Tag Archives: border

Tajik army mobilises to defend against the Taliban

DUSHANBE, MAY 10 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan started reinforcing its army along the border with Afghanistan against a potential surge north by the Taliban, official sources told The Conway Bulletin.

At the end of last month, the Taliban captured the town of Zebak, 35km from the border with Tajikistan, its furthest advance north in years of fighting.

“Although the Talibs always claim not to cross the border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan, we have still decided to announce an intensified military situation in Tajikistan’s Ishkashim region,” a senior official in one of the regional emergencies ministries told a Bulletin correspondent.

Ishkashim region is part of Tajikistan’s Badakhshan province, which borders Afghanistan.

In Dushanbe, witnesses saw military transport planes take off from the airport and head in the direction of Badakhshan and, for the first time under a military pact agreed in 2012 between Afghanistan and Tajikistan, media reported that Tajik hospitals have been caring for injured Afghan government soldiers.

Analysts and some government officials have been warning for years that any Taliban move north towards Tajikistan threatens stability in Central Asia.

The risk is that a destabilised southern Tajikistan would drag the government into the fight against the Taliban. Russia, too, has a base in Tajikistan and could get pulled into the conflict.

People living in Ishkashim near the border with Afghanistan have started to flee their homes, witnesses said.

Parvina, a 47-year-old, teacher at the university in Khorog, the nearest Tajik town, said that although people in the region had lived with the threat of fighting in Afghanistan spilling over into Tajikistan, the situation was currently more serious than usual.

“Afghanistan has had this war for decades and of course I am afraid of it,” she told a Bulletin correspondent by telephone. “The only thing that is separating us from Afghanistan is the Amu Darya River and I do not think that it will be hard for the Talibs simply to cross it whenever they decide to.”

Over the past few years, Central Asian states have boosted trade and diplomatic ties with Afghanistan, making plans to build pipelines and electricity routes across the country, as well as trading gas and establishing air links.

But the threat from the Taliban has never been far away. In 2015, the Taliban briefly captured the city of Kundiz near the Tajik border. Turkmenistan has also been bolstering its border forces over the past few years after it said that Taliban forces attacked its border posts.

ENDS

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(News report from Issue No. 328, published on May 12 2017)

 

Scuffles break out between Azerbaijanis and Armenians

MAY 9 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Fighting briefly broke out during a Victory Day parade in Moscow between a group of Armenians and a group of Azerbaijani. A video on the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty website showed men arguing over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan and Armenia are still officially at war over the region which Armenia-backed rebels have controlled since 1994. Nobody was hurt in the scuffles.

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(News report from Issue No. 328, published on May 12 2017)

 

Putin adviser visits Georgian breakaway region

APRIL 23 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Vladislav Surkov, an adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, travelled to Tskhinvali, the capital of the breakaway Russian region of South Ossetia for the inauguration of Anatoly Bibilov as the province’s new leader. Mr Bibilov had won an election earlier in the month. Russia is one of the only countries to support South Ossetia’s independence claim.

ENDS

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(News report from Issue No. 326, published on April 28 2017)

Uzbek border guards kill shepherd

APRIL 17 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbek border guards shot and killed one Tajik shepherd and injured another, shootings that overshadow progress to repair damaged relations. The Tajik authorities accused the Uzbek border guards of crossing the border and illegally shooting the two men. The Uzbek authorities said that the shepherds had crossed into Uzbekistan and attacked the border guard post. Since Shavkat Mirziyoyev became Uzbek president in Sept last year, relations with Tajikistan have improved.

ENDS

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(News report from Issue No. 325, published on April 17 2017)

Turkmen president travels to Kazakhstan

APRIL 18 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymkuhamedov travelled to Astana to meet with Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev and sign a deal which they said marked the end of any border disputes between the two neighbours. Both sides said that the deal meant that the borders would now be fixed.

ENDS

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(News report from Issue No. 325, published on April 17 2017)

S. Ossetia court sentences Georgian man

FEB. 13 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in the Georgian breakaway region of South Ossetia sentenced a Georgian man to 20 years in jail for sabotage and terrorism, media reported, in a move that is likely to inflame tensions with Tbilisi. The man, 49 year-old Giorgi Giunashvili, was accused of slipping over the de facto border between South Ossetia and Georgia to attack targets. The Georgian government has called the imprisonment illegal.

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(News report from Issue No. 317, published on Feb.17 2017)

Fighting becomes intense in Turkmen-Afghan border

NOV. 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Residents of Marchak, a village on the Turkmen-Afghan border,told the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that fighting in the border areas was becoming more serious. The Turkmen government has said it was concerned about a move north by the Taliban but has denied that there is currently a problem. The RFE/RL report suggests otherwise.

ENDS

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(News report from Issue No. 306, published on Nov. 25 2016)

Armenia buys Russian missiles

NOV. 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia has bought a number of Iskander-M missiles from Russia, Armenia president Serzh Sargsyan told Russian media. The Iskander-M missile is one of Russia’s most advanced missile systems. Mr Sargsyan said that Armenia had been obligated to by the missile system to balance against the threat posed by Azerbaijan. Armenia and Azerbaijan are still officially at war over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

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(News report from Issue No. 306, published on Nov. 25 2016)f

 

Uzbek and Kyrgyz officials meet

NOV. 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbek and Kyrgyz officials met in Ferghana City, Uzbekistan, to agree resolutions to seven more border dispute areas, the 24.kg news website reported. The border resolution process is part of a drive by Uzbekistan since the death of Islam Karimov in September to repair damaged relations with its neighbours. 24.kg reported that the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border was 1,378km long and that nearly a third of this has been disputed.

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(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)

 

Georgia and Armenia unveil border crossing

NOV. 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia and Georgia unveiled a new border crossing at Bagratashen and renewed vows to boost bilateral cooperation. At the inauguration ceremony, Georgian PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili met Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and stressed the importance of improved regional cooperation.

ENDS

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(News report from Issue No. 304, published on Nov. 11 2016)