to stop the activities of banned extremist groups.CHINA EYES IRANIAN SWAPS FOR ITS KAZAKH CRUDE
By empty (9/28/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) is considering exporting a portion of crude from the North Buzachi field in Kazakhstan through Iran under a swap agreement. According to the deal, CNPC would deliver the Buzachi crude to the Iranian port of Neka on the Caspian in return for an equivalent amount of Iranian crude, which would be delivered at Kharg Island. It appears that CNPC wants to secure multiple routes for its crude, with exports also being shipped from Makhachkala, Novorossiisk and Azerbaijan.MURDERED CHECHEN WOMAN\'S FAMILY FLEES ABROAD
By empty (9/27/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The family of Elza Kungaeva, the young Chechen woman who was murdered in March 2000 by Russian Army Colonel Yurii Budanov, arrived on 27 August in Norway, where they have been granted refugee status, \"The Guardian\" reported on 28 August. The family has lived for the past three years in a displaced-persons\' camp in Ingushetia. Kungaeva\'s father, Visa Kungaev, said the family has received repeated threats of reprisals from Russian troops.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.