News Digest
ARMENIAN CONSTITUTIONAL COURT REJECTS OPPOSITION ELECTION APPEAL
By empty (7/8/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The Constitutional Court on 7 July rejected an appeal by the opposition alliance Artarutiun to invalidate the results of the party-list voting in the 25 May parliamentary election. The opposition argued that as a result of deliberate and widespread falsification, the percentage of votes cast for Artarutiun under the proportional system was reduced from more than 50 percent to 14 percent. The court acknowledged that widespread irregularities occurred during the election process, but denied that the opposition arguments constituted hard evidence that could serve as a legal basis for invalidating the election outcome.KARZAI APOLOGISES FOR EMBASSY ATTACK
By empty (7/8/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has apologised to Islamabad after protesters attacked Pakistan\'s embassy in Kabul. He told Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf that those responsible were enemies of peace and stability in the country and promised to compensate them for the damage. The ransackers broke away from a 1,000-strong rally in protest against alleged Pakistani incursions into Afghanistan.FRENCH DEFENSE MINISTER VISITS KAZAKHSTAN
By empty (7/7/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie paid her first visit to Kazakhstan on 7 July, discussing military and technical cooperation with President Nazarbaev and the country\'s top military leadership. Alliot-Marie told journalists that the French leadership is interested in cooperating with its partners in Central Asia to analyze the unstable situation developing in that region. She also offered French help to Kazakhstan in professionalizing its army and discussed French interest in using Kazakh military testing grounds for joint training exercises.SEVEN ARMENIAN PRO-COMMUNIST PARTIES ALIGN
By empty (7/7/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Seven Armenian pro-Communist parties announced their merger into the United Communist Party of Armenia on 7 July. The seven are the Communist Party of the Working People, the United Progressive Communist Party, the Workers\' Union, the Union of Communists, the Party of Intellectuals, the Marxist Party, and the Renewed Communist Party of Armenia. The original Communist Party of Armenia founded in 1920 continues to exist as a separate entity.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.