MAY 5 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia has re-started talks with Tajikistan on stationing 3,000 guards along the important Tajik-Afghan border, Reuters reported. Russia, the US and China are competing for influence in Central Asia. Russian soldiers patrolled the border until 2005.
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(News report from Issue No. 39, published on May 9 2011)
MAY 3 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – An independent report headed by an ex-Finnish parliamentarian said Kyrgyz security forces attacked Uzbeks during ethnic violence in the south of the country last June and committed “crimes against humanity”. The Kyrgyz government rejected the report.
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(News report from Issue No. 39, published on May 9 2011)
APRIL 30 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – The US State Department issued a warning to its citizens in Uzbekistan that Islamic militant groups were planning attacks against US interests (April 25). In Kyrgyzstan, the head of the National Security Committee said a new militant group, the Islamic Movement of Kyrgyzstan, was active (April 30).
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(News report from Issue No. 38, published on May 2 2011)
APRIL 28 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – On a trip to Turkey, Kyrgyz PM Almazbek Atambayev hinted he was looking beyond the US use of the Manas airbase. Manas, outside Bishkek, has become a major cog in the US resupply chain for its forces in Afghanistan. Mr Atambayev said he wanted to turn Manas, already an international airport, into a major global transit centre.
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(News report from Issue No. 38, published on May 2 2011)
MAY 2 2011 – The symbolism is striking. In 2008 and 2009 so-called soccer diplomacy helped to build a reproach between Armenia and Turkey after generations of distrust and animosity. Now, a statue commemorating Armenian-Turkish friendship is being pulled down.
Armenia and Turkey had barely spoken since Armenia supported rebels fighting Azerbaijan, Turkey’s long-time ally, in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh after the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union.
The border between Turkey and Armenia was officially closed. But by 2009 with the help of the soccer diplomacy, when the presidents of each country visited the other’s capital to watch soccer matches, they were on the brink of repairing relations. Then the process stalled.
The dispute stretches back further to the Ottoman Turks. Most Armenians say a genocide by the Ottoman Turks killed 1.5m Armenians in eastern Turkey during World War I. The Turks refute this and say hundreds of thousands died on both sides in civil fighting.
On April 26, workmen moved in to pull down a statue in eastern Turkey symbolising Turkish-Armenian friendship. The statue is about the height of a 10-storey building and was started in 2006 but had still not been completed. It depicts two people emerging out of one stone block.
On a visit earlier this year, Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan described the statue as a monstrosity and local officials have said they have always planned to tear down the statue.
Built to symbolise friendship, the statue may now be a more fitting symbol for the stalled reconciliation process.
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(News report from Issue No. 38, published on May 2 2011)
APRIL 30 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia accused Azerbaijan of shooting dead three soldiers within 48 hours in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan denied the charge but the row further escalated tension.
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(News report from Issue No. 38, published on May 2 2011)
APRIL 25 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) members — China, Russia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan — pledged greater cooperation at a meeting in Shanghai. Russian news agency RIA Novosti described the meeting as the first summit for the SCO military chiefs. Some analysts have said the SCO could act as a counterbalance to NATO.
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(News report from Issue No. 37, published on April 25 2011)
APRIL 20 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russian security forces in Dagestan said they killed an Islamic militant from Kazakhstan, Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported. Over the last two years, security forces have said that seven Kazakhs have died fighting with Islamic radicals in the North Caucasus fuelling fears of a rise in Islamic radicalism in western Kazakhstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 37, published on April 25 2011)
APRIL 21 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s parliament scrapped a five-year agreement signed in 2006 that allowed the Russian military to cross its territory to resupply a base in Armenia. Since the 2008 Russia-Georgia war, Russia has used other routes to re-supply its base in Armenia.
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(News report from Issue No. 37, published on April 25 2011)
APRIL 15 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajik forces have killed an Islamic militant leader and at least 10 of his fighters, the ASIA-Plus website reported. The government has fought Abdullo Rakhimov and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) since September when they ambushed an army column and killed at least 28 soldiers.
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(News report from Issue No. 36, published on April 18 2011)