Foreign ministers of breakaway territories to meet in Moscow
22 February
The Foreign ministers of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transdniestria are set to meet in Moscow on Friday. "The Abkhaz, South Ossetian and Trandniestrian foreign ministers plan to discuss issues related to preparations for a meeting of the presidents of our breakaway republics," Abkhaz Foreign Minister Sergei Shamba told Interfax on Friday. "We will also discuss the situation after the recognition of Kosovo's independence by a number of countries," he said. The three leaders will meet in Moscow, South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity told Interfax. "We are planning to meet in Moscow, and I think that the meeting will take place within two weeks," he said. (Interfax)

Sargsyan elected Armenian president – CEC
24 February
Serzh Sargsyan was elected Armenian president at the February 19 presidential election, chairman Armenian Central Elections Commission (CEC) Garegin Azarian at an extraordinary session of the commission presenting official results of the election. Sargsyan won 52.82% of votes. Levon Ter-Petrosian came second with 21.5%. Artur Bagdasarian was the third with 17.7%. The election results protocol was signed by all six members that attended the Sunday session. CEC members from the Heritage and the Rule of Law opposition parties did not come to the meeting. Twenty-four complaints about the election submitted to the CEC could not influence the final results of the election, Azarian said. (Interfax)

Putin pledges more Fuel For Tajikistan Emergency
25 February
Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged to help Tajikistan battle what the Central Asian nation’s leader called “catastrophic” cold weather that has left only the capital, Dushanbe, with regular power supplies.“There has never been anything like it in our country’s history,” President Emomali Rakhmon told Putin at the Russian leader’s residence outside of Moscow on Thursday. “In the east now it is minus 25 degrees.” Putin promised additional aid on top of the diesel fuel and mobile power generators Russia has sent, according to a transcript on the Kremlin’s web site. Rakhmon said his country of 7 million people has no regular power supplies outside Dushanbe, where electricity is available only eight hours a day. As many as 1 million children under the age of five are in danger from the cold weather, the United Nations Children’s Fund said last week. Aid agencies estimate at least 260,000 people in rural areas are in need of immediate food supplies and as many as 500,000 may face shortages in the future. Tajikistan, a mountainous country and former Soviet republic, shares borders with Afghanistan, China, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. The third straight month of freezing temperatures has caused $1 billion of damage, destroyed the country’s winter crop and killed almost 70 percent of livestock, Rakhmon said. Cases of respiratory infections, such as pneumonia, doubled this winter compared with the same period last year, the UN cited Tajikistan’s Health Ministry as saying. Power cuts and the cold weather contributed to the deaths of several newborn babies in hospitals, the UN said, citing reports. The Tajik leader wants assistance to build a hydroelectric power station to address the country’s shortage. “There is no other way,” he told Putin. “Tajikistan’s electricity deficit in winter amounts to 20.5 billion kilowatt-hours.” (Bloomberg)

TAJIK OFFICIAL ANNOUNCES ENERGY CUTOFF BY UZBEKISTAN
25 February
Rashid Gulov, an official of the Tajik state-owned energy company Barqi Tojik, announced in Dushanbe on February 25 that Uzbekistan unexpectedly cut off exports of electricity the previous day. Gulov said that Uzbek energy officials informed their Tajik counterparts that the cutoff was due to unidentified "technical problems" in their thermoelectric power plants. He added that the delivery of electricity from Uzbekistan will not resume until March 1 at the earliest. Until the February 24 cutoff, Uzbekistan was supplying Tajikistan with roughly 5 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity daily. But Gulov also stressed that Tajikistan is also able to import increased amounts of electricity from other neighboring states, including 10.7 million kWh daily from Turkmenistan and another 200,000 kWh daily from Kyrgyzstan to the northern Sughd region. The UN's World Food Program also announced on February 25 plans to issue an appeal for an additional $8.3 million in emergency aid to help alleviate the ongoing energy crisis in Tajikistan, according to the Avesta website. (Asia-Plus)

