Much concern has been raised since the Soviet breakup over the possible Balkanization of parts of Central Asia and the Caucasus. This threat was the most plausible of the many suspect reasons cited by Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev when he shifted the country's capital from Almaty to Astana.
As the 20th century drew to a close, many Armenians worried that the 1915 Genocide might recede from the collective memory and, ultimately, be forgotten. In reality, the opposite has happened as the new millennium proceeds. The issue is generating more discussion today than perhaps ever before.
Five years of frustration fueled the April 29 confrontation in Baku between opposition supporters and authorities. Now, as the dust settles from the street clashes, leading opponents of President Heidar Aliev are vowing to press on with a campaign to open Azerbaijan's political system.
It's a strange sensation when a book written in French and translated into English resonates with the Russian literary tradition. In Chienne De Guerre, as in some of the best Russian literature from Akhmatova to Solzhenitsyn, the writer exposes the nation's suffering.
Armenian President Robert Kocharian sacked Prime Minister Aram Sarkisian on May 2. The president suggested the move was designed to reestablish a balance of power between the executive and legislative branches of government that has been lacking since the October parliament shootings.
On April 26, a court case opened in the southern Kyrgyzstani city of Osh in which several members of an opposition part, Hizb ut-Tahrir, faced charges of inciting interethnic hatred. The trial marked the latest stage of the Kyrgyz government's intense campaign against its political opponents.
The government effort to neutralize the northern-based opposition alliance, which centers on the El and Ar-Namys parties, has received considerable attention in the international arena.
An ongoing crackdown against organized criminal gangs in Tajikistan may have far-reaching political implications. The crackdown is essentially an extension of a bitter struggle for political power. The neutralization of crime bosses would provide a boost to President Imomali Rahmonov, who is currently striving to reassert his authority over Tajikistan's state institutions.
In his interview with Scott Horton, a prominent American attorney, Kulov claimed that one of the three charges -- arranging for the transfer of military and security materiel to Tajikistan in 1994-95 without government authorization -- is false. He insisted that the necessary government authorization for the transaction was obtained.
In one of only two publicized interviews since being imprisoned on March 22, Felix Kulov, head of the Ar-Namys Party and Kyrgyzstan's most prominent opposition leader, denied any illegal activity.
