News Digest
TURKMENISTAN SIGNS CONTRACTS WITH TWO JAPANESE COMPANIES
By empty (8/19/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Following talks in Ashgabat on 19 August between President Saparmurat Niyazov and a delegation of Japanese businessmen, the Turkmen government signed eight-year cooperation agreements with Itochu Corporation and Komatsu Ltd. The Japanese companies will provide machinery for the construction of oil and gas pipelines and highways, and build a network of some 20 small factories, each of which is to produce annually some 70,000-100,000 cubic meters of liquefied natural gas. They will also participate in the controversial construction of a huge artificial lake in the Karakorum desert.TURKISH BUSINESSMEN CALL FOR REOPENING BORDER WITH ARMENIA
By empty (8/19/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Some 30-40 Turkish businessmen from the cities of Kars, Igdir, and Artvin in eastern Anatolia met on 17 August in Yerevan with the Armenian Union of Industrialists and Businessmen to discuss how to promote bilateral trade, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. Both Armenian and Turkish participants expressed frustration at successive Turkish governments' refusal either to open the border between the two countries or to lift the ban on imports of Armenian goods. (RFE/RL).GEORGIA DENIES MAINTAINING CONTACTS WITH CHECHEN PRESIDENT
By empty (8/19/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Georgian Foreign Ministry spokesman Kakha Sikharulidze on 16 August rejected as "absurd" Russian Foreign Ministry allegations that the Georgian authorities have consistently maintained contact with Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov via the Chechen representation in Tbilisi. "There were no such contacts in the past. There will be no such contacts in the future," Sikharulidze said.PLANS APPROVED FOR REBUILDING CHECHEN CAPITAL
By empty (8/17/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The Russian government has approved a plan for rebuilding Grozny over a period of five years. Chechen Prime Minister Stanislav Ilyasov said it is anticipated the city will have 600,000 residents. The more polluted areas in the west of the city will not be rebuilt, but instead a new district housing 100,000 people will be built on the southeastern outskirts.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.