OSCE holds border talks in Tajikistan
26 February
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe held a task force meeting with officials from Tajikistan to discuss border security concerns. Top officials met in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, Tuesday to develop border-related assistance activities for the country including initiatives that would train tactical border patrol and surveillance groups along with ways of combating the illegal arms trafficking and drug trade coming from Afghanistan, the OSCE reported. "We had very productive discussions today on the relationship between the host country and the OSCE, and on the activities of the Center in Dushanbe," Ambassador Herbert Salber, the head of the OSCE Center in Dushanbe, said in a statement. "The Task Force is a form of privileged cooperation with Tajikistan; it helps strengthen joint consultations in response to questions earlier raised by the host country's delegation to the OSCE." The OSCE has been working out a comprehensive approach to security in region and how Tajikistan can play a role in intercepting shipments of drug paraphernalia used for the production of heroin in Afghanistan which borders Tajikistan directly to the south. Recent reports from the United Nations have cited Afghanistan as one of the largest suppliers of opium in the world. Critics argue the Afghan drug trade goes largely to fund the Taliban insurgency along with other terrorist organizations. "This is the second task force and it has proved to be a very useful tool in the cooperation and coordination between the OSCE and Tajikistan," an OSCE official said. (UPI)

FUNERAL OF LABORER KILLED IN RUSSIA HELD IN KYRGYZSTAN
26 February
Several hundred people on February 25 attended the funeral of a Kyrgyz migrant laborer killed in what is suspected to be an ethnically motivated murder in Moscow last week, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reported. The funeral of 28-year-old Tayir Jarkynbaev was held in his hometown of Kochkorata in the Jalal-Abad region. The funeral is likely to further aggravate public feeling over a recent wave of ethnically motivated killings of Kyrgyz nationals in Russia. A lawmaker from the ruling Ak-Jol Eldik (Best Path Popular) Party, Melisbek Myrzakmatov, on February 22 threatened to force the eviction of the Russian military from the Kant air base outside of Bishkek in retaliation for the killings. (RFE/RL)

Bagapsh: no talks with Tbilisi until Kodori Gorge militarised zone
26 February
Abkhazian leader Sergei Bagapsh has ruled out an opportunity of meeting with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili until all of Georgia’s military units are withdrawn from the Kodori Gorge. “Until the issue of the Kodori Gorge remains unresolved, there will be no talk about any meetings or contacts with Georgia,” he told a news conference in Sukhumi on Tuesday. “If Georgia is ready to sign an agreement on peace and guarantees for the prevention and for the non-resumption of hostilities, the issue of the Kodori Gorge will make the cornerstone,” Bagapsh said. “It is necessary to return to the framework of the Moscow agreement on a ceasefire and separation of forces of May 14, 1994, in compliance with which the territory of the Kodori Gorge is a demilitarised zone,” he said. (Itar-Tass)

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT-ELECT PROPOSES RECONCILIATION, COALITION GOVERNMENT
27 February
Addressing some 10,000 supporters in Yerevan on February 26, Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian, who according to official results won the February 19 presidential election with almost 53 percent of the vote, appealed to his defeated rival candidates and their supporters to cooperate, and possibly form a coalition government, Noyan Tapan and RFE/RL's Armenian Service reported. "One of my aims is to use all constructive forces for the sake of Armenia's development," he affirmed. In an allusion to disparaging comments by former Prime Minister Hrant Bagratian about Armenians born and brought up in the then-Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast when it was a constituent part of the Azerbaijan SSR, a group that includes both Sarkisian and outgoing President Robert Kocharian, Sarkisian warned against dividing society "into 'our own people' and 'strangers,'" and he expressed regret that some voters "have unwittingly become tools for a few individuals' political ambitions and penchant for revenge," a clear allusion to those who for the past week have rallied in Yerevan in support of his defeated rival, former President Levon Ter-Petrossian. (RFE/RL)

ARMENIAN EX-PRESIDENT CALLS ON PRIME MINISTER, PRESIDENT TO RESIGN
27 February
Just hours Sarkisian's appeal for cooperation, former President Ter-Petrossian told a far larger gathering of supporters in Yerevan that both Sarkisian and outgoing President Kocharian should resign, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reported. Speaking the same day on national television, Kocharian warned that the authorities will not permit the unauthorized mass protests by Ter-Petrossian's supporters to continue indefinitely. Meanwhile, visiting Finnish Foreign Minister and OSCE Chairman in Office Ilkka Kanerva congratulated Sarkisian on his election win and praised the Armenian authorities for showing "restraint" in the face of the mass protests, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reported. Kanerva also met on February 26 with Ter-Petrossian, but no details of that meeting were divulged, and with Bako Sahakian, president of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh republic (NKR). Kanerva and Sahakian both stressed that the Karabakh conflict can and should be resolved by exclusively peaceful means; Sahakian also argued that the NKR should be formally represented at the ongoing OSCE-mediated talks on the search for a formal solution to the conflict, Noyan Tapan reported. (RFE/RL)

