Tag Archives: Islamic extremism

Turkmenistan increases security over TAPI

FEB. 9 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Addressing a government meeting, Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov ordered his government to increase security over the planned TAPI pipeline that will, it is hoped, pump gas to India. Last month the Taliban destroyed a transmission line sending electricity between Uzbekistan and Kabul. For TAPI to be successful, it needs to be able to guarantee security around the route. Governments that border Afghanistan have been warning that a resurgent Taliban are posing an increasing threat to stability.

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(News report from Issue No. 267, published on Feb. 12 2016)

Russia boosts assistance to Tajikistan

FEB. 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia’s deputy defence minister Anatoly Antonov said that Russia would supply Tajikistan with all the equipment and intelligence that it needed to fend off various threats from the Taliban who are looking increasingly powerful. Mr Antonov made the promise on a trip to Tajikistan a few days after news that Taliban forces in Afghanistan had attacked a power-line running from Uzbekistan to Kabul. Central Asian states are increasingly worried about a resurgent Taliban.

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(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Georgian President walks about in Pankisi George

JAN. 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a PR stunt aimed at knocking down Russian allegations that the radical group IS had set up a training camp in the Pankisi Gorge, Georgian president Giorgi Margvelashvili travelled to the region with the US and EU ambassadors for a walk-about and to talk to locals. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said in January that the Pankisi Gorge was an IS recruiting ground.

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(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Editorial: Taliban threat for Uzbekistan

JAN. 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – For policy makers involved in pushing the CASA-1000 and TAPI projects, reports from Afghanistan that the Taliban have attacked and badly damaged part of a power line sending electricity to Kabul from southern Uzbekistan is the stuff their nightmares are made of.

CASA-1000 is the World Bank-backed $1.1b project that will supply Pakistan with power from hydro-stations in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. TAPI is the name of a pipeline that will pump gas from Turkmenistan to India.

Both projects will transit across Afghanistan and form part of a loose north-south Silk Road that US officials have been touting for the past decade. The rub is that they require a stable Afghanistan and that, it appears, is exactly what they don’t have.

If the Taliban are attacking power lines running from Uzbekistan to Kabul then what would stop them attacking a power line running to neighbouring Pakistan or a pipeline running to India?

For each project, the leaders now have to inspect their security systems once again. Costs and doubts about both projects will be rising.

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(Editorial from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)

Editorial: Russian visit to Turkmenistan

JAN. 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The visit by Sergei Lavrov to Ashgabat could be dismissed as a pre-scheduled annual trip by Russia’s foreign minister to one of the former Soviet Union’s outlying countries.

But that would be a mistake. His meeting with Turkmen leader Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov was an important one, especially in the context of a more powerful, more determined Taliban resurgence in northern Afghanistan.

Russia-Turkmenistan relations have been worsening over the past few years, a deterioration mainly caused by rows over gas contracts and prices and also an argument over one of Russia’s mobile providers.

It’s important for Turkmenistan, and the wider Central Asia region, that Russia-Turkmenistan relations are mended.

Ashgabat may need the Kremlin’s help with organising its defences against the Taliban. If the Taliban show any real determination to break into Central Asia, the governments of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan may well need Russian backup to repel them.

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Editorial from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)

Russia says IS have set up a training camp in Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge

JAN. 27 2016, TBILISI (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia said the radical Islamic group IS had set up a training centre in the Pankisi Gorge, prompting a quick and irritated denial from the Georgian government.

The spat has the potential to upset relations between Georgia and Russia at a delicate time. Over the past few years, since former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili lost power in 2013, relations between the two neighbours have improved. They fought a war in 2008 over the Georgian breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Russian news agencies quoted Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, as saying at a press conference in Moscow: “We are getting reports IS militants use this remote area to train, rest and replenish their reserves. The terrorist threat from the Pankisi Gorge has not faded.”

The reference to the “terrorist threat” was to the Pankisi Gorge’s previous role as a hide-out for Chechen fighters battling Russian forces in the North Caucasus during the 1990s and the early 2000s.

The Pankisi Gorge is a predominantly Muslim area and Georgian security forces are increasingly concerned about IS recruitment from the region but Georgia’s PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili refuted Mr Lavrov’s allegations.

“The Georgian government carries out a full inspection of all the regions under its control. A few people from Pankisi Gorge have gone to Syria to fight for the Islamic State, though a strict control is imposed on their entry back to the country,” he said.

“I can say there is no terrorist threat in the Pankisi Gorge.”

Bidzina Lebanidze, political scientist at the Free University in Berlin said that he thought that Russia was trying to play mind games with Georgia by making the accusations to try to discredit it.

“It seems to be just another instrument in the Kremlin’s arsenal to put pressure on the pro-Western government in Tbilisi and to damage its international reputation,” he told The Conway Bulletin.

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(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)

Uzbek authorities urge anti-IS propaganda

JAN. 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Uzbekistan are forcing parents of men and women who have fled Uzbekistan to join the radical IS group in Syria and Iraq apologise for their sons and daughters on state television, the eurasianet.org website reported. The footage of sobbing, elderly parents is supposed to encourage others to monitor their children more closely. Central Asian governments are increasingly worried about IS recruitment from the region.

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(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)

Tajik authorities tighten internet access

JAN. 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon signed a decree forcing all internet traffic into Tajikistan to pass through a single entry point controlled by state-run Tajiktelecom, media reported. The authorities in Tajikistan regularly turn off access to social media websites which they say are being used by Islamic radicals to infiltrate Tajik society.

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(News report from Issue No. 264, published on Jan. 22 2016)

Tajik police shaves 13000 beards

JAN. 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – In 2015, officials in Tajikistan shaved off beards on nearly 13,000 men, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported quoting a police press conference. The police described the purge as a war against excessive Islamic influences in the country. Tajikistan has said constantly over the past few years that Islamic radicals pose a real threat to its security. Rights activists have said this is simply another way of imposing control.

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(News report from Issue No. 264, published on Jan. 22 2016)

Two Georgians die fighting IS

JAN. 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Two Georgian nationals from the Pankisi Gorge in the north of the country have died in Syria fighting for the Islamic radical group IS, media reported quoting intelligence services. The Pankisi Gorge is a predominantly Muslim enclave. Georgia’s security forces have said that at least 50 men from the Pankisi Gorge have joined IS in Syria.

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(News report from Issue No. 264, published on Jan. 22 2016)