Headlines | EurasiaNet.org

Mongolia: Harsh Winter Wiping Out Livestock, Stoking Economic

Crisis for Nomads | EurasiaNet.org

▻http://www.eurasianet.org/node/78061

Spécialement pour @simplicissimus

http://www.eurasianet.org/sites/default/files/040116_2.jpg

When Dogoono’s only horse died early in the winter, she cried for days. But now the Mongolian herder keeps losing so many of her animals she does not have any tears left.

“I think how long can I cry for them? I have to be strong,” she said.

The 72-year-old lives in Undurkhangai district, Uvs Province in western Mongolia. Her family is one of an estimated 70,000 herder households – totaling roughly 400,000 people, or about one-seventh of Mongolia’s overall population – that have lost a significant portion of their livestock to a slow moving disaster called a dzud, a draught followed by a harsh winter, a natural phenomenon unique to the Mongolian Steppe.

#mongolie

Information War Rages over Karabakh | EurasiaNet.org

▻http://www.eurasianet.org/node/78091

Disturbing reports of atrocities, and official claims and counterclaims continue to stream from the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict zone as fighting enters its third day. With no international media or conflict-monitoring mission apparently yet on the ground in the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, it is next to impossible to glean frontline facts from the ongoing information war.

That lack of objective information could become even more critical in the coming days. Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, a Karabakh native, pledged on April 4 that escalation of the fighting, the worst since the signing of a 1994 ceasefire, would prompt Yerevan to recognize Nagorno Karabakh as an independent state.

#haut_karabagh #arménie #azerbaïdjan #causase

Can Karabakh Pull Back from the Brink? | EurasiaNet.org

▻http://www.eurasianet.org/node/78096

http://www.eurasianet.org/sites/default/files/074A7769_0.jpg

After a long simmer, the Nagorno-Karabakh war has once again boiled over. And turning off the heat at this point may not be so easy.

Three days of fighting have left dozens dead and dozens more wounded. It marks the bloodiest combat between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces since the signing of a ceasefire agreement in 1994. International mediators for the OSCE Minsk Group – which is led by the United States, France and Russia, and is responsible for trying to broker a lasting Karabakh peace settlement – were scheduled to convene April 5 in Vienna to discuss responses to the renewed fighting.

#haut_karabagh #arménie #azerbaïdjan #causase

Azerbaijan : Can a Water Reservoir Help Resolve the Karabakh Conflict ? | EurasiaNet.org

▻http://www.eurasianet.org/node/77876

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/j58a4qqe06n2871/karabagh%20sarsang.png?dl=0

Water, or more accurately access to water, is just another weapon in the nearly 30-year conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno Karabakh territory.

When a 1994 ceasefire brought an end to active fighting between Azerbaijan, Armenia and ethnic Armenian separatists over Karabakh, Azerbaijan lost not only territory, but also access to the 560-million-cubic-meter Sarsang Reservoir.

Built in 1976 on the Tartar River, the reservoir, situated within Karabakh, used to provide drinking and irrigation water not only to the remote mountainous region itself, but also to six surrounding regions now occupied by Armenian and separatist forces. Among them is the mostly Azerbaijani-controlled region of Tartar, a land of rolling hills situated on the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces.

Depuis deux jours je suis dans mes archives caucasiennes, je viens de retrouver des documents issus de mes missions dans le Haut-Karabagh, je ne résiste pas à vous montrer ce document historique, les félicitations de Brejnev (à la fin des années 1970) aux fiers travailleurs socialistes qui venatent de terminer la construction du site hydroélectrique du réservoir de Särsäng :

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/1goz16vqyufbfy5/sarsang-brejnev.png?dl=0

An Absence of Diplomacy : The Kyrgyz-Uzbek Border Dispute | The Diplomat

▻http://thediplomat.com/2016/04/an-absence-of-diplomacy-the-kyrgyz-uzbek-border-dispute

http://thediplomat.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/thediplomat_2016-04-01_12-41-33-553x360.jpg

On March 18, Uzbekistan deployed troops and military equipment, including armored vehicles and trucks, to the unmarked area of Chalasart on the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border, closing the Madaniyat highway checkpoint on the border with Kyrgyzstan and restricting the entry of Kyrgyz citizens at the Dostuk highway checkpoint.

