SEPT. 19 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Around 200 Tajiks are fighting in Syria and Iraq for the extremist group Islamic State, President Emomali Rakhmon said according to media. Mr Rakhmon has long said he is facing pressure from Islamic extremist recruits who are attracting disaffected young Tajiks.
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(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)
SEPT. 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Azerbaijan said they have arrested 26 people who had been fighting for the extremist Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq. Azerbaijan has also said that over 100 of its nationals have been killed fighting for IS.
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(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)
SEPT. 18 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen forces have crossed into Afghanistan and built up defensive positions to stop Taliban forces raiding across its border, the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and other media have reported.
Taliban forces have attacked several Turkmen military outposts this year, killing soldiers. Turkmenistan’s defence minister has flown to Kabul for talks with his Afghan opposite number on the situation but the attacks have continued. Any troop movement over the border is likely to be a response to these attacks.
“The Turkmenistanis came here, dug trenches, set up wire fences,” one resident told RFE/RL according to the Eurasianet website.
“No one asked them what they were doing here. The trenches they dug are 4m wide and 5m deep. Besides that, in the same place they are paving a road.”
Importantly, eyewitnesses didn’t distinguish whether the apparent Turkmen forces which have crossed the border are official military or one of the numerous militia forces that populate the border zones.
The troop movement hasn’t been confirmed by either Turkmenistan or Afghanistan.
Central Asian countries have said that they are increasingly worried about the march northward of the Taliban after the withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan this year.
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(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)
SEPT. 16 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s deputy General- Prosecutor Andrei Kravchenko has said he wants CCTV installed more widely in public areas, media reported. Kazakhstan is increasingly worried about home- grown Islamic extremists and may be looking for ways to monitor them.
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(News report from Issue No. 200, published on Sept.17 2014)
SEPT. 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s efforts to introduce biometric data are gaining momentum.
From 2015 many of the world’s most developed countries will not admit holders of non-biometric passports into their territories. It is highly unlikely that Kyrgyzstan will meet that deadline, officials say, but frequent travellers will be able to get theirs early.
Building a biometric database would also help Kyrgyzstan combat terrorism; drug and human trafficking.
But not everyone is keen on empowering the police. Dinara Oshurahunova, head of the Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society, an NGO that promotes citizens’ rights said that the police would use the data to blackmail ordinary people.
“Biometric data is undoubtedly necessary but considering our law enforcement structures are unreformed and almost completely criminalised, I would not want them to have access to this data,” she said.
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(News report from Issue No. 199, published on Sept. 10 2014)
SEPT. 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The black flag of Islamic extremist group ISIS was draped momentarily over a bridge in Tashkent, media reported. Uzbekistan is sensitive to Islamic extremist action because of its long-running fight with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU). Media said that police quickly removed the flag.
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(News report from Issue No. 199, published on Sept. 10 2014)
AUG. 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The self-styled Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has appointed a Tajik as one of its leaders, media reported. Officials in Tajikistan said the appointment to ISIL, which has beheaded Western journalists, may increase the number of disenfranchised Tajiks heading to fight for it.
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(News report from Issue No. 198, published on Sept. 3 2014)
AUG. 19 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A lack of opportunities has turned Tajikistan into a prime recruiting ground for radical Islamists, Eurasianet reported. Eurasianet said Tajiks could earn more money fighting for extremists in Syria than they could working on a construction sites in Russia, the usual way for Tajiks to earn money to send home.
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(News report from Issue No. 196, published on Aug. 20 2014)
JULY 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in the southern Kazakh city of Zhezkazgan sentenced four people to between six and 12 years in prison for trying to recruit young men to fight for Islamic extremists in Syria and Iraq. Central Asian states are increasingly nervous about extremist recruitment drives.
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(News report from Issue No. 193, published on July 30 2014)
JULY 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – In rural Azerbaijan religious violence has increased because of extremism in Syria and Iraq, eurasianet.org reported. It said that in a village a group of Shi’a Muslims shaved the beard of a Sunni man. The next day Sunni Muslims attacked Shi’a group.
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(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)