Field Reports

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”.

From October 13, Georgia employs a visa-free regime for Russian citizens registered as residents of the North Caucasus. By simplifying trans-border communication with North Caucasians, Tbilisi seeks to improve its soft power against Russia. Whereas the initiative seems risky, Tbilisi may acquire certain benefits from it.

Two cases of persecution of journalists in Uzbekistan have received wide publicity during the last couple of weeks. The first case refers to a lawsuit against the editor of the Russian website www.vesti.uz and a correspondent of the “Parliamentary Newspaper”, Russian citizen Vladimir Berezovskiy, who was charged with “libel and insult”. The second case refers to the lawsuit against the “Voice of America” radio reporter Abdumalik Boboev, who was accused under similar charges. As a result of these lawsuits, both journalists could be imprisoned or charged with considerable fines.

On October 15, the Prime Ministers of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus, which now form the Customs Union (CU), met in Moscow to discuss the progress achieved in moving further towards increased economic integration and trade cooperation under common rules and procedures. The heads of three governments reiterated their countries' preparedness to establish a single economic area from January 1, 2012. They also expressed their full satisfaction with the pace of legislative and normative developments aimed at bringing closer relevant legal instruments in all three territories.

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs carried out a Field Assessment Mission to the occupied territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh on October 7-13. During this period, Bernard Fassier (France), Robert Bradke (U.S.) and Igor Popov (Russia) traveled all the seven regions around the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. The declared goals of the mission supported by three technical experts, including two from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), was “to study the general situation in the region”. “Two of three co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group have been appointed only recently, they have never been in the conflicts zone and do not know the situation in details”, the Armenian Foreign Minister Edvard Nalbandian said on October 4, implying Bradke and Popov. “They will use the opportunity and familiarize themselves with the situation”, the minister said. Nalbandian also informed that the initial agreement to organize this mission was reached as early as in the spring of 2010. Prior to the start of the mission, the co-chairs held separate meetings with the presidents and foreign ministers of Azerbaijan, Armenia and the leaders of the unrecognized NKR.