AUG. 1 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – A Georgian soldier injured in a bomb attack in Afghanistan in January has died, media quoted Georgia’s Ministry of Defence as saying. The soldier was the 17th Georgian soldier to die in the US-lead war against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Last year Georgia’s parliament voted to increase its deployment to Afghanistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 100, published on Aug. 10 2012)
AUG. 2 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan’s lower house of parliament passed a decree that will prevent it from either joining any military alliance in the future or hosting any foreign military bases. Media had speculated that the US may be looking to open a base on Uzbek territory after Uzbekistan withdrew from the Russia-lead CSTO military alliance earlier this year.
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(News report from Issue No. 099, published on Aug. 3 2012)
AUG. 3 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Rebel fighters in south-east Tajikistan handed over hundreds of weapons in a cease-fire agreed with government forces after fighting on July 24 killed dozens of fighters and some civilians. Media reported, though, that although fighting had ceased, the main rebel commander, Tolib Ayombekov, has refused to give himself up.
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(News report from Issue No. 099, published on Aug. 3 2012)
JULY 24 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Officially at least 42 soldiers and rebel fighters died when Tajik government forces launched an assault against rebels in the south-east region of Gorno-Badakhshan.
It was the worst fighting in Tajikistan since 2010, when soldiers fought alleged Islamic militants along a valley in a different part of the country.
The government said the trigger for the assault was the murder of a military general three days earlier. Some analysts, though, have suggested the government may have been looking to launch this attack for some time.
Regardless, the fighting shows that government control over the fringes of Tajikistan is, at best, tenuous. President Emomali Rahkmon supposedly cemented his control over Tajikistan at the end of a civil war in 1997. The reality is that this authority, softened by the drugs trade and local factions, is often weak.
This is alarming for Central Asian states and Russia which need Tajikistan to act as a barrier against militant Islamists from Afghanistan. NATO is packing up and beginning to withdraw.
Despite pouring soldiers and helicopter gunships into Gorno-Badakhshan, government forces failed to dislodge the rebels, once again underlining the extent of central government’s power.
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(News report from Issue No. 098, published on July 27 2012)
JULY 20 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – In an election unrecognised by the international community, Bako Sahakian won a second term as president of the disputed region of Nagorno- Karabakh. The election increased tension between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Media reported sporadic gunfire and casualties along the borders of Nagorno-Karabakh.
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(News report from Issue No. 098, published on July 27 2012)
JULY 23 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Police in Kazakhstan arrested an army officer for allegedly shooting two other officers during an argument, media reported. This year attention has focused on bullying within the Kazakh army after the murder of 14 soldiers at a remote outpost in May and, in a separate incident, the mass desertion by conscripts.
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(News report from Issue No. 098, published on July 27 2012)
JULY 17 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – One Kyrgyz border guard died in a shootout with Uzbek soldiers, media reported. The shootout, which occurred in a loosely demarcated border area in southern Kyrgyzstan, underlines both the fragility of peace in the region and the mistrust between the Uzbeks and Kyrgyz.
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(News report from Issue No. 097, published on July 20 2012)
JULY 18 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Sources in the Tajik government told Reuters news agency that Tajikistan and Russia were on the brink of agreeing a new 49-year lease on Russia’s military base in the Pamirs. The source said Russia would not have to pay the $250m that Tajikistan had asked for and would instead pay with arms.
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(News report from Issue No. 097, published on July 20 2012)
JULY 12 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – The deputy head of Azerbaijan’s banned Islamist Party, Vagif Abdullayev, has died in prison from a heart attack, his colleagues said. In January 2011 police arrested Mr Abdullayev and six other members of the Islamist Party for possessing weapons and plotting revolution. In October, a court sentenced him to 11 years in jail.
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(News report from Issue No. 097, published on July 20 2012)
JULY 11 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – The deputy head of Russia’s air force, Major-general Pavel Kurachenko, said Kazakhstan and Russia will sign a deal to integrate their air defence systems before the end of the year, media reported. Russia has been trying to set up an integrated air defence system over the past few years.
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(News report from Issue No. 096, published on July 13 2012)