Tag Archives: Islamic extremism

Kerry heads to Kyrgyzstan at start of Central Asia tour

OCT. 27 2015, BISHKEK (The Conway Bulletin) — US State Secretary, John Kerry, was due to fly to Kyrgyzstan on Oct. 31 for the start of his first tour of Central Asia, a stopover considered vital to repair relations with an ally that has drifted towards Russia over the past couple of years.

In Bishkek, Mr Kerry will hold bilateral discussions with senior Kyrgyz officials, including President Almazbek Atambayev, and open a new campus for the American University of Central Asia.

Top of Mr Kerry’s agenda will be the growing influence of Russia as well as a draft bill banning so-called gay propaganda and a law that bans local NGOs from foreign funding.

Marat Kazakpayev, a Bishkek analyst, said US investments and security would be discussed.

“They will discuss security in the region, including situation in Afghanistan and Syria, as well what to do to counter terrorism,” he said.

The US operated an airbase from the Manas airport outside Bishkek for 13 years until 2014 when it was wound down alongside military operations in Afghanistan.

For Mr Kerry and the US, this is an important trip to Central Asia.

It has ceded influence in the region to Russia and China. Russia has the historical, political and cultural links; China has the financial firepower.

In contrast, with the scaling down of military operations in Afghanistan, the US and the West have appeared to disengage with Central Asia. Mr Kerry’s main mission will be to re- assure the region’s leaders that the US is still interested in Central Asia.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)

Taliban hides near Turkmen border

OCT. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported that Taliban fighters were hiding from Afghan government forces on an island in the Amu Darya, a river that marks the Afghan- Turkmen border. Worried about the impact on foreign investment, Turkmenistan has denied that Taliban activity along its border with Afghanistan is a threat to its security.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)

Tajikistan gives weapons to Taliban

OCT. 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan gave weapons to the Taliban in Afghanistan in exchange for freeing four Tajik soldiers, a senior Taliban leader interviewed by The Daily Beast said. The soldiers, captured in December 2014, were released in June. A Taliban leader allegedly travelled to Dushanbe for the deal. The Tajik government has not commented.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)

Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan spat

OCT. 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Turkmen foreign ministry complained to Kazakhstan about a statement made by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Astana last week when he alleged that there was fighting on the Turkmen-Afghan border. Media in Afghanistan reported fighting between the Taliban and government forces. Turkmenistan has refuted claims the fighting threatens its borders.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Russia wants to patrol Tajik-Afghan border

OCT. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia’s deputy minister of defence, General Yuri Borisov, said that Russian President Vladimir Putin was in talks with Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rakhmon to station soldiers on the Tajik-Afghan border to fight off any potential threat from the Taliban. Russia and Central Asian leaders have grown increasingly wary of the push north of the Taliban.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct.16 2015)

Turkmenistan denies border problems

OCT. 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan’s government issued a rare statement denying a claim by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev that he was aware of what he described as “incidences” on the Turkmen-Afghan border. Turkmenistan said Mr Nazarbayev’s claim was “untrue” and “incomprehensible”. Taliban activity has been increasing along the border with Turkmenistan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct.16 2015)

Russia sends attack helicopters to Tajikistan

OCT. 6 2015, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia said it will station attack helicopters at its base in Tajikistan, a strong sign the Kremlin believes the threat from the Taliban in Afghanistan to Central Asia is heightening.

A Russian Defence Ministry spokesman said Mi-24P gunships, heavily used during the Soviet Union’s war in Afghanistan in the 1980s, and Mi-8 MTV transport-combat helicopters will be stationed at the Ayni airbase, 30km outside Dushanbe.

Over the past week, the Taliban and US-backed forces belonging to the Afghan central government have been fighting for control of Kunduz on the Tajik-Afghan border. And this has worried Central Asian governments throughout the year.

A Dushanbe-based analyst who wished not to be named said: “The occupation of Kunduz by the Taliban has shaken Dushanbe. Tajik authorities know that they cannot handle any threat, be it domestic or external, without the help of Russia. For Rakhmon, the Kremlin is the guarantee of stability in Tajikistan.”

Tajik President Emmomli Rakhmon had been in Moscow the day before the Kremlin said it would send attack helicopters to Tajikistan.

And most people in Dushanbe welcomed Moscow’s help. Olim Shirinov, a Dushanbe resident, said: “Every new unit of Russian military equipment on Tajik soil is one more brick in the wall that guarantees stability in the country.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

Turkmen President visits Uzbekistan

OCT. 7/8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov paid an official visit to Uzbekistan where he discussed security and water scarcity issues with Uzbek President Islam Karimov. An increase in fighting in Afghanistan has become a major concern for the two leaders.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

Comment: Worry over intensifying fighting in northern Afghanistan

OCT. 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia and the US are right to be increasingly concerned about intensifying fighting in northern Afghanistan.

The question is what can they do about it, if anything?

This week, Russia said it was sending a batch of attack helicopters to its base in Tajikistan. Russia is clearly in a belligerent mood, as its air strikes in Syria have also shown.

For most ordinary Tajiks, as the Bulletin reports, the attack helicopters are welcome in the country, although it is not entirely clear when Russia would actually use them.

For the US, the priority is to protect its own. It has said it is going to spend $200m strengthening its embassy in Turkmenistan.

No doubt the current embassy needed an upgrade but don’t be fooled by the cleverly spun press releases.

The US is not spending $200m rebuilding its embassy to re-affirm its commitment to Turkmenistan. It is spending $200m rebuilding its embassy on the outskirts of Ashgabat because it is nervous and the strategy now is to prioritise protection over everything else. This will be an embassy with big walls and prison-style security cut off from the rest of Turkmenistan.

Both the Russian and the US moves are a response to the Taliban threat over the border and the radical Islamic threat internally.

These threats appear to be growing, although there is debate over just how strong IS recruitment really is in the region. Both Russia and the US and the rest of Central Asia will have to get used to them.

By James Kilner, Editor, The Conway Bulletin

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

Comment: Fate of IRPT in Tajikistan

OCT. 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – So the fate of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) appears to have been sealed by the country’s highest court. It is, apparently, a terrorist organisation that helped plan a couple of attacks last month on police checkpoints which killed two dozen people.

A former deputy defence minister has been named as the mastermind of the attacks but the IRPT also played an important role, the court said.

This is the culmination of a ramping up of pressure on the IRPT this year. Its leaders have been forced out of the country, some of its top Dushanbe-based officials have been attacked in the street and various courts have banned it for, firstly not being big enough and secondly for its involvement in the September attacks.

To really prove its case, the Tajik judiciary needs to release more concrete evidence to the international community of the IRPT’s apparent involvement in the attacks. At the moment it just doesn’t stack up.

Instead, as an analyst told the Bulletin’s correspondent in Dushanbe, it feels like a blatant attack on political opponents.

This is dangerous for Tajikistan. What Tajikistan needs is a moderate opposition group that is going to challenge the authorities and President Emomali Rakhmon through the normal channels. What it’ll get instead, with the crushing of opposition groups, is a vacuum that radical Islamists can exploit.

Tajikistan stands at a cross- roads. By banning the IRPT, the authorities are disenfranchising part of its population and taking another step along the wrong path.

By James Kilner, Editor, The Conway Bulletin

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)