APRIL 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Reacting to the traditional start of the fighting season in Afghanistan, Uzbekistan ordered its Border Guards service to beef up its numbers along its southern border, Russian news agencies reported. Central Asian states are worried about the creep north of the Taliban.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)
APRIL 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Taliban forces have launched a series of major attacks on government checkpoints and bases in the previously stable Badakhshan region of northeast Afghanistan, media reported.
Badakhshan borders Tajikistan and its worsening security situation will alarm Tajik officials. They have warned that the Taliban may have designs on Central Asia once NATO forces leave.
Reuters reported that at least 18 government policemen were killed fighting Taliban forces in Badakhshan. Eight of them had reportedly been beheaded.
It also said that government forces had killed 19 Taiban fighters, suggesting that there had been a series of fairly major battles.
Spring marks the start of the fighting season in Afghanistan after the snow melts away allowing mountain passes to be crossed. This year’s season is being particularly closely watched to see how both government forces and the Taliban respond to the official end of the NATO combat mission.
Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan have said that they are all increasing security along their borders with Afghanistan.
Russia has also pledged more support along Central Asia’s borders. It wants to pull Central Asia more closely into its wider security reach.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 228, published on April 22 2015)
APRIL 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s deputy PM, Abdyrakhman Mamataliev, said there were now 330 Kyrgyz nationals fighting for the radical IS group in Syria. It’s not possible to confirm this number, but if it is accurate this would be a major worry for Kyrgyzstan.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 228, published on April 22 2015)
APRIL 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a move designed to stop young Muslims heading off to Syria to fight for the radical group IS, Georgia plans to outlaw membership of any foreign group considered to be a terrorist organisation.
Current legislation does not deal with this issue and the authorities want more power to arrest both those people heading off to Syria to join IS and people who have returned to Georgia.
The focus in Georgia of IS recruitment is the Pankisi Gorge, on the border of Russia’s North Caucasus region.
Pankisi, which lies 2-1/2 hours drive from Tbilisi to the northeast, on the border with Chechnya, has a population of 10,000 and the majority of them are Kists, an Islamic ethnic group similar to Chechens.
Media reports have said that 20 to 80 men have headed out of the Pankisi Gorge to fight for IS in Syria.
Tbilisi rules with a light touch in the Pankisi Gorge which has a history of producing radical Muslim fighters dating back to the Chechen wars of the 1990s and the early 2000s.
Khaso Khangoshvili a member of the the Council of Elders, the 35-people body that de facto governs Pankisi, believes that the stricter laws will help.
“The new law will improve the situation, but the government should care more about the economy of our region,” he told the Bulletin.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 228, published on April 22 2015)
APRIL 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan is poised to receive $1.2b in military equipment and weapons from Russia to fight against the radical Islamic group IS.
An unnamed source in the Russian Defence Ministry told Russian newspaper Kommersant the aid will be spread across the next few years. What is clear is that the aid pulls Tajikistan further into the Kremlin’s orbit and strengthen its security driven regional focus.
It also intensifies the rhetoric. Previously Russia and Tajikistan had discussed the threat posed by the Taliban in Afghanistan. That has now morphed into the threat from IS. IS had previously only been associated with recruiting in Central Asia.
Some analysts are sceptical and have said that Russia and various Central Asia countries are using IS and the Taliban as a scare-mongering tactic.
Earlier this month, President Emomali Rakhmon criticised women for wearing “foreign, non traditional clothes,” while the state television channel insinuated that demand for prostitutes wearing black hijabs was increasing. This resonated as a subtle comparison between women wearing traditional Islamic head scarves and prostitutes wearing black hijabs (April 1).
Tajikistan has taken a strong stance against radical Islam. This means more control over society, less freedom of expression, and more options for arbitrary rule of law.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 226, published on April 8 2015)
APRIL 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Uzbekistan sent 12 men to prison for belonging to a jihadist group, Russian news agencies reported. Prosecutors said the men were distributing pamphlets and videos promoting extremism. Central Asian governments are worried about the lure of the IS extremist group.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 226, published on April 8 2015)
APRIL 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Community leaders in Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge have asked the government for more help to stop teenagers heading to Syria to join the militant group IS, media reported. The Pankisi Gorge is an Islamic stronghold in Georgia and has strong ethnic and cultural ties to Chechnya in Russia.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 226, published on April 8 2015)
MARCH 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan has asked the US for military aid to help it stop the spread north of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Eurasianet reported quoting a US general’s statement to Congress. Turkmenistan has been warning for months about Taliban activity on its border.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 225, published on April 12015)
MARCH 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Azerbaijan began the trial of six men accused of fighting with the extremist IS group in Syria, media reported. The men are part of a group of 26 people arrested last year.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 225, published on April 12015)
MARCH 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan has issued an order to nearly double the size of its army to 100,000 soldiers, media reported.
Although no official reason was given for the increase in the size of the military, the Turkmen government has become increasingly nervous about the spread north of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Last year, news leaked out of Turkmenistan that the authorities had ordered the mobilisation of more officers for its army. Now it appears that it needs more soldiers too.
The Turkmen news website, Chronicles of Turkmenistan, also reported that Russian military observers had been seen patrolling parts of the border with Afghanistan.
Russia and the Central Asian states which border Afghanistan — that’s Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan — have all warned about a potential threat to regional stability from the spread north of the Taliban.
Some analysts have said that the governments of these countries are over-stating this threat to play into their security agenda.
Even so, Turkmenistan appears to be pursuing a major mobilisation agenda.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 224, published on March 25 2015)
