News Digest
TURKMENISTAN CREATES A NEW COMMISSION TO OVERSEE TRIPS ABROAD BY FORMER GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS
By empty (2/5/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov created a new commission that will make it harder for former government officials to slip out of the country, the state newspaper announced Wednesday. The commission will be headed by Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov and will include representatives from the Ministry of National Security, the border guards, the Interior Ministry and parliament, Neutral Turkmenistan reported. Its creation follows an alleged assassination attempt against Niyazov that authorities claim was organized by opposition figures, many living outside of the country, in a bid to seize power.AZERBAIJANI POLICE AGAIN RAID PROTEST VILLAGE
By empty (2/5/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Masked uniformed police launched an assault early on 5 February on some 100 protesters encamped on the main square of the village of Nardaran near Baku. Villagers claimed police opened fire without warning and began beating the protesters, injuring eight of them and detaining 15. They also claimed an unidentified gas was used during the assault.ARMENIAN ELECTION CAMPAIGN CHIEF STABBED
By empty (2/5/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
A group of men attacked an opposition Armenian presidential candidate\'s campaign chief on Tuesday, beating him and then knifing him in the back after he fired a gun into the air, the victim\'s political party said. Haik Babukhanian, who is Aram Karapetian\'s campaign chief and a member of parliament, was attacked at a campaign rally in Artashat, 35 kilometers south of the capital Yerevan, according to officials of his Constitutional Right Union party. Several drunk people began beating Babukhanian, then one knifed him in the back after he drew a pistol and fired into the air, party officials said.RUSSIA CREATES ITS OWN LIST OF TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS
By empty (2/4/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The Federal Security Service (FSB) on 4 February handed over to the Prosecutor-General\'s Office a list of 15 Russian and international organizations that have been officially deemed \"terrorist organizations\" by the Russian government, RIA-Novosti reported. Most of the organizations on the list are based in the Middle East and at least seven of them are also on a similar list compiled by the U.S.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.