Stories about Central Asia & Caucasus from May, 2008
Kazakhstan: Diplomacy of Stars
Publicist reports on the “Diplomacy of Stars” Festival that has taken place in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and provides photos of the post-Soviet classic music celebrities [ru].
Kazakhstan: Scandal Royale
Adam reports that today several British tabloids simultaneously published a breathtaking story featuring their two sexiest topics at once — royal family and eastern moguls who buy out England. This time it's about Prince Andrew's sale of his residence to the Kazakhstan businessman.
Kazakhstan: Top Boxer Played a Trick on Borat
KZBlog says that Wladimir Klitschko, the world champion in boxing, who was born in Kazakhstan although he now lives in the Ukraine, spotted Sacha Baron Cohen at the LA restaurant and decided to have a little fun.
Afghanistan: Memorial Day Review
Joshua Foust reflects on the victims among American and Coalition soldiers who gave their lives in the fight for a free and stable Afghanistan, as well as on the victims among Afghans themselves.
Caucasus: Eurovision Results
The Armenian Observer says it is satisfied with fourth place in last night's Eurovision Song Contest going to Armenia's Sirusho. However, it also raises the question of political voting in the international song contest, something which my The Caucasus Knot examines in more detail. Regardless, Unzipped: Gay Armenia says it...
Kazakhstan: ENRC Goes Charitable
Adam reports that ENRC mining giant is still in rivalry with copper corporation Kazakhmys over who is going to eat who, as the Kazakh government urged the two companies to come to a conclusion concerning the merger.
Kazakhstan: Medvedev-Kazakhstan Diplomacy
Patrick Frost analyzes the background and perspectives of the Kazakhstan-Russia relations against the background of change of president in Russia and amidst the new leaders visit to Kazakhstan.
Afghanistan: Al-Qaida's rising figure
Peter Marton reviews the recent story in the CTC Sentinel journal on al-Qaida's rising figure, Abu Yahya al-Libbi, the Lybian who escaped from detention at Afghanistan's Bagram airbase in 2005.
Europe: Eastern Partnership Project
AnTyx writes about the Eastern Partnership project.
Azerbaijan: Eurovision Debut Reaction
In Mutatione Fortitud, the blog of a political scientist from Azerbaijan, comments on his country's first ever debut in this year's Eurovision Song Contest and says that it appears as if the song, Day After Day, was “pretty successful.” The Revolving Madventist Church of the Golden Worm of Mu agrees...
Armenia/Georgia: Online Diasporan Communities
Social Science in the Caucasus examines the Internet presence of Armenian and Georgian communities in Switzerland. The blog of the Caucasus Research Resource Centers says that examining the extent of activity in online communities is one way of tracking how organized migrant communities abroad are.
Tajikistan: The power of gossip
Recently, the Uzbek website UzMetronom disseminated information about possible murder of Hasan Sadulloev, the bother-in-law of Tajik President Rahmon. Hasan is considered to be one of the wealthiest and powerful persons in today's Tajikistan. According to the website, Hasan was shot by his nephew on May 2 and died in...
Kazakhstan: President Knows Roots of Food Crisis
Lena B-Va reports that Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev spoke at the World Economic Forum’s meeting in Sharm-El-Sheikh (Egypt) and said that the main reason for world food crisis is speculation.
Kyrgyzstan: Manas Epos
Elena from neweurasia presents a short podcast with the extracts from the national Kyrgyz epos “Manas”.
Afghanistan: To Negotiate or Not To Negotiate?
Patrick Frost reviews the Hudson Institute scholar's concept of a growing ‘war weariness’ with Afghan, European, and American troops in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan: Cutting Through the Noise
Joshua Foust refers in his post to Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson – in Joshua's opinion the only reporter talking about road construction in Afghanistan who is making any sense.
Armenia/Azerbaijan: Eurovision Success
After yesterday's success enjoyed by the Armenian and Azerbaijani entries in this year's Eurovision Song Contest, Unzipped posts a photograph of Armenia's Sirusho celebrating. In the comments section of the post both myself and the blogger agree that the reason we like the photograph is that “she looks lovely” and...
Azerbaijan: Eurovision Debut
The Long Aye-lander in Glasgow comments on the first semi-final of this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Belgrade, Serbia. The blog pays special attention to Azerbaijan's debut entry and says that with “a guy in huge angel wings, gyrating girls in leather dresses and ear-splitting falsetto” there's no point in...
Georgia: Election Observation
On the occasion of today's parliamentary election in Georgia, Social Science in the Caucasus calls for an overhaul of how international election observation missions work in the country. While new technologies have emerged in the election process, the blog says that international observers are often poorly trained and need external...
Armenia: Human Rights Activist Attacked
Unzipped: Gay Armenia reports that a local human rights activist was verbally and physically assaulted in Yerevan today as well as shot at with a gas pistol. The assault was reportedly carried out by the former leader of a pro-establishment party who accused the activist of being a “CIA agent...
Kyrgyzstan: Talas Tripping
Azamat posts some pictures from his trip to Talas, a town in the east of Kyrgyzstan, featuring the mausoleum of Manas (the epic hero), new nomads and traffic accidents.
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