Tag Archives: security

Russia wants to patrol Tajik-Afghan border

OCT. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia’s deputy minister of defence, General Yuri Borisov, said that Russian President Vladimir Putin was in talks with Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rakhmon to station soldiers on the Tajik-Afghan border to fight off any potential threat from the Taliban. Russia and Central Asian leaders have grown increasingly wary of the push north of the Taliban.

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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct.16 2015)

Turkmenistan denies border problems

OCT. 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan’s government issued a rare statement denying a claim by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev that he was aware of what he described as “incidences” on the Turkmen-Afghan border. Turkmenistan said Mr Nazarbayev’s claim was “untrue” and “incomprehensible”. Taliban activity has been increasing along the border with Turkmenistan.

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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct.16 2015)

ICC plans 2008 Georgia-Russia war investigation

OCT. 7 2015, TBILISI (The Conway Bulletin) — The Hague based International Criminal Court (ICC) said that it wanted to start investigating alleged war crimes committed during a 2008 conflict between Georgia and Russia.

One of the ICC’s prosecutors, Fatou Bensouda, has lodged a potential case with the court and is waiting for authorisation on whether to launch an official investigation. If a full investigation is initiated and charges brought against either Russian or Georgian officials, the case will likely worsen relations between the two neighbours.

“On the basis of the information available, Prosecutor Bensouda has concluded that there is a reasonable basis to believe that crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court have been committed in Georgia in the context of the armed conflict of August 2008,” the ICC said in a statement.

“She will shortly submit a request to the Pre-Trial Chamber for authorisation to open an investigation into this Situation.”

During the five day war in August 2008 that focused on the Georgian rebel region of South Ossetia, human rights groups alleged that both sides fired cluster bombs.

They also said that forces linked to Russia had burned houses belonging to Georgian farmers.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

Russia sends attack helicopters to Tajikistan

OCT. 6 2015, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia said it will station attack helicopters at its base in Tajikistan, a strong sign the Kremlin believes the threat from the Taliban in Afghanistan to Central Asia is heightening.

A Russian Defence Ministry spokesman said Mi-24P gunships, heavily used during the Soviet Union’s war in Afghanistan in the 1980s, and Mi-8 MTV transport-combat helicopters will be stationed at the Ayni airbase, 30km outside Dushanbe.

Over the past week, the Taliban and US-backed forces belonging to the Afghan central government have been fighting for control of Kunduz on the Tajik-Afghan border. And this has worried Central Asian governments throughout the year.

A Dushanbe-based analyst who wished not to be named said: “The occupation of Kunduz by the Taliban has shaken Dushanbe. Tajik authorities know that they cannot handle any threat, be it domestic or external, without the help of Russia. For Rakhmon, the Kremlin is the guarantee of stability in Tajikistan.”

Tajik President Emmomli Rakhmon had been in Moscow the day before the Kremlin said it would send attack helicopters to Tajikistan.

And most people in Dushanbe welcomed Moscow’s help. Olim Shirinov, a Dushanbe resident, said: “Every new unit of Russian military equipment on Tajik soil is one more brick in the wall that guarantees stability in the country.”

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(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

Azerbaijan orders attack helicopter

OCT. 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan has ordered 60 T-129 ATAK helicopters from Turkey for $3b, media reported, part of a major upgrade to its military. Azerbaijan has openly said that it is spending a large chunk of its oil wealth on updating and modernising its military.

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(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

Turkmen President visits Uzbekistan

OCT. 7/8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov paid an official visit to Uzbekistan where he discussed security and water scarcity issues with Uzbek President Islam Karimov. An increase in fighting in Afghanistan has become a major concern for the two leaders.

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(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

Comment: Worry over intensifying fighting in northern Afghanistan

OCT. 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia and the US are right to be increasingly concerned about intensifying fighting in northern Afghanistan.

The question is what can they do about it, if anything?

This week, Russia said it was sending a batch of attack helicopters to its base in Tajikistan. Russia is clearly in a belligerent mood, as its air strikes in Syria have also shown.

For most ordinary Tajiks, as the Bulletin reports, the attack helicopters are welcome in the country, although it is not entirely clear when Russia would actually use them.

For the US, the priority is to protect its own. It has said it is going to spend $200m strengthening its embassy in Turkmenistan.

No doubt the current embassy needed an upgrade but don’t be fooled by the cleverly spun press releases.

The US is not spending $200m rebuilding its embassy to re-affirm its commitment to Turkmenistan. It is spending $200m rebuilding its embassy on the outskirts of Ashgabat because it is nervous and the strategy now is to prioritise protection over everything else. This will be an embassy with big walls and prison-style security cut off from the rest of Turkmenistan.

Both the Russian and the US moves are a response to the Taliban threat over the border and the radical Islamic threat internally.

These threats appear to be growing, although there is debate over just how strong IS recruitment really is in the region. Both Russia and the US and the rest of Central Asia will have to get used to them.

By James Kilner, Editor, The Conway Bulletin

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(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

Turkish military visits Azerbaijan

OCT. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Highlighting the close relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey, the head of the Turkish General Staff, Hulusi Akar, visited Baku. In Baku, General Akar met his Azerbaijani counterpart and, as expected, emphasised Turkey’s support for Azerbaijan’s position on Nagorno-Karabakh which it disputes with Armenia.

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(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

Poroshenko flies into Kazakhstan

OCT. 8/9 2015, ALMATY (The Conway Bulletin) — After an on-off build-up lasting months, Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko visited Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev in Astana a meeting that could upset relations between Kazakhstan and Russia.

Mr Poroshenko’s visit to Astana is a diplomatic victory for Mr Nazarbayev who wants to be viewed as a potential peace broker between Kiev and Moscow over the civil war in eastern Ukraine. Mr Nazarbayev visited Kiev last December.

At a joint press conference, Mr Poroshenko thanked Mr Nazarbayev for his support “of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.”

Kazakhstan has to tread a careful diplomatic tightrope as it needs to appease both its Western backers, who support Ukraine, and also Russia, with which it has close economic and political ties.

Kazakhstan has not recognised Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014.

During his visit, Mr Poroshenko also met with Kazakh prime minister Karim Massimov to discuss trade opportunities that will emerge in 2016 with the establishment of a free trade zone between Ukraine and the European Union and with Kazakhstan’s accession to the World Trade Organisation.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

Turkmen President reshuffles top officials

OCT. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan’s president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov reshuffled his top security officials, according to state media. Begench Gundogdiyev, minister of defence, was demoted to head of the navy. The head of the national security service, Yaylym Berdiyev was appointed as the new defence minister.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)