TURKEY AND ARMENIA SEEK TO NORMALIZE RELATIONS
By Haroutiun Khachatrian (9/17/2009 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Turkey and Armenia have declared their intention to sign two Protocols next month, aimed at normalizing their relations and opening their common border, which has been closed by Turkey since 1993. To that end, Turkey has seemingly eased some of its previous preconditions, including on the genocide question and demands for progress on the Nagorno-Karabakh issue in Azerbaijan’s favor.
SHEIKH SAID BURYATSKY AND THE FRESH CULT OF THE SUICIDE BOMBER IN THE NORTH CAUCASUS
By Kevin Daniel Leahy (9/17/2009 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The sudden reappearance of the suicide attack as a tactic of choice for insurgents in the North Caucasus has caused panic among security forces in the region. In attempting to account for this unwelcome trend, Chechnya’s president, Ramzan Kadyrov, has blamed the machinations of Western security agencies, as well as the advent of mind-altering psychotropic drugs for misleading young men into carrying out such attacks.
THE METAMORPHOSIS OF COLLECTIVE SECURITY IN CENTRAL ASIA: RUSSIA’S NEW BASE IN SOUTHERN KYRGYZSTAN
By Farkhod Tolipov (9/17/2009 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Since mid-July, rumors and official pronouncements have multiplied regarding the possible deployment of a second Russian military base in Kyrgyzstan. The base would be deployed in the town of Osh in the southern parts of the country, to house forces of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).
TURKMENISTAN’S INITIATIVES UPSET CASPIAN BALANCE
By Fariz Ismailzade (9/1/2009 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Turkmenistan’s recent plans to sue Azerbaijan over the Kyapaz oil field as well as to create a military base, border patrol service and navy in the Caspian have shocked Baku and sent a worrying signal to European energy and political circles. These intentions put the much-hoped Nabucco gas pipeline at risk and set the scene for an arms race in the region. Nobody is likely to emerge as a winner in this situation, and the general security framework in the Caspian basin is likely to worsen.
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Staff Publications
Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, Greater Central Asia as A Component of U.S. Global Strategy, October 2024.
Analysis Laura Linderman, "Rising Stakes in Tbilisi as Elections Approach," Civil Georgia, September 7, 2024.
Analysis Mamuka Tsereteli, "U.S. Black Sea Strategy: The Georgian Connection", CEPA, February 9, 2024.
Silk Road Paper Svante E. Cornell, ed., Türkiye's Return to Central Asia and the Caucasus, July 2024.
Book Svante E. Cornell, ed., "The Changing Geopolitics of Central Asia and the Caucasus" AFPC Press/Armin LEar, 2023.
Silk Road Paper Svante E. Cornell and S. Frederick Starr, Stepping up to the “Agency Challenge”: Central Asian Diplomacy in a Time of Troubles, July 2023.
Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, U.S. Policy in Central Asia through Central Asian Eyes, May 2023.