Tag Archives: security

Uzbek authorities take 16,000 people off terror blacklist

SEPT. 2 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Uzbekistan have removed 16,000 people from a blacklist of 17,000 people with alleged links to extremist groups, media reported. Analysts said the move was another attempt by Pres. Shavkat Mirziyoyev to pursue more liberal policies and to create a clear departure from Islam Karimov, who ruled the country as an authoritarian dictator.

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(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

Israeli drone-maker may have attacked Armenian soldiers

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AUG. 29 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) –The Israeli government has suspended the licence of weapons manufacturer Aeronautics Defense Systems for allegedly showing off a new drone weapon to Azerbaijani clients by attacking Armenian forces in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The case shows both the growing military partnership between Israel and Azerbaijan and also the lengths that Israeli defence companies will go to win contracts with their Azerbaijani counterparts.

Aeronautics Defense Systems made the disclosure to the Israeli stock market.
“The Defense Ministry’s Defense Export Controls Agency informed the company that it was suspending the marketing and export permit for the company’s Orbiter 1K model UAV to a significant customer,” it said in a statement.

A couple of weeks earlier, Israeli newspaper had reported on a leaked complaint made to the Israeli defence ministry. It said that officials from Aeronautics Defense Systems had travelled to Azerbaijan in July to show off their Orbiter 1K suicide drone that is packed with explosives and deliberately flown into an enemy position.

During the demonstration, the reports said, Azerbaijani officials asked Aeronautics Defense Systems to attack an Armenian position in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The two controllers of the drone refused but two other members of the Aeronautics Defense Systems team took the controls and attacked the Armenian position.

The alliance between Azerbaijan and Israel has been growing. Azerbaijan is one of the biggest importers of Israeli military kit and in 2012 Israel also reportedly made a deal with Azerbaijan to use its airbases in a preemptive attack on neighbouring Iran.
Armenia-backed forces currently control the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh which hey fought over in the 1990s.

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(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

Georgian man killed fighting for IS in Syria

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AUG. 28 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian media reported that a 31-year-old man from the Pankisi Gorge has been killed fighting for IS in Syria. The Pankisi Gorge is a majority Muslim area of Georgia. At least 26 people from Georgia have died in Syria and Iraq since 2012.

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(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

US military war games held in Georgia

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SEPT. 3 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — US forces started joint annual exercises with forces from Georgia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Latvia, Romania and Ukraine. This is the seventh year running that Georgia has hosted the multilateral war games. The US has said that its main ambition from the exercises is to give Georgian forces a boost.

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(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

Two Canadian MPs banned from Azerbaijan

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SEPT. 4 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry issued an official complaint to the Canadian foreign ministry after two Canadian MPs visited Nagorno-Karabakh as guests of Armenia. Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper said that Tony Clement and Rachael Harder had also been banned from travelling to Azerbaijan. They said that they had accepted an invitation to help make a documentary about the disputed region by a Toronto-based group called One Free World International.

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(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

Weapons depot at military base in Azerbaijan explodes

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AUG. 27 (The Conway Bulletin) — At least six people were injured when a weapons depot at a military base around 70km north of Baku exploded, hospital sources in Azerbaijan told media (Aug. 27).

In 2016, a blast at an arms factory near Baku killed at least two people and injured 22 more.

Eyewitness reports described a series of massive explosions at the base. Emergency services closed off nearby roads and evacuated two villages.

Azerbaijan’s defence ministry declined to comment on reports that a number of people had been injured.

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(News report from Issue No. 341, published on Aug. 27 2017)

Georgia looses soldier in Afghanistan

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AUG. 4 2017 (The Bulletin) — A Georgian soldier was killed in an ambush outside the Bagram Airbase near Kabul, Georgia’s ministry of defence said. Three other soldiers were injured, one badly, in the ambush. Georgia has been a strong supporter of US military action in Afghanistan. 32 Georgian soldiers have now died since 2002 in Afghanistan.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on Aug. 5 2017)

Azerbaijan arrests spy ring

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JULY 20 2017 (The Bulletin) — Azerbaijani security officers said that they had arrested and broken up a spy ring involving six people. Reports said that the spy ring was uncovered when one of the men was arrested at a border trying to smuggle out data on computers.

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(News report from Issue No. 337, published on July 27 2017)

Analysts warn of Azerbaijan- Armenia war

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JULY 5 2017 (The Bulletin) — Azerbaijan and Armenia are drifting towards war over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, analysts warned after a shell killed a grandmother and her grandchild on the Azerbaijani side of the conflict. Azerbaijan accused the Armenian side of shelling civilians. Armenia-backed rebels said that Azerbaijan had deployed weapons deliberately close to civilians. Commentators have been warning throughout the year that tension in the region is close to triggering another major outbreak of violence. This last exploded in April 2016.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)

Russian tourists flock to Georgian breakaway region of Abkhazia

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SUKHUMI/Georgia, JULY 16 2017 (The Bulletin) — Russian tourists are flocking to beach resorts in Abkhazia at a greater rate than ever before, giving the breakaway Georgian region an economic boost.

Russian couples walk along Sukhumi’s beachfront promenade and sip Abkhaz wine in newly renovated restaurants. Russian is the main language heard on the streets, shops are filled with Russian products and Russian newspapers are available in local newsagents. The currency used is the Russian rouble.

Abkhazia looks, feels and sounds like a piece of Russia and local residents are, mainly, grateful.

A tourist guide in Novy Afon, around 20km north of Sukhumi told the Bulletin : “Thank God there are the Russians. Not only did they save us when the Georgians wanted to exterminate us but now they make our economy run through tourism.”

It declared independence from Georgia in 1992, triggering a war that killed and displaced thousands of people and lead to a de facto independence. In 2008 after a war with Georgia focused on its two rebel states of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Russia recognised them as independent. Only a handful of other countries looking to curry Russian favours followed.

Moscow subsidises Abkhazia’s state budget and has thousands of troops permanently deployed in the region.

Other than the military and the breakaway region’s administration, bankrolled by the Kremlin, there are few other jobs in Abkhazia, making Russian tourists so important.

And they are coming in their thousands, all via a border crossing with Russia to the north. Last year Avtandil Gartskiya, the tourism minister told the New York Times in an interview that he expected 1.5m tourists per year, up from less than 100,000 a decade ago.

By contrast, references to Georgia have been eradicated, or nearly.

The cuisine gives away Abkhazia’s Georgian connection. Georgia’s food icon, the Ajarian Khachapuri, a boat shaped crusty bread filled with melted cheese and egg, is a firm favourite with the Russian tourists. It’s been subjected to a rebrand, though, and is called ‘lodochka s yaizom’. In English, this simply means ‘boat with egg’.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)