Tag Archives: security

Skirmish kills Azerbaijani and Armenian men

DEC. 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — At least four soldiers, three Armenian and one Azerbaijani, were killed in fighting between the two neighbours, media reported quoting officials from both Armenia and Azerbaijan. The skirmishes are the most serious around the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh since dozens died in April 2016. A UN-brokered deal has held an uneasy peace over the region since 1994.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 311, published on Jan. 6 2017)

Kazakh police arrests ex-security chief

DEC. 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Kazakhstan arrested Nartay Dutbayev, a former head of the Kazakh National Security Council, for allegedly leaking state secrets, media reported. He was detained four days earlier with two other men. Mr Dutbayev had been head of the Kazakh National Security Council between 2001 and 2006 and was considered to be an associate of Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev. Details of the case have not yet been released.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 311, published on Jan. 6 2017)

Azerbaijani becomes Reina victim

JAN. 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — An ethnic Azerbaijani woman with Russian citizenship, Nurana Hasanova, was killed during an attack by an alleged member of the radical IS group on a nightclub in Istanbul on New Year’s Eve. It’s not clear ifHasanova was working at the nightclub or was visiting. At least 39 people died in the attack.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 311, published on Jan. 6 2017)

Turkey accuses Kyrgyz man for Reina attack

JAN. 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Radical Islamist recruitment from Central Asia came under the spot- light after the authorities in Turkey accused a Kyrgyz man of killing at least 39 people at a nightclub in Istanbul on New Year’s Eve. The attack was claimed by the extremist IS group. The Turkish authorities later retracted the accusation and instead said that they were hunting for an ethnic Uighur who may have spent time in Kyrgyzstan. Security experts have said that Central Asia is a prime recruiting group for IS.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 311, published on Jan. 6 2017)

Russia wants airbase in Tajikistan

DEC. 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kremlin has started talks with the Tajik leadership on taking over the Anyi airbase in Tajikistan, media quoted the Russian ambassador in Dushanbe as saying. Russia already operates a military base in Tajikistan as well as an airbase in Kyrgyzstan. Taking over the airbase would still represent a rise in Russia’s military presence in the region.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 311, published on Jan. 6 2017)

Court jails Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan financier

DEC. 20 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in the United States sentenced Irfan Demirtas, reported to be a joint Dutch and Turkish national, to seven years in prison for raising funds for the radical group Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU). Demirtas was arrested in Germany last year and extradited to the US. The IMU is considered a terrorist group and has been fighting US-led forces in Afghanistan. It was formed in the 1990s in Uzbekistan and has previously targeted Tashkent with bombs.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 310, published on Dec. 23 2016)

Kazakh security forces arrest suspected terrorists

DEC. 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh security forces arrested 16 people for allegedly stirring ethnic hatred and belonging to terrorist groups in four coordinated raids across the country. The Kazakh government has blamed radical Islamists for trying to recruit young men into the ranks of IS.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 310, published on Dec. 23 2016)

Turkmen officials purge Gulenists

DEC. 8 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Security forces in Turkmenistan have detained dozens of people with alleged links to Turkey’s Gulen movement, Eurasianet reported quoting relatives. Turkey, one of Turkmenistan’s biggest foreign allies, accuses followers of the exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen of a failed coup in July. It has asked its allies in Central Asia and the South Caucasus to persecute Gulenists.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 309, published on Dec. 16 2016)

Russian police arrests Tajik men for plotting attack

DEC. 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Moscow said that they had arrested citizens of Moldova and Tajikistan who had been planning a series of attacks. Security services said that the men were linked to the radical IS group and had been acting under the orders of a commander based in Turkey. Intelligence agencies worry that Central Asia has become a key recruiting ground for IS.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 309, published on Dec. 16 2016)

EU extends its mission in Georgia

DEC. 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The European Council extended by two years the length of its mission monitoring the boundaries separating Georgian forces and Russia-backed separatist forces in the Georgian break away regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Officially called the European Union Monitoring Mission, it is now mandated to patrol between the two sides until the end of 2018. It was set up after a war in 2008 between Russia and Georgia. The monitoring mission costs the EU around 18m euro ($19m) per year.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 309, published on Dec. 16 2016)