Tag Archives: security

Russia wants airbase in Tajikistan

DEC. 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kremlin has started talks with the Tajik leadership on taking over the Anyi airbase in Tajikistan, media quoted the Russian ambassador in Dushanbe as saying. Russia already operates a military base in Tajikistan as well as an airbase in Kyrgyzstan. Taking over the airbase would still represent a rise in Russia’s military presence in the region.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 311, published on Jan. 6 2017)

Court jails Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan financier

DEC. 20 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in the United States sentenced Irfan Demirtas, reported to be a joint Dutch and Turkish national, to seven years in prison for raising funds for the radical group Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU). Demirtas was arrested in Germany last year and extradited to the US. The IMU is considered a terrorist group and has been fighting US-led forces in Afghanistan. It was formed in the 1990s in Uzbekistan and has previously targeted Tashkent with bombs.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 310, published on Dec. 23 2016)

Kazakh security forces arrest suspected terrorists

DEC. 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh security forces arrested 16 people for allegedly stirring ethnic hatred and belonging to terrorist groups in four coordinated raids across the country. The Kazakh government has blamed radical Islamists for trying to recruit young men into the ranks of IS.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 310, published on Dec. 23 2016)

Turkmen officials purge Gulenists

DEC. 8 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Security forces in Turkmenistan have detained dozens of people with alleged links to Turkey’s Gulen movement, Eurasianet reported quoting relatives. Turkey, one of Turkmenistan’s biggest foreign allies, accuses followers of the exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen of a failed coup in July. It has asked its allies in Central Asia and the South Caucasus to persecute Gulenists.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 309, published on Dec. 16 2016)

Russian police arrests Tajik men for plotting attack

DEC. 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Moscow said that they had arrested citizens of Moldova and Tajikistan who had been planning a series of attacks. Security services said that the men were linked to the radical IS group and had been acting under the orders of a commander based in Turkey. Intelligence agencies worry that Central Asia has become a key recruiting ground for IS.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 309, published on Dec. 16 2016)

EU extends its mission in Georgia

DEC. 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The European Council extended by two years the length of its mission monitoring the boundaries separating Georgian forces and Russia-backed separatist forces in the Georgian break away regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Officially called the European Union Monitoring Mission, it is now mandated to patrol between the two sides until the end of 2018. It was set up after a war in 2008 between Russia and Georgia. The monitoring mission costs the EU around 18m euro ($19m) per year.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 309, published on Dec. 16 2016)

Kyrgyz President says Russia should leave Kant

DEC. 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — At a press conference, Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev said that Russia would have to quit its air base at Kant near Bishkek. He didn’t elaborate or give any details but he did say that he wanted all foreign military to quit Kyrgyzstan. Russia has signed a deal with Kyrgyzstan to operate from Kant until 2032. It started operations at Kant in 2003. The US quit its airbase outside Bishkek in 2014.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 307, published on Dec. 2 2016)

Tajik and Kyrgyz military fire shots

NOV. 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Shots have been fired by Tajik and Kyrgyz border guards on their shared border, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. The border is one of the most tense in Central Asia. RFE/RL said that nobody had been injured in the fighting and that it wasn’t clear if the shots had been fired into the air as warnings or had been aimed at security personnel.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 307, published on Dec. 2 2016)

Kazakh court sentences gunman to life

NOV. 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Aktobe, west Kazakhstan, sentenced seven men who shot dead eight people in a series of attacks earlier this year to life jail sentences. Eighteen more people who helped the group were given between two and five year prison sentences. The judge described the men, who attacked a police outpost, as Islamic extremists.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 307, published on Dec. 2 2016)

Uzbekistan seals military deal with Russia

NOV. 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia and Uzbekistan have signed a deal that will improve their military cooperation, media reported quoting the Russian defence ministry. It said that one of the main aims of the agreement was to update Uzbekistan’s military with modern Russian-made equipment. The deal highlights both the more open nature of Uzbekistan since Islam Karimov, president since 1991, died in September and the influence that Russia has over the region.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 307, published on Dec. 2 2016)