KAZAKHSTAN PURSUES PAKISTANI INVESTORS
3 March
Kazakhstan is keen to expand bilateral trade with Pakistan said Yernur, First Secretary of Kazakhstan embassy in Islamabad during a meeting with members of Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry last week. Some Pakistani companies have already invested in Kazakhstan and the government is encouraging further foreign investment. The Secretary said that, for investment purposes in Kazakhstan, long-term visas are granted to investors and to qualify for citizenship, 7 years' stay in Kazakhstan is mandatory. He added that after 15 years of independence, the country's economy is growing well. Yerlan T.Danabekov, Visa Counselor from Embassy of Kazakhstan, who accompanied Tuyakbayev to the meeting, said that his embassy has excellent facilities for the processing of visas to Pakistani businessmen and that "the number of visas being issued is increasing day by day". He also said that Kazakhstan "is a land locked country and 85 per cent of its current trade is with Russia". The literacy rate in Kazakhstan is nearing 100 per cent and "about 5000 students are sent abroad on scholarship each year," he added. (Asia Pulse)

Kazakhstan to saturate domestic grain market before introducing duty
3 March
Kazakhstan is trying to determine how much grain it will take to saturate the domestic market before introducing export duties on the crop, Anna Buts, the director of the Kazakh Agriculture Ministry's land agriculture and phytosanitary security department, told Interfax. "For now, we are studying the issue of saturating the domestic [grain] market," she said. Asked if grain export duties had already been imposed, as was earlier reported by Kazakh Agriculture Minister Akhmetzhan Yesimov, she said "export duties are not simply introduced like that. It should be a governmental decision, and there hasn't been one." Yesimov said earlier that customs duties on grain exports would be introduced temporarily starting from March 1. "We are going to restrict exports in the near future in any case, but we're not talking about a ban since we have enough resources," he said. Kazakhstan could export about 3 million tonnes before the 2008 harvest. The country had a record-high harvest of more than 20 million tonnes in net weight last year. (Interfax)

ARMENIAN POLICE USE FORCE TO DISPERSE POSTELECTION PROTEST, KILLING EIGHT
3 March
Police, security forces, and Interior Ministry troops cordoned off Freedom Square in central Yerevan at around 7 a.m. local time on March 1 and then proceeded to disperse several thousand supporters of former President Levon Ter-Petrossian encamped there to protest the perceived rigging of the outcome of the February 19 presidential ballot to ensure a victory for the candidate of the "party of power," Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian. Police used truncheons, tear gas, and electric stun guns, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reported. Some demonstrators fought back, ignoring appeals by Ter-Petrossian to remain calm. Police spokesman Sayat Shirinian told journalists later on March 1 that the previous day the protest organizers distributed "large quantities" of metal bars and firearms to the protesters, reportedly in preparation for "actions aimed at provoking mass riots" on March 1. He added that police arrested "more than a dozen" opposition activists and were searching for others. Ter-Petrossian supporters driven out of Freedom Square early on March 1 regrouped later that day at a major traffic junction close to Yerevan City Hall and the French Embassy, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reported. As of early evening, some 10,000-15,000 people had congregated in anticipation that Ter-Petrossian would come to address them. Police reportedly fired tracer bullets over the demonstrators' heads and tear gas into the crowd; some protesters then attacked police with iron bars and stones. Most protesters dispersed after an appeal from Ter-Petrossian to do so was read out, but a small number went on a rampage, setting fire to police and other vehicles, and looting a nearby supermarket, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reported. In a March 2 statement posted on its website (http://www.moh.am), the Armenian Health Ministry reported that 131 people were injured on March 1 of whom 42 -- 14 police and security personnel and 28 protesters -- were hospitalized. It said no fatalities were reported in the period between 6 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. local time on March 1, but that between 9:30 p.m. on March 1 and 1 a.m. on March 2 -- meaning after the state of emergency was declared -- 89 people, 58 law enforcement personnel and 31 civilians, were injured and eight people died of gunshot wounds. (RFE/RL)

