Field Reports
KYRGYZSTAN HOLDS LOCAL ELECTIONS
By Gulzina Karim kyzy (1/16/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The elections to the posts of Head of Village and to town administrations were held in Kyrgyzstan on December 16 and 23. International observers from OSCE, and the American, Russian, Ukrainian, Belarus and Kazakh embassies as well as a number of international organizations took an active part in monitoring the elections.
Local elections were first proposed by President Askar Akayev in an address to the public on December 12, 2000.
US SENATORS VISIT TAJIKISTAN, A FORMER HOTBED OF EXTREMISM
By Alexei Igushev (1/16/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Tajikistan has been ignored by the world community, even during the course of a bloody five-year civil war in the mid 1990s. But it has now become visible in the world arena. Against the background of the current anti-terrorist operation, Western media have started discovering that the post-Soviet Republic of Tajikistan provides a great deal of insight into what has led to a globally significant tragedy.
AZERBAIJAN MASS MEDIA LEGISLATION SIGNIFICANTLY LIBERALIZED
By Gulnara Ismailova, a freelance journalist based in Baku, Azerbaijan (1/16/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)
2001 was challenging year for Azerbaijani mass media. According to Arif Aliyev, chairman of the Azerbaijan Journalists’ Union “Yeni Nesil”, 30 court judgments punished 21 newspapers during the year. “These newspapers have had to pay fines totaling 700 million Manats (ca.
HUSBAND’S PROMOTION CREATES CRISIS FOR GEORGIAN PARLIAMENTARY SPEAKER
By Irakly Areshidze (1/16/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The appointment of Badri Bitsadze, the husband of newly elected Georgian Parliamentary Speaker Nino Burdjanadze, to the post of First Deputy Procurator General has rapidly become a political crisis for the country’s second highest ranking official. Bitsadze had previously served as the Procurator for the military and was promoted in early December. Shortly after the appointment, the New Rights Party and its Parliamentary Faction (one of three second largest with 18 Deputies) protested the appointment in a memorandum issued on December 18, 2001.
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Joint Center Publications
Analysis Niklas Swanström and Leah Oppenheimer, "Invisible Ink: Looking for the Lost Trade between China, Russia, and Central Asia", ISDP Policy Brief, 13 March 2013. 
New Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr with Adib Farhadi, Finish the Job: Jump-Start the Afghan Economy, December 2012.
Conference Report Cheryl Benard, Eli Sugarman, and Holly Rehm, Cultural Heritage vs. Mining on the New Silk Road? Finding Technical Solutions for Mes Aynak and Beyond (in cooperation with the Alliance for the Restoration of Cultural Heritage) December 2012.
Article Svante E. Cornell, "The 'Afghanization of the North Caucasus: Causes and Implications of a Changing Conflict", in Stephen Blank, ed., Russia's Homegrown Insurgency: Jihad in the North Caucasus, Carlisle, PA: U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute, 2012.