Azerbaijan

Kazakh Investment in the Caucasus

by Nathan Hamm

Kazakhstan has long indicated an interest in exporting oil and natural gas through the Caspian and the South Caucasus. It has, in fact, pledged to do so via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. Follow-through has not been particularly great though. Almost all of Kazakhstan’s oil and natural gas is still exported through Russia. But Kazakhstan is talking [...]

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Index of Economic Freedom

by Nathan Hamm

The Heritage Foundation’s 2007 Index of Economic Freedom is out, and the rankings of the Central Asian states are about what one would expect. Kazakhstan leads the region ranked 75th in the world and is the only “moderately free” economy in the region. Kyrgyzstan is close behind at 79. Tajikistan is 98. Uzbekistan is 132. [...]

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Russia’s Gas Games, Now With Friends

by Joshua Foust

On my other blog, I’ve written fairly extensively of the way Russia has used state monopoly, Gazprom, to manipulate and punish former Soviety countries (interestingly, or perhaps expectedly, only in the winter). It had been limited to those countries with a decidedly pro-American and less-than-pro-Moscow bent… until today. Russia has finally started to go after [...]

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Media Clampdown in Azerbaijan

by Nathan Hamm

Last week, Azerbaijan’s government stepped up its campaign against independent media and opposition parties by evicting the Popular Front party, the Azadliq newspaper, and Turan from their offices and deciding not to renew the license of ANS. Back in October, Denise of neweurasia speculated about the reason for clamping down on the press, arguing that [...]

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Summit of Turkic States

by Nathan Hamm

Leaders of Central Asian states and Turkey came together in Antalya for the first time since 2001 after intense Turkish lobbying. Turkish “President Ahmet Necdet Sezer must be praised for bringing together the leaders,” wrote analyst Ali Kulebi of the Ankara-based Tusam research center in an article published in Cumhuriyet newspaper. “Turkey needs the support [...]

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Third Parties & the Georgia-Russia Conflict

by Nathan Hamm

The EU has weighed in on the conflict between Russia and Georgia with what The Independent calls “a toughly worded statement.” The statement is said to be stronger than was expected, but judging by the final product (PDF – page 25), it is hard to see how much more watered down the statement could be [...]

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Dayirman – Narko

by Nathan Hamm

Stay off the drugs, kids… Many thanks to Katy for the video!

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Yesterday, Azerified & Kazakhified

by Nathan Hamm

So, here’s something a little different. Instead of normal pop from the region, here are two different covers of The Beatles’ “Yesterday.” The first one is an Azeri cover that comes via Jeremy In Armenia. And the following is a cover by Kazakhstan’s Asylbek Ensepov, the dombra player from last week’s video.

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Riots in South (Iranian) Azerbaijan

by Nathan Hamm

Some readers have surely noticed the news of riots in the Azeri regions of Iran after the publication of an insulting cartoon in a state newspaper. (The paper has been banned.) There are heaps of photos of the various protests at Baybak, including copies of the insulting cartoons. Today.Az explains the offense. The Azeri riot [...]

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Elevation

by Nathan Hamm

elevate — v 1: give a promotion to or assign to a higher position; “John was kicked upstairs when a replacement was hired”; “Women tend not to advance in the major law firms”; “I got promoted after many years of hard work” [syn: promote, upgrade, advance, kick upstairs, raise] [ant: demote] 2: raise from a [...]

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