JUNE 5 2017 (The Bulletin) — Soldiers from Georgia, Turkey and Azerbaijan started their annual military exercises, dubbed Caucasian Eagle 2017, highlighting improved ties between the three countries. This is the third military exercise between the triumvirate. Turkey has hosted the other two military exercises.
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(News report from Issue No. 332, published on June 12 2017)
JUNE 1 2017 (The Bulletin) — Two unnamed Kazakh citizens were injured in a bomb in central Kabul that killed more than 90 people, media reported. Their injuries are not thought to be life- threatening. The bomb ripped through Kabul’s diplomatic quarter damaging several embassies.
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(News report from Issue No. 331, published on June 5 2017)
JUNE 2 2017 (The Bulletin) — Armenia and Azerbaijan are closer to all-out war over disputed Nagorno- Karabakh than at any time since a 1994 ceasefire was agreed, the influential think tank International Crisis Group wrote.
This is just the latest warning, although it is also one of the most high-profile, that a conflict around Nagorno-Karabakh has become a real possibility.
“Both sides, backed by mobilised constituencies, appear ready for confrontation,” the ICG wrote. “These tensions could develop into larger- scale conflict, leading to significant civilian casualties and possibly prompting the main regional powers to intervene.”
Russia maintains a large military base in Armenia, while Turkey is one of Azerbaijan’s biggest allies.
ICG said since fighting in April 2016, tension around the region has worsened
“Since mid-January 2017, deadly incidents involving the use of heavy artillery and antitank weapons have occurred with varying degrees of intensity; May saw a significant increase, including reports of self- guided rockets and missiles used near densely populated areas,” it wrote.
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(News report from Issue No. 331, published on June 5 2017)
MAY 23 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — At a meeting in Tbilisi, the defence ministers of Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey agreed to hold joint military exercises next month. The neighbours have been holding twice-yearly meetings of their defence ministers since 2014, with the aim of improving military relations.
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(News report from Issue No. 330, published on May 28 2017)
MAY 25 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia deployed its Iskander ballistic missiles to Tajikistan for the first time for military exercises with the Tajik army, Russian media reported. It’s unclear how long Russia will maintain the Iskander missiles in Tajikistan. Earlier this month, the Taliban pushed towards the Afghan-Tajik border in its furthest drive north, alarming Tajikistan which deployed extra forces in its southern regions. Russia maintains a large military base in Tajikistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 330, published on May 28 2017)
MAY 23 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in St Petersburg sentenced two ethnic Tajiks to prison for recruiting people for the extremist IS group. One of the men was given a 6-1/2 year sentence; the other a sentence of 6 years. Russia and countries in Central Asia have said that much of the alleged radicalisation of young Central Asians occurs in Russia where they work as labourers, removed from their family unit.
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(News report from Issue No. 330, published on May 28 2017)
MAY 23 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Tbilisi sentenced seven men to prison for trying to blow up a gas pipeline running from Russia to Armenia last August. Neither the police nor the court gave a potential motivation for the bomb plot but they did say that there was no connection to IS, the radical Islamic group.
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(News report from Issue No. 330, published on May 28 2017)
MAY 15 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Reports from Afghanistan said that government forces had pushed back Taliban soldiers who had moved up to the border with Tajikistan. Worried about a possible incursion across into Tajikistan, the Tajik military earlier this month deployed extra forces along its border. Analysts are worried that any push into Tajikistan by the Taliban may destabilise the Central Asia region.
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(News report from Issue No. 329, published on May 20 2017)
MAY 18 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Valery Permyakov, the former Russian soldier convicted of stabbing to death a family of seven in 2015 in Gyumri, Armenia’s second city, was transferred to Russia to see out the rest of his life sentence. Permyakov had been serving at the Russian military base in Gyumri when he murdered the family.
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(News report from Issue No. 329, published on May 20 2017)
MAY 15 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan fired a missile at an air defence system operated by Armenia-backed rebels in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, sharply escalating tension between the two enemies. Both sides accused the other of deliberately trying to provoke each other. Tension has been rising this year. In April 2016, the worst fighting since a UN-brokered ceasefire in 1994 killed several dozen people.
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(News report from Issue No. 329, published on May 20 2017)