SEP. 20 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russian President Vladimir Putin will sign an extension on the lease of Russia’s air base in Kyrgyzstan during a visit to Bishkek, Russian media reported. Mr Putin started his visit on Sept. 20. The Russian air base outside Bishkek is considered strategically important, particularly as a counter-balance to the US base at Manas airport.
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(News report from Issue No. 105, published on Sep. 21 2012)
SEP. 5 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan showed off its new military might by staging its first ever Caspian Sea military exercise, media reported. The exercise focused on defending an oil tanker and villages from attack by sea. Turkmenistan has earned huge sums from gas to China and other neighbouring countries.
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(News report from Issue No. 104, published on Sep. 14 2012)
SEP. 14 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – When Hungary allowed Ramil Safarov, a convicted murderer, to return to his native Azerbaijan it triggered a storm that encapsulates tensions in the South Caucasus.
Safarov was attending a military course in Budapest in 2004 when he crept into the room of Gurgen Markaryan, an Armenian army officer, and killed him with axe. It was brutal. Safarov smashed his axe into the sleeping Armenian several times, nearly severing his head.
But, after years in prison, he returned back to Azerbaijan and was immediately pardoned.
To Azerbaijanis, Safarov is a hero. He was promoted to major and given compensation for the time he spent in prison. In Armenia, though, he is a callous murderer.
The problem lies, of course, in a war over the mountainous enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh fought between Armenian-backed forces and Azerbaijan in the early 1990s. A ceasefire was brokered in 1994 but Azerbaijan and Armenia are still technically at war. Almost every week a skirmish along the borders of Nagorno-Karabakh kills a soldier.
Oil wealth has allowed Azerbaijan to re-arm over the past few years while Armenia, short of friends in the region, has looked to build a new alliance with neighbouring Iran.
The pardoning of Safarov has stoked tension at an already dangerous period.
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(News report from Issue No. 104, published on Sep. 14 2012)
AUG. 24 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Government forces began leaving Khorog, southeast Tajikistan, one month after they moved into the town, media reported. The military started to pack up after hundreds of people protested at their presence. Soldiers had moved into Khorog in July to capture a rebel commander accused of killing a security officer.
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(News report from Issue No. 103, published on Aug. 31 2012)
AUG. 29 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Three Georgian security agents and 11 bandits died in a gunfight during a hostage siege in mountains in the north of the country, media reported. Five hostages were released from the siege. The bandits were reportedly from Dagestan in Russia’s North Caucasus and the violence may further strain Russia-Georgia relations.
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(News report from Issue No. 103, published on Aug. 31 2012)
AUG. 27 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz security forces said they had arrested members of a unit of the banned Hizb-ut-Tahrir Islamist group in the south of the country, media reported. Hizb-ut-Tahrir aims to create an Islamic hegemony through peaceful means although many countries have labelled it an extremist organisation and banned it.
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(News report from Issue No. 103, published on Aug. 31 2012)
AUG. 22 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Soldiers in the town of Khorog, south-east Tajikistan, opened fire on a crowd demonstrating against the murder of a local opposition commander, lightly injuring several people, media reported. The shooting raises tension in the region a few weeks after government soldiers and rebel forces fought a battle that killed around 50 people.
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(News report from Issue No. 102, published on Aug. 24 2012)
AUG. 23 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Dushanbe sentenced Ravshanbek Mirzoakhmadov, a senior Tajik anti-drug smuggling official, to 18 years in jail for drug smuggling, media reported. The sentence highlights just how invasive drug smuggling has become through Tajikistan’s bureaucracy.
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(News report from Issue No. 102, published on Aug. 24 2012)
AUG. 17 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Police near Almaty killed nine suspected Islamic militants during a dawn raid, the prosecutor- general said. Last month President Nursultan Nazarbayev called on the security forces to do more to hunt down alleged militants after several died when a bomb they were preparing accidentally exploded.
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(News report from Issue No. 102, published on Aug. 24 2012)
AUG. 21 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – A Kyrgyz border guard murdered four fellow soldiers and one of their wives before he was shot dead by police. There have been several cases this year of conscripts in Central Asian armies murdering other soldiers. Most observers blame a culture of bullying for the murders.
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(News report from Issue No. 102, published on Aug. 24 2012)
