Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
U.S., NEW MEMBERS BACKING NATO MEMBERSHIP ACTION PLANS FOR GEORGIA AND UKRAINE
NATO debates on Membership Action Plans (MAPs) for Georgia and Ukraine have entered the final stage in the run-up to the alliance’s April 2-4 summit in Bucharest. With NATO’s approval rating in Ukraine at merely 20-25% in the fourth year of the Yushchenko presidency, political... MORE
HARD DEBATES AT NATO ON GEORGIAN MEMBERSHIP ACTION PLAN
Several West European governments cold-shouldered Georgia’s and Ukraine’s applications for NATO Membership Action Plans (MAPs) during the meeting of NATO countries’ ministers of foreign affairs on March 6 in Brussels. Intended to prepare for the NATO Summit due in early April in Bucharest, the Brussels... MORE
ARE KARABAKH SKIRMISHES MEANT TO DRAW ATTENTION FROM YEREVAN?
Azerbaijanis increasingly see the recent wave of cease-fire violations in Karabakh as an attempt by Yerevan to divert attention from the domestic turmoil that has erupted since Armenia’s February 19 presidential election. Reportedly, four soldiers from the Azerbaijani side and eight from the Armenian side... MORE
TURKISH POLICE FOIL ALLEGED DHKP-C ATTACK ON ERDOGAN, U.S. COMPANIES
The recent arrest in Istanbul of three members of the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party–Front (DHKP-C) on suspicion of plotting to assassinate Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and attack U.S. companies suggests that, though weakened, Turkey’s most dangerous militant Marxist organization still retains the will... MORE
ANALYSTS AND ORDINARY CITIZENS PREDICT SHIFT OF POWER FROM RUSSIAN PRESIDENT TO PRIME MINISTER
In a poll by the independent Levada Center among 1,600 Russians conducted over February 22-25, 61% of the respondents said they agreed with the view that despite Dmitry Medvedev’s victory in the March 2 presidential election (which was a foregone conclusion even a week or... MORE
TASHKENT QUIETLY ALLOWS U.S. TO RETURN TO UZBEKISTAN
More than two years after being forced to evacuate its facility at Karshi-Khanabad (K-2), the U.S. Air Force once again has access to Uzbek air assets, as Tashkent has agreed to allow U.S. military aircraft to use aerial facilities at Termez on a “case by... MORE
U.S. ACCESS TO UZBEKISTAN SPARKS RUMOR AND MISTRUST
Robert Simmons, the NATO secretary-general's special representative for the South Caucasus and Central Asia, told a news conference in Moscow on March 5 that the Alliance welcomed Uzbekistan's willingness to provide its military base at “Khanabad” for use by some NATO states. The confusion over... MORE
TALABANI CONDEMNS PKK, CALLS ON TURKEY TO ENGAGE WITH KRG
During his recent two-day recent visit to Ankara, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, an ethnic Kurd, pleased his hosts by condemning the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and inviting Turkish businesses to bid for Iraqi infrastructure projects. But he also defied Turkey’s reluctance to acknowledge the Kurdish... MORE
SOUTH OSSETIA JOINT CONTROL COMMISSION INGLORIOUSLY MOTHBALLED
Georgia has taken the long-overdue step to send the Joint Control Commission (JCC) for South Ossetia into retirement. The JCC’s single purpose and relevance was as a tool for freezing the Russia-Georgia conflict in South Ossetia. In this aspect alone the JCC had proven its... MORE
MOSCOW “LIFTS” THE ECONOMIC SANCTIONS ON ABKHAZIA
On March 6 Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced a unilateral decision by Russia to lift the economic sanctions against Abkhazia. The Ministry also requested the Commonwealth of Independent States Executive Committee to ask CIS member countries to lift those sanctions as well. At the... MORE