GENERAL MOTORS INCREASES CHEVROLET TIE-UP WITH UZBEK AUTOMAKER
4 March
General Motors has increased its global reach by one more country as its GM Daewoo unit hosted a signing of agreements with UzAvtoSanoat of Uzbekistan this week.Uzbek President Islam Karimov was on hand for the ceremonial signing of agreements for a partnership. Among plans is the agreement for assembly of the Chevrolet Lacetti in Uzbekistan starting this year, using kits supplied by GM Daewoo. UzAvtoSanoat of Uzbekistan already builds Chevrolet's Epica, Captiva and Tacuma models. GM is giving UzAvtoSanoat distribution rights to the Chevrolets it builds throughout the Commonwealth of Independent States, parts of the former Soviet Union. The Uzbek automaker will also get technology and engineering support to help it become "integrated into GM's global manufacturing network." The Uzbek plant is located in Asaka, about 200 miles from the capital city, Tashkent, and has a manufacturing capacity of 250,000 units per year. The companies said last year that they were working toward a joint venture in 2008. It's all part of GM's large-scale expansion plan for Central and Eastern Europe, where 288,000 Chevrolets were sold in 2007. (UzReport)

Skirmish between Karabakh, Azeri troops ends - Armenian defense official
4 March
The situation at the contact line between the armed forces of the non-recognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and Azerbaijan has stabilized, Seiran Shakhsuvarian, a spokesman for the Armenian defense minister, told Interfax. The exchange of fire has stopped, he said. Shakhsuvarian also gave details of a clash between Nagorno-Karabakh and Azeri troops, which occurred earlier on Tuesday. "At about 5:00 a.m. on March 4, at the contact line between Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan, 3.5 kilometers away from the village of Levonarch northeast of Martakert, Azeri armed forces opened fire at Nagorno-Karabakh positions, which left a senior lieutenant of the Nagorno-Karabakh defense army wounded," Shakhsuvarian said. The Azeri forces seized a Nagorno-Karabakh stronghold, but the Nagorno-Karabakh troops later forced the Azeri servicemen to retreat to their previous positions, Shakhsuvarian said. A number of Azeri soldiers were killed or wounded, he said. The Armenian defense minister immediately informed OSCE chairman-in-office personal representative Andrzej Kaspzyk of the violation of a ceasefire by Azeri troops, he said. The chiefs of staff of the Armenian and Azeri armed forces exchanged information on the incident, he said. Baku put the blame for the incident on Yerevan. (Interfax)

Clash on Armenian-Azeri border is underway - Armenia
4 March
A clash on the Armenian-Azeri border has resulted in some wounded, Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian told a briefing in Yerevan on Tuesday. "Azerbaijan violated the ceasefire in north-east Nagorno-Karabakh. The Azeri side used heavy armor this time," he said. A positional battle is currently underway, the Armenian side has wounded, and the Azeri side has two wounded, according to unconfirmed reports. Armenian troops first retreated in the clash and then regained ground, Oskanian said. "We condemn this aggression and demand that the Azeri side stop the armed hostilities and resume a ceasefire," he said. "Azerbaijan is taking advantage of the exacerbation of the internal political situation in Armenia," Oskanian said. Earlier, a representative of the Azeri Defense Minister told Interfax that information on the situation in the battle area would be published later. Meanwhile Azeri TV channel ANS said that two Azeri servicemen were killed in the clash in the Geranboy district. The Azeri Defense Ministry did not confirm this information. "The battle in the area is continuing," it said. Azerbaijan and Armenia concluded a ceasefire in May 1994. (Interfax)

