FEB. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia described NATO’s move to open a training base in Georgia as a provocation. NATO intends to open the base this year. Alexander Grushko, Russia’s envoy to NATO, said: “Emergence of NATO military facilities in Georgia is a step towards escalation of tension and worsening of regional security.”
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)
>>US-backed website promotes drive to counter radical Islam>>
FEB. 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan has stepped up a programme in the south of the country to counter propaganda from Islamic extremists.
The website centralasiaonline.com, which has links to the US government, quoted NGO workers and people in southern Kyrygzstan explaining how the government had started a series of courses to pull potentially vulnerable people away from online material distributed by the IS extremist group.
“Young people encounter dubious information online and fall prey to the negative influence of recruiters, who lure our brothers and sons to hot spots,” the website quoted one woman who lived near Osh, the main city in the region.
Centralasiaonline.com has a clear pro-Western agenda but its report matches other media reports which have described how the Kyrgyz government is trying to counter IS recruitment ambitions in Central Asia.
IS has identified Central Asia as a particularly fertile recruitment ground because of high levels of dissatisfaction among young Muslim men.
The centralasiaonline.com report said the government had hosted six workshops for 250 people over the past couple of months.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)
FEB. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — China has sold Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan anti-aircraft missile systems, the English-language website eurasianet.org and the Uzbek website 12news.uz both reported by quoting Chinese sources. Eurasianet.org said the sale, if confirmed, would be China’s biggest ever military deal in Central Asia.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)
JAN. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The German ambassador to Uzbekistan, Neithart Höfer-Wissing, officially confirmed that Germany was going to maintain its military base near Termez, south Uzbekistan, German media reported . A deal was made between the Uzbek and German government last year, although details were kept secret.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)
JAN. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The German ambassador to Uzbekistan, Neithart Höfer-Wissing, officially confirmed that Germany was going to maintain its military base near Termez, south Uzbekistan, German media reported. A deal was made between the Uzbek and German government last year, although details were kept secret.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)
FEB. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The radical group IS plans to attack Uzbekistan, an Uzbek security officer told centralasiaonline.com. Other media outlets broadcast the comments although analysts questioned the motive behind them. The Pentagon, which has agreed to send military kit to Uzbekistan, is linked to the website.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)
FEB. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Iran accused Turkmen coastguards of shooting dead an Iranian fisherman in the Caspian Sea, a potentially dangerous flashpoint in this volatile area.
The English-language Tehran Times said that one of the Iranian fishing boasts was sunk after it came under fire and that one person died.
Perhaps more worrying was the next sentence in the state-owned newspaper.
“According to IRNA, Turkmenistan’s hostile behaviour toward Iran has been increased and the only Shia mosque in Ashgabat is on the verge of destruction,” it reported. IRNA is a state-owned Iranian language news agency.
It sounds as if Iran is spoiling for a fight.
Either way, Turkmenistan’s government immediately denied the accusation that its navy had killed an Iranian sailor. Instead, they said that they had arrested four fishermen for illegal fishing.
This is a curious story, made more curious by the Tehran Times’ line about the only Shia mosque in Ashgabat being under threat.
The Caspian Sea is a sensitive area. It is rich in hydrocarbons and also produces sturgeon whose eggs are sold and eaten as caviar. It is also bordered by five countries — Iran, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Russia and Azerbaijan — with their own single minded agendas.
Flashpoints in the Caspian Sea, and bellicose language that accompany them, are worth monitoring.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)
JAN. 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Kazakhstan have jailed a woman in the western city of Aktau for spreading audio files online that supported the Islamic extremist group IS. Kazakhstan has become increasingly sensitive to IS propaganda. IS has targeted Central Asia as a recruitment ground.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015
JAN. 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russian defence minister, Anatoly Anatonov, emphasised once again that Russia wanted to strengthen its garrison in Tajikistan because of a perceived increase in threat from the Taliban now that NATO forces have withdrawn from Afghanistan. Russia has around 7,000 soldiers in Tajikistan, its largest overseas base.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)
JAN. 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tension between Azerbaijan and Armenia is worsening. Azerbaijan said it shot down an Armenian military drone and the OSCE, Europe’s democracy watchdog, called for restraint as more soldiers were killed. In a New York Times story, expert Thomas de Waal said: “This is as bad as it has got since the (1994) cease-fire.”
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)