News Digest
MINISTER'S ASSASSINATION, BOMB BLAST CAST PALL OVER TAJIK INDEPENDENCE CELEBRATIONS
By empty (9/10/2001 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Tajikistan's Minister of Culture Abdurahim Rahimov was shot dead outside his home in Dushanbe early on 8 September by a lone gunman who then escaped. It was the third such killing of a senior government official so far this year. Law-enforcement officials described the shooting as "a terrorist act," while President Imomali Rakhmonov condemned the unknown perpetrators as "enemies of the Tajik people.NEW HUMAN RIGHTS MOVEMENT FOUNDED IN KYRGYZSTAN
By empty (9/10/2001 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Representatives of the Asaba, Ata-Meken, Erkindik, Kairan-El and Communist parties, together with several NGOs, attended a meeting in Bishkek on 8 September to mark the foundation of the Independent Commission for Human Rights. Recently released Erkindik party leader Topchubek Turgunaliev was elected chairman of the commission. (RFE/RL).IRAN REJECTS CLAIMS OF VIOLATING AZERI AIR SPACE
By empty (9/8/2001 issue of the CACI Analyst)
An informed source at Foreign Ministry on 8 September dismissed as `sheer lie' the claim that Iranian planes have violated Azeri air space. The source, who was speaking on condition of anonymity, said the flight of Iranian planes over the Caspian sea is for mere surveillance according to the legal regime based on 1921 and 1940 Iran-Russia protocols. According to the source, as in the past, the flights are regular and the `new and irresponsible' claims by certain Azeri officials are `astonishing'.RUSSIA, CHINA REACH BROAD AGREEMENT
By empty (9/8/2001 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Prime Minister Kasyanov signed seven accords with his visiting Chinese counterpart Zhu Rongji in St. Petersburg on 8 September concerning cooperation in a wide variety of areas. Among the most important are commitments to explore construction of a gas pipeline between the two countries and a Chinese agreement to buy five new Tu-204 passenger aircraft with an option to buy 10 more.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.