OSCE ENVOY SEEKS TO END POLITICAL STANDOFF IN ARMENIA
4 March
Finnish diplomat Heikki Talvitie, who served in 1996 as co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group engaged in mediating a solution to the Karabakh conflict and from July 2003-early 2006 as EU special representative to the South Caucasus, met separately in Yerevan on March 2 and 3 at the behest of OSCE Chairman in Office and Finnish Foreign Minister Ilkka Kanerva with outgoing President Robert Kocharian, Prime Minister and President-elect Serzh Sarkisian, and former President and defeated presidential candidate Levon Ter-Petrossian, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reported on March 3. Both Kocharian and Sarkisian reportedly told Talvitie that security forces had no choice but to open fire late on March 1 on angry protesters in Yerevan; Ter-Petrossian disputed that argument, alleging that the authorities provoked the violence in order to create a pretext for imposing a state of emergency. Talvitie told journalists that he considers both sides responsible for the violence in that both were armed. Talvitie quoted Ter-Petrossian as saying he will agree to the dialogue with the authorities that Kanerva and other European and U.S. officials have called for only after the state of emergency Kocharian declared late on March 1 is lifted and the Constitutional Court rules on his appeal to declare the official results of the February 19 presidential election invalid. The court was to begin hearing that appeal on March 4. The official results gave Sarkisian 52.82 percent of the vote and Ter-Petrossian 21.51 percent. Ter-Petrossian claims to have polled 65 percent, but Geert-Hinrich Ahrens, the head of the long-term OSCE Election Observation Mission, was quoted by "The New York Times" on March 2 as saying that figure is "not grounded in any factual evidence." Speaking to RFE/RL's Armenian Service on February 29, however, Ahrens also said that the conduct of the presidential ballot was inferior to that of the May 2007 parliamentary poll. He explained that the preliminary OSCE assessment describing the February 19 ballot as "mostly in line with OSCE and Council of Europe commitments and standard" "is not a compliment." Ahrens added that OSCE experts are still analyzing glaring anomalies in the distribution of votes. "The New York Times" on March 2 quoted him as describing the results from one polling station where all but one of 1,449 votes cast were purportedly for Sarkisian as being as probable "as the birth of a dog with five legs." (RFE/RL)

Azerbaijan Parliament Okays troop pull-out from Kosovo
4 March
Azerbaijan's parliament voted Tuesday to pull out its peacekeepers from Kosovo after it unilaterally declared independence from Serbia. Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic, hasn't recognized Kosovo's independence, fearing its declaration could set a precedent for its own breakaway region of Nagorno Karabakh. Lawmakers voted 87-3 to withdraw 34 peacekeepers who have been serving in Kosovo with a Turkish battalion under NATO command. "The political situation around Kosovo has changed and there is a need to reconsider the decision" to deploy troops, deputy speaker Ziyafet Askerov told parliament. (AFP)

Pro-West broadcaster yanked in Armenia
5 March
The only foreign radio programming in Armenia's native language was taken off the air and its Web site blocked as part of the country's state of emergency, the broadcaster said Tuesday. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said in a statement that its two Armenian affiliates halted the broadcasts to comply with the emergency decree that allows media to report only news that is sanctioned by the government. Some Armenian newspapers did not publish Tuesday in protest of the restrictions, and the country's non-state broadcast media has been limited to repeating official news and programs, said the media freedom representative for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. President Robert Kocharian declared the 20-day state of emergency Saturday night after clashes between government forces and demonstrators protesting alleged fraud in the Feb. 19 presidential election. Eight people died and more than 100 were injured in the fighting. Demonstrators supporting opposition candidate and former president Levon Ter-Petrosian protested the official results from last month's election that put their candidate a distant second to Prime Minister Serge Sarkisian.The Prague-based Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which receives funding from the U.S., said its driver was beaten by police officers in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, on Saturday while the correspondent he was working with managed to escape. Another journalist for the broadcaster was threatened by government forces in the town of Gumri, it said.Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said it was adding Web domains to get around the blocking of its Armenian language Web site in the country. (AP)

Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan settle old gas dispute
6 March
Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan settled an old gas debt dispute on Wednesday, removing a major obstacle to relations between the two energy-rich Caspian nations. Europe, seeking alternative energy supply routes to ease its reliance on Russian gas flows, wants Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan to cooperate more on the planned Nabucco pipeline, designed to give Europe direct access to Caspian gas. As part of the deal, Azerbaijan agreed to pay Turkmenistan a $44.8 million debt (22.6 million pounds) for gas supplies delivered in the early 1990s, an Azeri government official said. A Turkmen delegation led by Vice-Premier Hidyr Saparliyev was in the Azeri capital Baku on Wednesday to sign the deal, the official said. Relations between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan turned sour in the 1990s due to ownership disputes over several offshore oil and gas fields in the Caspian Sea as well as Azerbaijan's debts for Turkmen gas supplies. Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, who came to power in late 2006, has vowed to end his nation's reclusiveness and improve relations with neighbouring countries. The long-delayed Nabucco pipeline, backed by Brussels and Washington, aims to transport gas from the Caspian region to Europe across Turkey while bypassing Russia. (Reuters)