It is not the first time Uzbekistan has resorted to radical measures on the border with Kyrgyzstan. This time, the Uzbek national security service explained it as a routine reinforcement due to the Nowruz public holiday. Kyrgyz authorities immediately responded by sending troops and military equipment to the disputed area, and also sent a diplomatic note to Tashkent. Panic was reported among locals living in Kyrgyz villages near the occupied zone, and protests ensued.

#kirghizstan #ouzbékistan #frontière #conflit_frontalier #asie_centrale

NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative says creation of NATO training center in Georgia does not pose threat to Russia
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/content/russia-and-former-soviet-union/nato-secretary-generals-special-representative-says-creation-of-nato-train

The opening of a NATO training center in Georgia is not aimed against Russia, James Appathurai, NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, said in an interview with Georgia’s Channel 1 television.

(intégralité de la brève)

Vaziani à moins de 10 km au sud-ouest de l’aéroport de Tbilissi.

Et puisque ce n’est pas dirigé contre la Russie, ce ne peut être que contre l’Iran, alors. Bon, on peut aussi imaginer une alternative à Incirlik, au cas où la Turquie évolue bizarrement, mais cela supposerait l’acceptation des survols par l’Iran.

NATO Picks Site For Military Training Center In Georgia | EurasiaNet.org
▻http://www.eurasianet.org/node/72526

Vaziani is a former Soviet base that remained in the hands of the Russian military until 2001. Russia bombed it during the 2008 war with Georgia over the breakaway territory of South Ossetia.

▻https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaziani_Military_Base

As Protests Continue In Yerevan, Russia Concedes To Armenia On Soldier Murder Case | EurasiaNet.org
▻http://www.eurasianet.org/node/74051

Russia has agreed to let Armenian courts try a Russian soldier accused of murdering seven members of an Armenian family after deserting Russia’s major military base in the country. The move is a major concession by Moscow, and comes as large-scale street protests in Yerevan against Armenia’s Russian-owned electricity company have been gathering strength.

Cette concession est la cerise (ardemment attendue) sur un gâteau plus conséquent…

On June 26, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan met with a Russian government delegation to discuss energy fees, the issue that sparked the Yerevan protests. But the scope of the discussions was apparently wider than that, and Sargsyan’s office issued a surprise announcement after the meeting:

“At the meeting ... Sargsyan took the opportunity to express appreciation to the Russian law enforcement organs, in particular to the prosecutor’s office for effective cooperation with the Armenian prosecutor’s office on the investigation the inhuman crime in #Gyumri in January,” Sargsyan’s office said in a statement, news agencies reported. “The decision about the transfer of the criminal case to the Investigative Committee of Armenia and the appropriate authorities in Armenia, reflects the spirit of partnership and brotherhood and fully corresponds with the position of the Armenian-Russian agreement on the status of the Russian military base in Armenia.”

On top of that, Russia also apparently agreed to give Armenia $200 million in credit for arms purchases.

Various Russian officials have been darkly warning that the protests in Armenia represent an anti-Russian, U.S.-backed “maidan,” a la Ukraine, and advising Sargsyan to take a harsher stance against the protesters. But this move shows that Moscow also realizes it needs to try to assuage Armenian public opinion, which has been wounded not just by the electricity issue and the Permyakov case, but arms sales to its enemy, Azerbaijan. Will this concession be enough to tamp down the anti-Russian sentiment on the streets of Yerevan? Stay tuned.

Report : Azerbaijan Gets 85 Percent Of Its Weapons From Russia

Azerbaijan was the second-largest arms importer in Europe over the past five years, according to a new report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, an arms trade research group.

▻http://www.eurasianet.org/node/72581
#Russie #armement #Azerbaïdjan

Le rapport :
▻http://books.sipri.org/product_info?c_product_id=495

Ces communicants qui redorent l’image des dictatures et des régimes répressifs auprès des Européens
▻http://www.brujitafr.fr/2015/03/ces-communicants-qui-redorent-l-image-des-dictatures-et-des-regimes-repres

http://www.bastamag.net/local/cache-vignettes/L540xH339/arton4726-6aff3.jpg

Une manifestation a été violemment réprimée, des opposants ont été torturés et des journalistes assassinés ? Pas de panique : des cabinets de relations publiques sont là pour défendre la réputation de tout régime répressif auprès des investisseurs et des opinions publiques européennes. Leurs prestations ? Placer interviews et tribunes dans les médias, changer les pages Wikipedia, ou recruter d’anciens premiers ministres européens pour vanter les mérites d’un président à vie ou d’un régime à poigne. La Russie, le Kazakhstan, le Bahreïn ou le Rwanda ont déjà fait appel, avec succès, à ces conseillers très spéciaux. Voici comment rendre une dictature presque sympathique, en dix leçons.

