Field Reports

The first day of December 2010 marked the start of a long-awaited high-level event for all members of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The outgoing OSCE Chairman – Kazakhstan, which is expected to pass the presidency on to Lithuania in less than a month’s time, hosted on its soil the Summit of the Heads of State and Government. There has been no such gathering in the history of the Organization since the Istanbul meeting of 1999, the conclusions of which drafted at the sunset of the previous century are widely regarded to no longer be in tune with the current political, military and economic situation in the OSCE area.

On November 17-19, Turkmenistan held its major annual Gas & Oil Conference, inviting over 400 participants including the representatives of over 160 international business companies, scientists and technical experts to seek new ways to develop the country’s gas and oil industry. 

The authorities of Tajikistan have embarked on using different tactics to quell domestic media by accusing private media outlets of ‘inaccurate’ reporting on the recent clashes between suspected militants and government forces in September. On October 4, Defense Minister Sherali Khairulloyev released a public statement, which was published by the state-run news agency Khovar. The Minister’s statement termed the media reporting on the government’s response to the earlier militant attack in Khujand, as well as the military operation in Rasht Valley, as “disloyal” and contributing to instability in Tajikistan. The U.S. State Department’s press release from November 4 noted that in mid-October, the Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications sent a letter to several internet service providers, ordering them to block four of these websites in order to “protect the nation’s information security”.

The trial against former President Bakiev and his allies, who are charged with the murder of 77 people during the April unrest, has begun. While everyone agrees on bringing the guilty accountable to court, many disagree with the government’s attempts to turn it into a show trial.

On November 12, during a joint meeting with the lower and upper chambers of Parliament, Uzbekistan’s President Islam Karimov introduced a concept for further strengthening of democratic reforms and civil society. As part of the concept, the president proposed several legislative initiatives in different socio-political and economic spheres. While only a few of the proposed changes have as yet been adopted by the Parliament, the initiative per se is viewed as a positive democratic development in Uzbekistan.

At a time when U.S. armed forces are struggling to curb violence in Afghanistan, one of the five Central Asian Republics, Kazakhstan, which is now chairing the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, has reached out a helping hand by sticking to the promises given by President Nazarbayev at the April 2010 Washington Nuclear Summit.

Tajik authorities have embarked upon an extensive campaign of fighting islamization in the country. The authorities are concerned with the fact that increasing numbers of Tajik citizens, and especially young people, are interested in religion. Even though state officials have so far not produced any legal directives, the state is becoming more active in appealing to the masses, calling for a moderation of their religious views. In addition to general calls for preventing the spread of extremist views among the Muslims of Tajikistan, the authorities have as part of the campaign prevented young people from studying religion abroad, banned girls from wearing hijabs in school, and imposed unofficial restrictions on wearing long beards.

On October 24, Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev began his European tour, which included talks with the EU's and Belgium's top officials and then wrapping up his trip by visiting France. It was his first trip to Europe after the Lisbon Treaty entered into force on December 1, 2009, introducing the post of President of the European Council and seriously modifying EU foreign policy development and implementation schemes.

The visit of Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan to Iran on October 25-26 underlined the peculiarities of bilateral relations between these two countries. Armenia needs to entertain good relations with its southern neighbor, first of all because Iran provides Armenia, under embargo by Azerbaijan and Turkey, with alternative access to the outer world, along with its principal access through Georgia.

The uneasy relations between Uzbekistan and neighboring Tajikistan have deteriorated lately following continuous complaints from the Tajik authorities about delays in transiting goods through Uzbekistan’s railways. In response to these claims, the Uzbek Ministry of Foreign Affairs made an official statement, calling Tajikistan’s complaints “false and ungrounded”.