· April, 2009

Stories about Central Asia & Caucasus from April, 2009

Azerbaijan: Last day of April

  30 April 2009

Sheki, Azerbaijan comments on today's massacre of at least 13 students at a university in Baku and says that the end of April will now live on in the collective memory of the country as the day when the children of some families never came home.

Kazkahstan: Major bank admits default

  30 April 2009

Zara writes an update on entry of the state in BTA Bank. “The subsequent shift in ownership have eventually led to aggravation of the situation around the country’s largest private bank’, she says.

Kazakhstan: Expansion of the Uranium Industry

  30 April 2009

Joshua Foust reports that Kazakhstan is aggressively internationalizing its uranium industry by opening new mines, establishing high-profile international partnerships and lobbying for the global uranium fuel bank.

Kazakhstan: Internet Regulation Amendments Adopted in First Reading

  30 April 2009

Yesterday the Kazakh Parliament's lower chamber has approved the first reading of the draft law on online regulation, which is meant to equate all websites (including blogs, social networks, chatrooms, forums and even online shops) with mass media. On the other hand of this law, the authorities will be granted...

Georgia: Alternative Eurovision

  29 April 2009

Following the scandal surrounding Georgia's aborted attempt to enter a song mocking the former Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in the Eurovision Song Contest to be held in Moscow, This is Tbilisi Calling says that the country will instead hold its own alternative international song contest.

Azerbaijan: Police

  29 April 2009

Flying Carpets and Broken Pipelines comments on the continuing saga of Parviz Azimov, a youth activist recently expelled from his university. The blog notes that whereas the police usually concentrate on preventing serious criminals from carrying on their activities, in undemocratic countries they usually focus on youth and political activists...

Armenia: Shooting the Messenger

Security, in the Caucasus and beyond…. comments on the tendency for nationalist voices in Armenia and the Diaspora to shoot down any proposals intended to promote peace and reconciliation with Turkey by discrediting them and preventing any open discussion or independent thought.

Armenia: Joke of the Day

  28 April 2009

Unzipped says joke of the day in Armenia is news that the Armenian Revolutionary Federation — Dashnaktsutyun (ARF-D) are now calling themselves an opposition political party. Having left the ruling coalition government yesterday in protest at talk of possible reconciliation between estranged neighbors Armenia and Turkey, the blog says that...

Armenia: Internal politics and international relations

The pro-opposition tzitzernak2 comments on speculation that the Armenian Revolutionary Federation — Dashnaktsutyun (ARF-D) might leave the coalition government after last weeks announcement of progress made in normalizing Armenian-Turkish relations. The blog says the move is long overdue and blames the nationalist party for many of the problems the country...

Azerbaijan: Blog round-up

  27 April 2009

Writing on his In Mutatione Fortitudo, Global Voices Online Azerbaijan author Ali S. Novruzov says that Radio Free Europe has started to pay attention to the local blogosphere. However, he notes, the station needs to learn a few important lessons about blogging and citizen media.

Kazakhstan: Uneven Development

  26 April 2009

Thousand-Pa reflects on the patterns of socio-economic development in Kazakhstan and suggests that the main reason for little progress is uneven distribution of efforts and funds.

Georgia: Cell protest in Tbilisi

  26 April 2009

A Year in Tbilisi pays a visit to some of the mock cells erected outside government buildings in the Georgian capital. The blog posts photographs and doesn't seem convinced that the opposition movement demanding the president's resignation stand much chance of succeeding.

Azerbaijan: Back in Baku

  26 April 2009

Scary Azeri in Suburbs returns to her native Baku. Posting photographs of the Azerbaijani capital, the blogger, now resident in the U.K., says that the city is full of contrasts and changes.

Russia: Baymurat (aka Jimmy) Singing Bollywood Song

  25 April 2009

Videos of a rendition of a Bollywood song by Baymurat (aka Jimmy) – an ethnic Uzbek from Tajikistan, a gastarbeiter in a town near Moscow, and a YouTube celebrity: one of the earlier versions is here, and the performance at Asian Dub Foundation's April 4 gig in St. Petersburg, Russia...

Kyrgyzstan: Lame Ad Design Spurred Nationalist Debates

  25 April 2009

On April, 22, a deputy Askarbek Shadiev criticized the advertisement billboard of the Swiss Office for Cooperation [en] during the session of the faction “Ak Zhol” party. Deputy was outraged by the placing the white cross image on the flag of Kyrgyzstan by unknown designer. There is a big poster...

About our Central Asia & Caucasus coverage

Nurbek Bekmurzaev
Nurbek Bekmurzaev is the Central Asia editor. Email him story ideas or volunteer to write.

Arzu Geybullayeva
Arzu Geybullayeva is the South Caucasus editor. Email her story ideas or volunteer to write.