Tag Archives: security

Iran and Turkmenistan spar in the Caspian Sea

FEB. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Iran accused Turkmen coastguards of shooting dead an Iranian fisherman in the Caspian Sea, a potentially dangerous flashpoint in this volatile area.

The English-language Tehran Times said that one of the Iranian fishing boasts was sunk after it came under fire and that one person died.

Perhaps more worrying was the next sentence in the state-owned newspaper.

“According to IRNA, Turkmenistan’s hostile behaviour toward Iran has been increased and the only Shia mosque in Ashgabat is on the verge of destruction,” it reported. IRNA is a state-owned Iranian language news agency.

It sounds as if Iran is spoiling for a fight.

Either way, Turkmenistan’s government immediately denied the accusation that its navy had killed an Iranian sailor. Instead, they said that they had arrested four fishermen for illegal fishing.

This is a curious story, made more curious by the Tehran Times’ line about the only Shia mosque in Ashgabat being under threat.

The Caspian Sea is a sensitive area. It is rich in hydrocarbons and also produces sturgeon whose eggs are sold and eaten as caviar. It is also bordered by five countries — Iran, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Russia and Azerbaijan — with their own single minded agendas.

Flashpoints in the Caspian Sea, and bellicose language that accompany them, are worth monitoring.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)

Kazakh woman jailed for IS propaganda

JAN. 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Kazakhstan have jailed a woman in the western city of Aktau for spreading audio files online that supported the Islamic extremist group IS. Kazakhstan has become increasingly sensitive to IS propaganda. IS has targeted Central Asia as a recruitment ground.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015

Russia wants to bolster Tajik garrison

JAN. 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russian defence minister, Anatoly Anatonov, emphasised once again that Russia wanted to strengthen its garrison in Tajikistan because of a perceived increase in threat from the Taliban now that NATO forces have withdrawn from Afghanistan. Russia has around 7,000 soldiers in Tajikistan, its largest overseas base.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)

Tension builds over Nagorno-Karabakh

JAN. 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tension between Azerbaijan and Armenia is worsening. Azerbaijan said it shot down an Armenian military drone and the OSCE, Europe’s democracy watchdog, called for restraint as more soldiers were killed. In a New York Times story, expert Thomas de Waal said: “This is as bad as it has got since the (1994) cease-fire.”
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)

11 policemen arrested in Georgia

FEB. 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — News reports from Georgia said 11 former and serving police men have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the 2006 murder of a man. A bomb killed the man’s father last month. The police are accused of a cover up and the case may rock the establishment. Georgia’s interior minister resigned last month.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)

NATO plans training base in Georgia

>>Russia has warned Georgia about getting too close to NATO>>

JAN. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — NATO plans to open training facility in Georgia by the end of the year, a move certain to irritate Russia which has previously warned the Georgian government not to get too close to the Western military alliance.

Alexander Vershbow, NATO deputy secretary-general, announced the opening of the base on a trip to Tbilisi.

For Georgia, the decision by NATO to open a training centre is a major diplomatic coup. It is desperate to join the alliance and has been a keen supporter of its mission in Afghanistan. Georgia still has soldiers serving in Afghanistan.

As for NATO, the move is more risky. It doesn’t want to antagonise Russia but it also needs to look strong.

Over Ukraine, Russia and NATO are already engaged in something of a proxy war. NATO accuses Russia of sending weapons and soldiers to help pro-Russian rebels fight the Ukrainian forces. It is also considering arming the Kiev government forces.

It’s not entirely clear what the NATO training centre in Georgia will look like or what it will actually do. Relations between Georgia and Russia have steadily been improving since a war in 2008.

During the war, Russia forces roamed parts of Georgia and occupied military bases. Placing a base, even a training centre, in Georgia will move NATO onto the frontline.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)

Kyrgyz, not Tajiks, kills in Libya

JAN. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s foreign ministry confirmed that three Kyrgyz — a pilot and two flight attendants working for a private airline — died in an attack by masked gunmen on a hotel in Tripoli, Libya on Jan. 27. Initial reports from Libya mistook the Kyrgyz for Tajiks.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)

Russia ratifies alliance with Abakhazia

JAN. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Russian parliament ratified a new alliance with the Georgian rebel region of Abkhazia. The deal will increase Russia’s military presence in the region. Georgia denounced the deal as aggressive. Russia also plans to sign a similar pact with South Ossetia, another Georgian breakaway region.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015)

Chechens living in Georgia feel marginalised

JAN. 28 2015, DUISI/Georgia (The Conway Bulletin) —- The Pankisi Gorge lies in Georgia in the foothills of the Caucasus mountains. It has gained some infamy over the past decade as a redoubt for radical Islamists fighting Russia over the borther in Chechnya and Dagestan and also as the birthplace of Omar al-Shishani, also known as Omar the Chechen, who is a senior commander within the IS radical group.

Here the Muslim Kists, Georgia’s Chechens, represent a cultural oddity and a possible danger in a country already ridden by ethnic divisions and separatist movements.

Makvala Margoshvili sat in the shade of an arbour in her blooming garden. She slowly sipped her dark tea. This is her homeland. Makvala is the head of the Kist folk music ensemble Aznach, which means voice in English. Nazy, Makvala’s English-speaking niece, summed up the problems.

“For a Chechen is hard to be a Chechen without instilling fear in the others,” she said.

Within a wider Russophobic post-Soviet perspective, Georgia has always had a favourable attitude towards Chechen separatism in Russia. During two wars in Chechnya in the 1990s and early 2000s, a stream of refugees and fighters entered the country through its porous border with Russia’s North Caucasus bringing along so-called Arab friends and fundamentalist ideas.

Despite the relative harmony in the valley, the Pansiki Gorge’s reputation for rough and tumble remains. Poverty and segregation are a dangerous mix leading to radicalisation but in the Pansiki Gorge there has been little investment by the central government.

There is plenty of resentment directed towards the central government. Nazy said that people living in the Pansiki Gorge often felt marginalised.

“Even harder, however, is for the others to look at us for what we really are beyond the stereotypes of our troubled history,” she said.
>>By Gianluca Pardelli
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015)

Afghan president flies to Ashgabat

>>Regional links increasingly important>>

JAN. 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Afghan president Ashraf Ghani flew to Ashgabat for a two-day visit, an important trip focused on developing economic and transport links.

Afghanistan and Turkmenistan are steadily improving their ties. They have plans to build a gas pipeline across the countries, connecting Turkmenistan with markets in Pakistan and India.

During the talks, media quoted Turkmen leader Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov as saying that business between the two sides reached $1b in 2014 and would double in 2015.

Turkmenistan, enriched by various energy deals, has become an beacon of wealth and stability in the region.

Turkmenistan, though, is increasingly concerned about the spread of Islamic militants north into Central Asia. It has placed its soldiers along the border with Afghanistan on high alert.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015)