Field Reports

On the first anniversary of the event, more than three and a half thousand people gathered in the village Bospiek, Aksy region to commemorate the Aksy tragedy that occurred on March 17, 2002. At the same time, people in other cities and villages throughout Kyrgyzstan paid their respect to the Aksy victims.

The Government of the Kyrgyz Republic is doing its best to attract foreign investments to the country. However, cash is hardly flowing in since the investment climate in Kyrgyzstan needs to be improved. Scarcity of valuable natural resources, a long distance from world trade arteries, high transportation expenses, large taxes, and a small internal market space impede financial injections into Kyrgyzstan.

A few days before the American led coalition forces launched war on Iraq the Defense Ministry of Kazakhstan announced large-scale military exercises in the Eastern military district. The timing of these maneuvers leaves little doubt that the main concern of the military is the security of Western borders in view of the inevitable war in Iraq.

Since November of last year, a dialogue between the opposition and authorities around the Election Code (EC) has been going on. The Election Code was adopted by the Parliament in the first reading. The apple of discord between authorities and opposition is in principle on how to form the election commissions.

There have been numerous efforts to modernize the Kazakh army to raise its defense capabilities since early nineties. Desperate lack of funding and crippled defense industry were the main obstacles in the way of bringing the armed forces closer to advanced standards. The new geopolitical realities in Central Asia make it imperative to speed up military reform.

Following the second round of elections in Armenia on March 5, the Central Election Commission Chairman Artak Sagradian has announced the incumbent Robert Kocharian as a winner. According to the final tally, Kocharian pulled 1 440 424 votes, which constitute 67.5 percent of all voters. His main rival Stepan Demirchian, the leader of People\'s Party of Armenia, has gathered 504,146 votes (32.5 percent). Total voter turnout was 1 595 702 people.

The world community is revitalizing efforts to settle the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict and to normalize relations between Yerevan and Baku on the one hand, and between Yerevan and Ankara on the other. Between 13 and 15 May, two meetings were held almost simultaneously in order to pursue these aims in Prague and in Reykjavik

An agreement was signed in Baku between Azerbaijan and Russia, the first in the modern history of their relations, covering all spheres of military and technical cooperation. This agreement, with the backdrop of increased U.S.-Azerbaijan military cooperation, shows the successful foreign policy of the country in balancing the interests of its neighbors.

The assassination attempt on the President’s life has generated sensational and unprecedented events lately in Turkmenistan. Cracking down on dissent, new travel regulations for local people and foreigners, and human rights issues eventually started invoking the attention of the international community while the local people remain anxious about the situation.

With only a few days\' interval, three incidents targeted directly against energy transportation networks took place in Georgia. This raised the issue of pipeline protection again and led to speculations of sabotage and its possible perpetrators.