Central Asia's emergence as a drug trafficking hub has helped cause a dramatic rise in narcotics use among residents of the region. The increase of drug use has, in turn, helped fuel potentially destabilizing social trends, including crime and health issues. Dr.
EurasiaNet: You maintain there are some differences in the characteristics of narcotics use today compared with that during the pre-Soviet times. Can you explain these differences as they pertain to Central Asia?
As the armies of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan brace for a third summer of fighting against the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), there are indications that the insurgency is broadening its appeal. Pressed by declining economic conditions and political repression, young men from across Central Asia are joining the ranks of the IMU.
Turkey's newly appointed economy boss is trying to sell his economic reform ideas to foreign lenders during a visit to Washington which began March 26. Tucked away in the details of Kemal Dervis's revival program is a bold commitment to completely privatize Turk Telekom, the country's monopoly fixed line operator.
Under President Vladimir Putin, Russia's foreign policy establishment is rethinking the concept of empire. In the case of Moscow's approach towards Central Asia, ideas about territorial domination no longer play a significant role in the formulation of strategy, according to a source with access to Russia's policy-making mechanisms.
Although Islamic militants endanger security in Central Asia, the threat is being exploited by regional governments, especially Uzbekistan, in order to tighten their control over their respective societies, according to a new report published by the International Crisis Group.
Without much fanfare, exchange programs funded by the US government are starting to have a tangible impact on civil society development in Central Asia. The quiet success of the programs generates hope that, despite Central Asia's current backsliding towards authoritarianism, the region's longer-term prospects for the expansion of political and economic pluralism remain positive.
"The drought is a disaster for the Karakalpak economy," says Rashid Toreshov, Karakalpakstan's deputy Water Minister. A harried man whose desk sits under a large, imposing portrait of Uzbek president Islam Karimov, Toreshov says the effects will extend far beyond farming: "Most of our industries are based on agriculture."
Gas supplies are flowing again from Uzbekistan to Kyrgyzstan following a more than week-long cutoff that created heating and electricity shortages in many Kyrgyz cities. Uzbekistan stopped supplying gas to exert pressure on Kyrgyzstan to pay off $1.35 million in debts for earlier deliveries.
Juma Namangani and about 250 of his Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) fighters have been airlifted by Russian and Tajik military helicopters back to Afghanistan, ending their dramatic five week sojourn in Tajikistan. Namangani's presence in Tajikistan had caused consternation amongst Central Asian leaders, who feared a reprise of the IMU incursions that occurred the past two summers.
