· January, 2010

Stories about Central Asia & Caucasus from January, 2010

Tajikistan: Power Plant as a National Idea

  31 January 2010

TajikVoice posts (and Andrey translates) stories of real people in Tajikistan, telling how they are being forced to “voluntarily donate” money to the construction of the Rogun dam and hydroelectric power plant.

Tajikistan: Judges seek to silence press

  31 January 2010

Alpharabius posts a story of the Tajik high-level judges, who conspired to punish three independent newspapers for publishing a sensational story about unlawful conviction practices at the courts.

Afghanistan: Fresh Data Sources

  31 January 2010

Nick Fielding reviews new publication on negotiating with the Taliban and recommends a great source of stats on security, governance, socio-economic indicators and polling information.

Kazakhstan: Glutting the Wheat Industry

  31 January 2010

Joshua Foust reviews the situation in Kazakhstan's wheat industry, noting weak professionalism of the agriculture officials in managing market price fluctuations and food crisis risks.

Afghanistan: Behind the London Conference

  31 January 2010

Dafydd watches the London international conference on Afghanistan and opines that the organisers’ new strategy for this country involves buying off low level Taliban fighters and cutting a deal with more senior figures via amnesty of relatively senior figures from the pre 2001 Taliban regime.

Azerbaijan: Democracy is…

  29 January 2010

Önər Blog [AZ] posts a video [EN] made by the OL! Azerbaijani Youth Movement for the Democracy Video Challenge. OL! has been exemplary in its use of new media in the region and was co-founded by now imprisoned video blogging youth activist Adnan Hajizade.

Afghanistan: Drowning in corruption

  24 January 2010

The Afghans had to pay out $2.5 billion in bribes over the past 12 months – equivalent to 23 per cent of Afghanistan’s GDP, writes Nick Fielding citing “Corruption in Afghanistan” report, published by the UN.

Tajikistan: The people’s dam?

  24 January 2010

Andrey translates the TajikVoice’s post, which tells about the officials of Tajikistan, who are forcing citizens to buy stocks in a dam project and donate money for its construction.

Haiti: Un Geste Pour Haiti Cherie

  23 January 2010

The Armenian Observer comments on the recording of a song by French-Armenian crooner Charles Aznavour and other French singers. The blog notes that Aznavour also recorded a song in the aftermath of the devastating 1988 Armenian earthquake.

Armenia/Azerbaijan: From Home to Home

  23 January 2010

Global Voices Online's Caucasus editor interviews journalist Seda Muradyan on her documentary film, From Home to Home, for the Frontline Club blog. The film tells of how Armenians and Azerbaijanis in two villages made an extraordinary deal as the conflict over Nagorno Karabakh flared up.

Turkey: Solve the Hrant Dink case…

  20 January 2010

Erkan's Field Diary comments on the case of Hrant Dink, an ethnic Armenian journalist who was assassinated in broad daylight in Istanbul, Turkey, three years ago this week. The blog says that if the authorities actually solved the case completely they would also solve that of another — the controversial...

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.