JAN. 25 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Security forces in Azerbaijan arrested two Iranians for plotting to kill prominent foreigners, including Israel’s ambassador in Baku, officials said. Azerbaijani officials said the two men had links to Iran’s intelligence service. The arrests further strain already tense Azerbaijan-Iran relations.
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(News report from Issue No. 75, published on Feb. 2 2012)
JAN. 26 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Relations between Azerbaijan and Iran have long been strained but a row over hackers’ attacks on official websites in both countries has eroded trust still further.
Despite their shared religion, the two Shia Muslim neighbours take a different approach to Islam. Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev is wary of fundamentalist Muslims. Iran considers them a source of strength.
Add Israel into the mix and Azerbaijan-Iran relations become potent.
Israel, Iran’s sworn enemy, counts Azerbaijan as a friendly force and buys a large amount of oil from Azerbaijan. With an eye on Armenia and the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan is re-arming and likes to tap into Israel’s military expertise.
Last year it emerged that Israel and Azerbaijan were jointly developing military drones.
All this makes Iran wary and it has recently been building diplomatic and economic relations with Armenia, Azerbaijan’s sworn enemy.
Over the last year there have been a number of shootouts on the Azerbaijan-Iran border that have killed a handful of soldiers. These potentially dangerous incidents generally dissipated after a spot of diplomacy but the hacker attacks could do more serious damage.
On Jan. 16, 2012 a number of government websites in Azerbaijan were hacked into and defaced with anti-Semitic messages. The next day, hackers turned their attention to Iran.
Both sides have reacted angrily. An already fragile relationship has soured further.
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(News report from Issue No. 74, published on Jan. 26 2012)
JAN. 24 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Several hundred prisoners in Kyrgyzstan sewed together their lips in a protest against conditions inside the country’s jails. The Kyrgyz prison service had said they were going to force feed the prisoners to break a week-long hunger strike they had started after police and inmates fought in a Bishkek jail.
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(News report from Issue No. 74, published on Jan. 26 2012)
JAN. 24 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Police in Tajikistan detained several high-profile anti-narcotics officials for allegedly helping drug smugglers dodge the security services, local media reported. The arrests highlight the extent of corruption in Tajikistan and the collusion between the drug runners and senior officials.
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(News report from Issue No. 74, published on Jan. 26 2012)
JAN. 21 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Alla Dzhioyeva, South Ossetia’s ex-education minister who beat a Moscow-backed candidate in a presidential election last year, demanded she be handed power. A re-run of the annulled election is scheduled for March 25. Political tension in the Georgian rebel state is potentially explosive for the region.
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(News report from Issue No. 74, published on Jan. 26 2012)
JAN. 18 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan started to receive extra military aid from Russia designed to bolster is defences along its southern border before NATO withdraws from Afghanistan in 2014. The Central Asian states are worried about the Taliban moving north once NATO leaves Afghanistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 73, published on Jan. 19 2012)
JAN. 16 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Hackers attacked websites in Azerbaijan belonging to the president, the government and the official media. Many of the attackers left anti-Semitic messages. Media also reported that some websites in Israel were attacked at the same time. The next day official websites in Iran were hacked.
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(News report from Issue No. 73, published on Jan. 19 2012)
JAN. 18 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili will travel to Washington to meet US president Barack Obama on Jan. 30, a White House spokesperson said. Mr Saakashvili considers the US to be a key ally. Georgia has pledged to almost double its troop deployment in Afghanistan to 1,700, the most from a non-NATO member.
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(News report from Issue No. 73, published on Jan. 19 2012)
JAN. 13 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Languishing on the Tajik-Uzbek border are dozens of railway wagons laden with food, fuel and building material bound for Tajikistan. There are plenty of potential flashpoints in Central Asia, but this backlog of railway wagons is potentially one of the most dangerous.
The Tajik authorities say that the Uzbeks are deliberately stopping the wagons from completing their journey and that this threatens to trigger a famine.
The Uzbeks counter that an important bridge which crosses the border has been washed away and it is not possible for the wagons to enter Tajikistan.
This bickering is not new. Relations between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have been strained for most of the region’s 20 year post-Soviet history. At the source of the tension is the countries’ interlinked water-energy dynamic. While the Tajik Pamir Mountains provide vital water for Uzbek agriculture and industry, Uzbekistan provides power and transport links for Tajikistan.
But recently, to the frustration of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan (with Iranian help) has been building new dams across a major river.
The dams change the relationship between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. They will reduce Tajikistan’s reliance on Uzbekistan for its power and, importantly, also increase its control of water supply to downstream Uzbekistan.
There are other issues to add to this combustible mix including US transport contracts and personal animosity between the countries’ leaders. All this make the railway wagons on the Uzbek-Tajik border an issue to watch.
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(News report from Issue No. 72, published on Jan. 13 2012)
JAN. 8 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Somali pirates freed 15 Georgian sailors and three Turkish sailors they captured in the Gulf of Aden in Sept. 2010, Georgia’s government said. Georgian officials did not say why the sailors were released or whether a $9m ransom was paid.
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(News report from Issue No. 72, published on Jan. 13 2012)