APRIL 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s deputy PM, Abdyrakhman Mamataliev, said there were now 330 Kyrgyz nationals fighting for the radical IS group in Syria. It’s not possible to confirm this number, but if it is accurate this would be a major worry for Kyrgyzstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 228, published on April 22 2015)
APRIL 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a move designed to stop young Muslims heading off to Syria to fight for the radical group IS, Georgia plans to outlaw membership of any foreign group considered to be a terrorist organisation.
Current legislation does not deal with this issue and the authorities want more power to arrest both those people heading off to Syria to join IS and people who have returned to Georgia.
The focus in Georgia of IS recruitment is the Pankisi Gorge, on the border of Russia’s North Caucasus region.
Pankisi, which lies 2-1/2 hours drive from Tbilisi to the northeast, on the border with Chechnya, has a population of 10,000 and the majority of them are Kists, an Islamic ethnic group similar to Chechens.
Media reports have said that 20 to 80 men have headed out of the Pankisi Gorge to fight for IS in Syria.
Tbilisi rules with a light touch in the Pankisi Gorge which has a history of producing radical Muslim fighters dating back to the Chechen wars of the 1990s and the early 2000s.
Khaso Khangoshvili a member of the the Council of Elders, the 35-people body that de facto governs Pankisi, believes that the stricter laws will help.
“The new law will improve the situation, but the government should care more about the economy of our region,” he told the Bulletin.
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(News report from Issue No. 228, published on April 22 2015)
APRIL 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan is poised to receive $1.2b in military equipment and weapons from Russia to fight against the radical Islamic group IS.
An unnamed source in the Russian Defence Ministry told Russian newspaper Kommersant the aid will be spread across the next few years. What is clear is that the aid pulls Tajikistan further into the Kremlin’s orbit and strengthen its security driven regional focus.
It also intensifies the rhetoric. Previously Russia and Tajikistan had discussed the threat posed by the Taliban in Afghanistan. That has now morphed into the threat from IS. IS had previously only been associated with recruiting in Central Asia.
Some analysts are sceptical and have said that Russia and various Central Asia countries are using IS and the Taliban as a scare-mongering tactic.
Earlier this month, President Emomali Rakhmon criticised women for wearing “foreign, non traditional clothes,” while the state television channel insinuated that demand for prostitutes wearing black hijabs was increasing. This resonated as a subtle comparison between women wearing traditional Islamic head scarves and prostitutes wearing black hijabs (April 1).
Tajikistan has taken a strong stance against radical Islam. This means more control over society, less freedom of expression, and more options for arbitrary rule of law.
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(News report from Issue No. 226, published on April 8 2015)
APRIL 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Uzbekistan sent 12 men to prison for belonging to a jihadist group, Russian news agencies reported. Prosecutors said the men were distributing pamphlets and videos promoting extremism. Central Asian governments are worried about the lure of the IS extremist group.
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(News report from Issue No. 226, published on April 8 2015)
APRIL 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Community leaders in Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge have asked the government for more help to stop teenagers heading to Syria to join the militant group IS, media reported. The Pankisi Gorge is an Islamic stronghold in Georgia and has strong ethnic and cultural ties to Chechnya in Russia.
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(News report from Issue No. 226, published on April 8 2015)
MARCH 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan has asked the US for military aid to help it stop the spread north of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Eurasianet reported quoting a US general’s statement to Congress. Turkmenistan has been warning for months about Taliban activity on its border.
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(News report from Issue No. 225, published on April 12015)
MARCH 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Azerbaijan began the trial of six men accused of fighting with the extremist IS group in Syria, media reported. The men are part of a group of 26 people arrested last year.
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(News report from Issue No. 225, published on April 12015)
MARCH 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan has issued an order to nearly double the size of its army to 100,000 soldiers, media reported.
Although no official reason was given for the increase in the size of the military, the Turkmen government has become increasingly nervous about the spread north of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Last year, news leaked out of Turkmenistan that the authorities had ordered the mobilisation of more officers for its army. Now it appears that it needs more soldiers too.
The Turkmen news website, Chronicles of Turkmenistan, also reported that Russian military observers had been seen patrolling parts of the border with Afghanistan.
Russia and the Central Asian states which border Afghanistan — that’s Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan — have all warned about a potential threat to regional stability from the spread north of the Taliban.
Some analysts have said that the governments of these countries are over-stating this threat to play into their security agenda.
Even so, Turkmenistan appears to be pursuing a major mobilisation agenda.
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(News report from Issue No. 224, published on March 25 2015)
MARCH 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan has once again raised the security stakes in Central Asia by ordering an increase in the size of its army.
Reports from the Turkmen-Afghan border also said Russian military advisers have been seen working with Turkmen forces.
This would possibly represent a major change in policy for Turkmenistan which has always promoted its neutral credential.
Central Asian states have becoming increasingly worried about the potential march north of the Taliban in Afghanistan once NATO forces quit the country. They have warned at various times that an attack is imminent. Russia, which maintains a large military base in Tajikistan, has issued similar warnings.
Last year, Turkmen forces set up checkpoints inside the Afghan border after what it described as a series of Taliban raids on its border-posts.
This is worrying for Europe because the EU wants to boost gas supplies from Turkmenistan. It wants to reduce its dependence on Russia for gas but doesn’t want to then start relying on a conflict-impacted Turkmenistan.
Turkmenistan also has aspirations to supply gas to a wider group of clients including Pakistan and India. To do this it needs stability in Afghanistan and along its borders.
There are some dissenters, though. Some analysts have been increasingly sceptical and said that Russia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have been talking up the prospect of a Taliban incursion into Central Asia because it suits their security agenda.
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(News report from Issue No. 224, published on March 25 2015)
MARCH 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – On a trip to European capitals, Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev asked the European Union to provide military assistance to help stop the rise of the extremist group IS in Central Asia. IS has targeted Central Asia as a fertile recruitment ground.
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(News report from Issue No. 224, published on March 25 2015)