« Nous pouvons protéger votre réputation pour que vous puissiez exploiter les principaux marchés européens ». Tel est l’un des slogans (...)

▻http://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2015/03/03/un-journaliste-condamne-a-25-ans-de-prison-au-rwanda_4586522_3212.html
►http://orientxxi.info/magazine/comment-la-france-contribue-a-la,0820
▻http://www.eurasianet.org
▻https://www.flickr.com/photos/psm-entesa/5008562851/in/photostream

Baku Claims that Facebook Gives Karabakh Back to Azerbaijan | EurasiaNet.org

▻http://www.eurasianet.org/node/72156

Offline, the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh may be outside of Baku’s control, but, online, Azerbaijan seems to have reclaimed the disputed land. Azerbaijani officials are boasting of allegedly having convinced Facebook to strip the separatist territory’s page of its verified status, which denotes that the page is authentic.

This reported victory, preceded by an avalanche of complaints from Azerbaijani users, is nothing to sneeze at in the South Caucasus, where Facebook is by far the most popular social network. It is also often the prime online venue for social activism and political debate.

And yet, Baku’s victory was not complete. Though the “Nagorno-Karabakh Republic” page is not accessible, pages using the region’s Armenian name (Artsakh) and calling for recognition of its independence remain intact.
Facebook, which has faced flak before over its page-decisions, has not yet commented officially on the downgrading of the breakaway region’s page.

#haut-karabakh #azerbaidjan #arménie #frontières

Latvia Torn Between Money and Fear of Russia | EurasiaNet.org

▻http://www.eurasianet.org/node/72166

http://www.eurasianet.org/sites/default/files/021915.jpg

Vitaly Mansky, a prominent Russian documentary director, remembers the moment when he decided he needed a safe haven outside Russia because life in his homeland was becoming untenable.

It was the spring of 2014, and Mansky was watching the news in his hotel room during a film festival in Spain. A dispassionate anchor on a Kremlin-controlled news station reported that Russia’s parliament had authorized President Vladimir Putin to use the army to protect compatriots in other countries, in effect legalizing the annexation of Crimea and providing a rationale for the support of pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

#lettonie

Azerbaijan Loses Its Manat Mojo | EurasiaNet.org

▻http://www.eurasianet.org/node/72201

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For thousands of Azerbaijanis like 58-year-old high-school teacher Nargiz, the Azerbaijani national currency’s precipitous plunge on February 21 wiped out more than their savings. It popped a bubble of belief that Azerbaijan was protected from the kind of financial instability that has shaken other Eurasian states.

Azerbaijan’s Central Bank on February 21 devalued the manat 33.5 percent against the dollar and 30 percent against the euro. That move cost Nargiz, who would give only her first name, the equivalent of $4,500, a decade’s worth of savings. It also amounts to her official salary for nearly the past three years from a secondary school in the capital, Baku.

#azerbaidjan

Les conséquences des succès de l’EIIL en Azerbaïdjan
Un Wahabi agressé à Sabirabad, la vidéo fait le tour du net azerbaïdjanais.
Un imam de Bakou condamne l’agression
▻http://www.contact.az/docs/2014/Social/070500083462en.htm

The video of violence against a Wahhabi, whose beard was cut off with scissors in Sabirabad, was spread online yesterday.

The names of parties to the conflict have been revealed. The abused is a resident of Kurdamir, who was caught in Sabirabad by the locals and decided to punish him for he conducted religious propaganda there.

[...] Note that the video shows a group of individuals beating a bearded man, and then beginning to forcibly cut his beard with scissors.

▻http://www.contact.az/docs/2014/Social/070500083454en.htm

Il faut dire que la presse azerbaïdjanaise parle beaucoup des Wahabis (comprendre : pour le pouvoir, n’importe quel rigoriste barbu sunnite) azerbaïdjanais qui se font tuer en Syrie.

http://fr.apa.az/upload/images/news/2014/april/01/big/e3c66694c133793b2f65193999c6a283.jpg

Cela n’aide pas à développer un sentiment d’amour fraternel interconfessionnel (en gros 2/3 de shiites, 1/3 de sunnites en Azerbaïdjan). La propagande officielle ne peut que donner une belle caisse de résonance aux récents succès de l’EIIL au Levant.

