The US House of Representatives, acting under intense pressure from the White House, cancelled a vote on non-binding Resolution 596, which would have recognized that the massacres of 1915-1923 in Ottoman Turkey against their Armenian citizens constituted a genocide. The action has disappointed many Armenians. Some view it as a victory of American national interests over ethnic lobbyists.
Information emanating from Tajikistan suggests that, in mid-May, Juma Namangani, the leader of an Uzbek Islamic guerrilla group, evacuated his base in northern Tajikistan and moved to new quarters in Afghanistan.
When the roundtable meetings faltered this month, the best hope for easing mounting tensions between the Kyrgyz government and opposition parties appeared to have been dashed. The period since Kyrgyzstan's flawed parliamentary elections and run-offs in February and March has seen a crackdown on opposition figures and people in the media.
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.
The ramifications of the October attack on the parliament are still being felt in Armenia. Filling the power vacuum created by the assassinations of six MPs, including Prime Minister Vazgen Sarkissian and Parliament Speaker Karen Demirchian, is proving difficult. As a result, domestic politics remains enveloped by a mood of uncertainty, damaging prospects for regional stability.
