NOV. 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbek border guards shot and killed a Kyrgyz man on their shared border, US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported, only a few days after two other men were injured in a similar incident. Tension has been rising along the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border, threatening stability in Central Asia.
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(News report from Issue No. 209, published on Nov.19 2014)
NOV. 12 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan said that it had shot down an Armenian military helicopter, killing all three crew members.
Armenia later confirmed the downing of its helicopter. The incident triggered the most serious stand-off between the two neighbours since a UN negotiated cease-fire ended a war over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh in 1994.
Pro-Armenian rebels now control Nagorno-Karabakh but Azerbaijan has pledged to re-take the region and it has spent much of its recent oil wealth building up its army and buying the latest hi-tech weapons.
Azerbaijan’s military later released an animation showing how the Armenian helicopter had been flying over its territory and opened fire on its soldiers before it was shot down.
Armenia countered that the helicopter was on an unarmed exercise when it was shot down.
A Conway Bulletin correspondent in Baku said that most Azerbaijanis supported their government’s action.
“Armenia should respect Azerbaijan’s borders,” 28-year- old Muard Guliyev told the Bulletin. “If it doesn’t, there will be hard times head.”
International agencies and countries urged both Azerbaijan and Armenia to reduce the rhetoric.
Earlier this year, a shootout between the two sides killed several soldiers.
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(News report from Issue No. 209, published on Nov.19 2014)
NOV. 11 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbek border guards shot and injured a Kyrgyz man along the Uzbekistan- Kyrgyzstan border, media reported. The Uzbekistan- Kyrgyzstan border is one of the most fragile border zones in the region. Analysts have said that any spark could destabilise Central Asia.
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(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)
NOV. 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan is looking to bolster its military, media reported quoting Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov from a transcript of a meeting at the National Security Council. Mr Berdymukhamedov is concerned about Taliban activity on its border with Afghanistan. Turkmen forces have built strengthen defences in some border areas this year.
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(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)
NOV. 25 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – During a visit to Sweden by Armenian foreign minister Edward Nalbandalian, Armenia opened an embassy in Stockholm. Armenia has been looking to open more embassies abroad to both boost its support base and lobby for allies to back it with its dispute with Azerbaijan over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
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(News report from Issue No. 210, published on Nov. 26 2014)
OCT. 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s president, Serzh Sargsyan, described talks with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh as “constructive, useful and sincere”, media reported.This is the most upbeat assessment of the talks hosted by French president Francois Hollande.
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(News report from Issue No. 206, published on Oct. 29 2014)
OCT. 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Negotiations over the Tajik-Kyrgyz border have re-opened, media reported. This is important because this year there have been several skirmishes along the border. The issue of the Tajiki-Kyrgyz border is one of the most sensitive in Central Asia and has the potential to destabilise the region.
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(News report from Issue No. 206, published on Oct. 29 2014)
OCT. 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan met to discuss the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh in talks mediated by French president Francois Hollande.
The official outcome of the talks — agreeing to more talks — may appear inconsequential but meetings between President Serzh Sargyan of Armenia and President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan are rare.
“Status quo is not sustainable,” Mr Hollande’s office said after the meeting. “(Azerbaijan and Armenia) have agreed to continue the dialogue, in particular with a new meeting in September 2015 in the margins of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.”
Nagorno-Karabakh has been described as one of the world’s most dangerous frozen conflicts. Armenia and Azerbaijan fought over the region in the early 1990s and only a shaky 1994 UN-brokered ceasefire keeps the two- sides apart. Recently, though, there has been an increase in the amount of fighting around Nagorno-Karabakh.
Armenia-back rebels now control the region but there is a constant background noise of sabre rattling. Azerbaijan has been re-arming its military, buying top-of-the-range kit from Israel. Armenia has quietly been rehousing Armenians chased out of Syria in Nagorno-Karabakh.
This was the second meeting this year between Mr Aliyev and Mr Sargsyan. Russia’s president Vladimir Putin hosted a meeting in August.
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(News report from Issue No. 206, published on Oct. 29 2014)
OCT. 15 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Around 3,000 Russian soldiers stationed in Armenia staged a week- long military exercise. The exercise is a reminder of Russia’s presence in the region and the fragile peace in the South Caucasus. Azerbaijan has made it clear that it still wants to re-take the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh currently run by pro-Armenia forces.
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(News report from Issue No. 205, published on Oct. 22 2014)
OCT. 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – It appears from news reports that Turkmenistan is continuing to bolster its defences against possible Taliban attacks. The US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said that its correspondent in northern Afghanistan had reported construction work along the border.
“A source for Azatlyk (RFE/RL’s local service) in northern Afghanistan said Turkmenistan has increased its troop strength in several places along the border with Afghanistan recently and in the area where three of Turkmenistan’s border guards were killed in February the border guards have been replaced by spetsnazi, elite commandos,” RFE/RL reported.
“The source added that some areas now have fences, three rows deep, blocking access from the Afghan side.”
Central Asian countries have previously voiced concern that the Taliban would spread northwards after NATO had withdrawn.
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(News report from Issue No. 204, published on Oct. 15 2014)