sur le sujet : Azerbaijan : Sumgayit Becomes Font of Syria-Bound Jihadists
▻http://www.eurasianet.org/node/68341

#azerbaïdjan #religion

Vous connaissez la #ConiFA World Football Cup 2014 ?
the official world championship for teams outside FIFA

Du 31 mai au 8 juin à Östersund en Suède
4 poules de 3 équipes

http://worldfootballcup.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/540x320_lagen_may.jpg

▻http://worldfootballcup.org

Armenia: Customs Union Marks Great Leap Backward — Activists | EurasiaNet.org

▻http://www.eurasianet.org/node/68285

While President Serzh Sargsyan’s administration touts Armenia’s pending accession to the Russia-led Customs Union as likely to usher in an era of prosperity for the South Caucasus country, rights activists assert that when it comes to democratization, Customs Union membership means Yerevan will take “one step forward, two steps back.”

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/qppgbfarv1hsemr/armeniauniondouaniere.png

#arménie #russie #union_douanière

Azerbaïdjan : Voilà qui rappelle une citation célèbre de Michel Audiart (Lino Ventura) : des ophtalmos ont été mobilisés pour « décrédibiliser » le candidat de l’opposition pour l’élection présidentielle (plus qu’une semaine). D’après eux, sa mauvaise vision (d’un œil) est rédhibitoire pour l’exercice du plus haut mandat du pays. Avis d’experts. EurasiaNet.org
▻http://www.eurasianet.org/node/67577?fb_action_ids=10200238996009213
#présidentielle_2013 #azerbaïdjan

Illegal #vodka #pipeline discovered in Kyrgyzstan
▻http://www.harpers.co.uk/news/illegal-vodka-pipeline-discovered-in-kyrgyzstan/348856.article

Authorities in Kyrgyzstan have shut off an illegal eight inch-wide tube being used to smuggle illicit alcohol between #Kazakhstan for a third of mile under the Chu River into #Kyrgyzstan (...) thousands of litres of alcohol were smuggled between the two countries

ça c’est de l’info pour @reka et @simplicissimus

personne ne semble dire où passait exactement ce tuyau, posé dans le lit de la rivière

Putin facilitera-t-il la candidature unie de l’opposition azerbaïdjanaise ? EurasiaNet.org
▻http://www.eurasianet.org/node/67333

Le candidat Ibrahimbeyov doit faire entériner sa renonciation au passeport russe pour pouvoir se présenter en Azebaïdjan, or il ne pourra pas faire aboutir le processus administratif à temps sans un coup de pouce du président russe...

et en plus :

Ibragimbekov, faces an additional obstacle — charges of tax evasion against the Azerbaijani Union of Cinematographers, which he heads, RFE/RL reported. Local media have speculated that the charges could lead to Ibragimbekov’s arrest if he decided to return to Baku, a risk which the screenwriter has said he is willing to run.

After meeting with the National Council delegation to Tbilisi, Ibragimbekov opted not to travel on to Azerbaijan as long as his citizenship status remains unresolved. How long it will remain so, for now, is unclear.

Comment dire ? C’est « compliqué »

#azerbaïdjan #présidentielle_2013

Les grandes manœuvres se prolongent dans l’opposition azerbaïdjanaise.

▻http://www.eurasianet.org/node/67165

However, choosing Ibragimbekov would be a game-changer that could shift the way Aliyev and YAP handle the election. “Ibragimbekov is well-known not only in Azerbaijan, but around the world. The authorities would hardly conduct a blackmail campaign against him,” Shahinoglu says. “He would be supported in Washington, Moscow, and European Union countries. His financial resources also increase his chances. Unlike Azerbaijan’s poor opposition, Ibragimbekov can fund his own election campaign and the National Council. That is very significant, at present.”

#présidentielle_2013 #azerbaïdjan

Turkey: Prosperity for a Few, Hardship for Many | EurasiaNet.org

▻http://www.eurasianet.org/node/67047

Having tripled the size of its economy over the past decade, Turkey is invariably held up as an economic success story. But behind this outward tale of success lies a much darker backstory, one featuring a deepening income gap and crimped workers’ rights.

In 2012, the Ministry of Family and Social Rights revealed that nearly 40 percent of Turkey’s population of over 75.6 million lives at or below the monthly minimum wage of 773 liras, or about $415.19. A further 6.4 percent live below the designated hunger line of 430 liras ($237.95).

#turquie #inégalités #pauvres #riches