News Digest
Azerbaijan voters approve referendum, opposition vows protest
By empty (8/26/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)
PRIVATE Central election officials in Azerbaijan say voters have overwhelmingly approved proposed constitutional changes put forth in a controversial referendum held Saturday, but Azerbaijan's political opposition rejects the claim and says it is preparing a formal protest over alleged cases of fraud. The electoral officials say voters in Azerbaijan have handed President Geidar Aliyev a resounding endorsement for constitutional change. The officials say 97 percent of the country's more than four million voters approved proposed amendments to change the way the president and parliament are elected in the former Soviet Republic.ARMENIAN POWER GRID FINALLY SOLD
By empty (8/26/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Midland Resources Holding, the only bidder, was on 24 August declared the winner of a tender for an 81.1 percent stake in Armenia's low-voltage power-distribution networks, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. The company, which is owned by a Canadian citizen and registered in the Channel Islands, paid $37.TAJIKISTAN, UZBEKISTAN SIGN TRANSIT AGREEMENTS
By empty (8/26/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Following talks in Dushanbe on 23 August, the prime ministers of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, Oqil Oqilov and Utkir Sultanov, signed agreements on rail transit, television broadcasting, and the procedure for servicing Tajikistan's debt to Uzbekistan. They also signed a protocol on the functioning of border checkpoints, and discussed progress in delimitation of their shared border, 70 percent of which has been demarcated. Oqilov said the accords will stimulate bilateral economic cooperation.RED CROSS TO PROVIDE FUNDS TO TREAT TB IN KYRGYZSTAN, TURKMENISTAN
By empty (8/26/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The International Red Cross is to provide some 300,000 British pounds ($455,971) to fund a program to prevent the spread of tuberculosis in Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan. The organization estimated the number of persons suffering from that disease in Kyrgyzstan at 100,000, and in Turkmenistan at 90,000, with some 9,400 new cases diagnosed annually in each country. (The population of Kyrgyzstan is 4.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.