Tag Archives: security

Tajikistan hosts regional security summit

SEPT. 15 2015, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) — Leaders from member states of the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) travelled to the Tajik capital for their annual summit, with talk of the threat from Islamic extremism dominating the conference.

Security was tight across Dushanbe. Earlier this month twin attacks on police stations, one in Dushanbe and one in a nearby town, killed nearly two dozen people.

The day after the summit, Tajikistan’s Prosecutor-General accused the opposition Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) of coordinating the attacks (Sept. 17). The authorities have been putting the IRPT under increased pressure over the past year. Linking it to the attacks will now, almost certainly, mean it will be banned.

At the CSTO summit, Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon said the number of young Tajiks lured to join IS in Iraq and Syria is increasing.

“The spectre of emergencies and security threats in the region is not diminishing, and could even grow,” he said. This rhetoric, Western analysts have said, suits the security- focused agenda of Central Asia. Many think it is overstated.

Russian president Vladimir Putin said he will help Central Asia strengthen its southern border against any Taliban incursions.

“Here in Tajikistan you are confronted with problems, with encroachments and attempts to rock the situation, and I would like to say that you can always count on our assistance and support,” media quoted Mr Putin as saying.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 248, published on Sept. 18 2015)

Azerbaijan and Armenia foreign ministers to meet

SEPT. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia will meet in New York on the fringes of the UN General Assembly on Sept. 24/25, media quoted Azerbaijani foreign minister Elmar Mammadyarov as saying. Azerbaijan and Armenia are still officially at war over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 248, published on Sept. 18 2015)

US wants closer military ties with Georgia

SEPT. 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A senior US military officer said he wanted US forces to increase the number of exercises they hold with Georgia. Media quoted Lieutenant General Ben Hodges saying he wanted to increase the “quantity” and “frequency” of drills between the two countries. The Georgia-US drills have irritated Russia.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)

Georgian rebel region deals with Venezuela

SEPT. 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Venezuela, one of the few countries which has recognised the self-declared independence of the Georgian rebel states, has signed an agreement with Abkhazia on visa-free travel, media reported. The Georgian foreign ministry denounced the agreement.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)

Kyrgyzstan increases alert on border

SEPT. 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kyrgyz military has ordered its units on high alert around the border with Tajikistan because of an increase in tension, media reported. Reports were not specific on what had triggered the alert but Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have rowed about border issues this year.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)

Comment: Internal issues trigger violence in Tajikistan

SEPT. 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Last week Tajikistan experienced some of its bloodiest fighting in recent years. Although the regime has been quick to label the rebels as “terrorists” sponsored by outside forces, the conflict is in fact the product of internal factors.

Tajikistan remains a mafia state. Different factions compete over the resources it has to offer. Government posts are not merely daytime jobs; they offer elites access to power and wealth.

With such a contested political economy, conflicts boil to the surface intermittently.

After the country’s civil war ended in 1997, some opposition warlords were incorporated into the regime.

Since signing the power-sharing deal, Emomali Rakhmon’s government has reneged on its promises, imprisoning, killing and exiling many of its former foes.

Not all of them have laid down their arms without a fight. Last Friday’s armed uprising is just the last in a series of conflicts involving former opposition strongmen.

Until recently, Major-General Abdukhalim Nazarzoda was one of the last remaining opposition commanders in government.

A skilful player of the political game, he rose to the rank of deputy defence minister in 2014. At the same time, he amassed a fortune through control of a bread factory, a poultry farm and other assets.

But last week his position came under threat.

According to a statement released by his supporters on September 6, the regime plotted to remove Nazarzoda for refusing to agree with the recent ban on the government’s main opponents, the Islamic Renaissance Party.

Instead of going quietly, he decided to go out fighting. And fight he did, leaving over forty people dead.

Dushanbe seems to have the situation under control for now. Despite sustaining heavy casualties, the security services have now neutralised most of Nazarzoda’s supporters, killing the general himself on September 11.

With the move against Nazarzoda, the regime has sent a clear warning signal to other commanders of dubious loyalty.

Not all of them will step aside without a fight.

Over the next few years Tajikistan’s fractious post-conflict state will sporadically erupt into violence.

By Edward Lemon, PhD candidate at Exeter University focusing on Tajikistan

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)

Bomb blasts in Uzbek capital

SEPT. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A bomb exploded near a mosque in central Tashkent. Nobody was hurt in the explosion. Police said they are looking for two people who left the bomb in a bag at a bus stop.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)

Refugees from Syria resettle in Armenia

SEPT. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Around 15,000 ethnic Armenians have fled their homes in Syria and resettled in Armenia, the BBC quoted the UN as saying. More than 100,000 Armenians had lived in Syria, mainly around Aleppo before a civil war broke out in 2011.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)

Tajik hunt for fugitive minister

SEPT. 11 2015, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan’s security forces have been scouring rough countryside in a valley 150km from the capital Dushanbe for the country’s most wanted man, General Abduhalim Nazarzoda, a former deputy defence minister.

The authorities accuse Gen. Nazarzoda of masterminding a series of early morning attacks in Dushanbe and a police station at Vahdat, a town 10km away, on Sept. 4 that killed at least nine policemen and 13 gunmen.

In Dushanbe, the authorities blocked access to social media sites and ordered more soldiers to patrol along the streets.

Hoji Said, a local Dushanbe resident, summed up the tense atmosphere in the capital.

“I have not seen so many policemen in Dushanbe,” he said.

Still, despite the extra security, a World Cup football qualifier match between Tajikistan and Australia went ahead. Australia won 3-0.

Gen. Nazarzoda was one of the leaders of the Tajik United Opposition, a coalition that fought against the government in a civil war in the mid-1990s. He fled the country but returned after a UN- brokered peace deal ensured handed him a role in the government.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)

Afghanistan warns Azerbaijan on IS

AUG. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – In an interview with the state-run Turkish news agency Andalou, Afghan vice-president General Abdul Rashid Dostum said he believed the Islamic extremist group IS would target Azerbaijan and the South Caucasus. IS has been increasing its recruitment drive across Central Asia and the South Caucasus.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)