News Digest
KYRGYZ OPPOSITION RALLIES IN BISHKEK
By empty (4/29/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The Kyrgyz opposition held a rally under the motto \"For Democratic Reform\" in downtown Bishkek for several hours, before halting it due to heavy rain. The square right in front of the House of Government was cordoned off by police, armed with clubs, who allowed passage only to those working in the near vicinity of the government headquarters. Protesters, therefore, had to gather about 500 meters from the building, an Interfax correspondent reported from the scene.BUSH PRAISES MUSLIM ALLY
By empty (4/29/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)
President Bush praised Azerbaijan\'s president Friday despite human rights problems documented by the State Department, and said the country had a \"very important role to play\" in meeting global energy needs.Bush met in the Oval Office with President Ilham Aliyev, who succeeded his father 2 1/2 years ago after elections the State Department said suffered from \"numerous, serious irregularities.\"With Aliyev sitting in an armchair next to him, Bush held out Azerbaijan as \"a modern Muslim country that is able to provide for its citizens, that understands that democracy is the wave of the future.U.S. PUSHING ASIA POWER GRID
By empty (4/28/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Washington is pushing construction of a regional pipeline and utility grid linking Central Asia and India. The project envisions a system from Almaty, Kazakhstan, south to Afghanistan, then Pakistan and on to New Delhi, the Gulf Daily News said Friday. Richard Boucher, the assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, told a congressional hearing Thursday that the network would be fed by oil and gas from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan and hydropower from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.AZERI SHAKH-DENIZ GAS RESERVES ESTIMATE MAY DOUBLE
By empty (4/28/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Azerbaijan\'s Shakh-Deniz gas field may hold up to two times more natural gas than current estimates of 1 trillion cubic metres, an Azeri oil official said on Friday. Khoshbakht Yusifzade, vice president of Azeri state oil firm SOCAR, which is part of the project, said the fourth evaluation drilling was under way in the south-western part of the field. \"We believe that this drilling may boost estimates of Shakh-Deniz\'s reserves by one and a half to two times,\" Yusifzade told a news conference, referring to the field\'s recoverable reserves.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.