JAN. 6 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Taliban forces killed a Georgian solider in Afghanistan, the 12th to die supporting NATO operations, Georgia’s government said. The solider was the second Georgian solider to die in a week. Georgia’s troop deployment in Afghanistan is one of the biggest by a non-NATO member.
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(News report from Issue No. 72, published on Jan. 13 2012)
JAN. 4 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Local media quoted the head of the Tajik foreign ministry’s information department, Daviat Nazri, saying Uzbekistan had cut off gas to Tajikistan. The Uzbek authorities have not commented. Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have been locked in a protracted row about energy and food supplies.
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(News report from Issue No. 71, published on Jan. 5 2012)
DEC. 30 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia exchanged 13 prisoners with the rebel state of South Ossetia, the largest swap since the end of a war in Aug. 2008. The OSCE and the European Union brokered prisoner swaps are considered an important step in restoring trust. In Feb. 2011, the sides exchanged 11 prisoners each.
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(News report from Issue No. 71, published on Jan. 5 2012)
JAN. 1 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – The United States has started 2012 without a permanent ambassador in Azerbaijan.
US senators have to approve new ambassadors and a pro-Armenia group blocked the permanent appointment of Matthew Bryza, an experienced south Caucasus diplomat, as President Barack Obama’s envoy in Baku.
Mr Bryza was able to serve one year as temporary ambassador in Azerbaijan but he left the country on Jan. 3 2012 after his supporters failed to persuade the pro-Armenia group to drop its objections.
At the heart of the issue is Nagorno-Karabakh, the mountainous slither of land wedged between Azerbaijan and Armenia which the countries fought over after the 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union.
A 1994 ceasefire holds but Azerbaijan and Armenia are still technically at war and although Mr Bryza specialised in the South Caucasus as US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Eurasian Affairs between 2005 and 2010, the pro-Armenia lobby say he and his Turkish wife are too close to Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan’s president, to be unbiased.
The international spotlight falls on Azerbaijan, and inevitably its human rights record, in 2012 when it hosts the Eurovision Song Contest and, with its increasing importance to European energy supplies and NATO logistics in Afghanistan, the US needs to decide on a permanent representative in Baku soon.
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(News report from Issue No. 71, published on Jan. 5 2012)
JAN. 1 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – A blast killed a Georgian soldier in Afghanistan, the 11th to die supporting the US-led war, the government said. Georgia currently has 900 soldiers in Afghanistan, one of the biggest from a non-NATO member. One of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s main ambitions is to join NATO.
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(News report from Issue No. 71, published on Jan. 5 2012)
DEC. 10 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Political instability from a disputed Nov. 27 presidential election continues to stalk the Georgian breakaway region of South Ossetia.
After 10 days of protests the disqualified winner of the election Alla Dzhioyeva, a former education minister, agreed to call off further demonstrations.
In the deal Eduard Kokoity resigned as president on Dec. 10 and Ms Dzhioyeva will be allowed to challenge the Kremlin-backed candidate Anatoly Bibilov, the emergencies minister, in an election re-run in March. PM Vadim Brotsev will become the interim president.
Ms Dzhioyeva had shocked the Kremlin by winning around 56% of the vote in a second round run-off against Mr Bibilov. Both support close ties with Moscow but Ms Dzhioyeva ran a vigorous campaign against corruption while Mr Bibilov’s campaign appeared lacklustre and complacent.
A few days after the election, though, South Ossetia’s central election commission annulled the vote and banned Ms Dzhioyeva from a re-run for apparently bribing voters. She denied this.
South Ossetia, a mountainous sliver of land of 70,000 people, is awash with weapons and violence is never far below the surface. Since a 2008 war with Georgia, Russia has recognised the independence of South Ossetia and the other Georgian breakaway region of Abkhazia.
Politicians in Georgia have likened the in-fighting to two squabbling mafia groups.
But social and political tension in South Ossetia and Abkhazia matters. It can spread easily and warm up one of the South Caucasus’ so-called frozen conflicts.
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(News report from Issue No. 69, published on Dec. 14 2011)
DEC. 3 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Elite Kazakh police battled suspected Islamic militants in a village outside Almaty. In the gun battle two police and five militants died. The battle was the latest violence linked to Islamic militants this year in Kazakhstan and in Almaty police have started to detain and interrogate men with links to Islam.
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(News report from Issue No. 68, published on Dec. 8 2011)
DEC. 2 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Iran’s state news agency IRNA quoted the Azerbaijani military attaché to Tehran, Mehman Suleymanov, saying Azerbaijan wants to strengthen ties with Iran and in particular defence ties. Azerbaijan’s defence minister is due in Tehran at the start of 2012.
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(News report from Issue No. 68, published on Dec. 8 2011)
NOV. 25 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Through the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) Russia agreed to boost military support to Armenia by increasing training and helping to modernise its army, media reported. The CSTO is a military pact involving many ex-Soviet states but not Azerbaijan, Armenia’s enemy. Russia has a large military base in Armenia.
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(News report from Issue No. 67, published on Dec. 1 2011)
NOV. 27 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – In Georgia’s rebel region of South Ossetia, ex-education minister Alla Dzhioyeva defeated the Moscow-backed candidate in a presidential second round vote with an estimated 56% of the votes. Days later South Ossetia’s Supreme Court annulled the result and banned her from standing in an election re-scheduled for March.
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(News report from Issue No. 67, published on Dec. 1 2011)