It is time for a pop quiz on Kazakhstani history. Going back more than 2000 years ago, the peoples who called what is present-day Kazakhstan home were:
A) Blood-thirsty barbarians.
B) Uncultured nomads who wandered the Steppe.
C) Mainly farmers who also raised cattle and horses in year-round settlements.
D) A and B.
The US ambassador to Armenia, John Heffern, is wrapping up a “listening tour” that featured meetings with Diaspora leaders in cities across the United States. Heffern’s mission was aimed primarily at encouraging the Armenian Diaspora in the United States to join in governmental efforts to strengthen Yerevan’s connections to the West.
The volume of narcotics flowing out of Afghanistan to Central Asia and Russia appears to have decreased slightly over the past year. But the stockpile of opiates that traffickers already have on hand is sufficient to supply users in Central Asia and Russia for 15 years, according to a leading drug-control expert in Kyrgyzstan.
Ancient Persia was a heavily trafficked corridor on the Silk Road, the transcontinental trade route between China and the West that flourished centuries ago. But in Washington’s imagining of a 21st century version of the Silk Road, Iran seems set to be bypassed.
The United States is going to finance Azerbaijan's first communications satellite, despite objections from some US-based Armenian groups that argue it could be used for military purposes.
Kyrgyzstan’s parliament is set to approve a measure that would enable a state-affiliated company to assume responsibility for up to half of the aviation fuel supplies to the Manas Transit Center.
