EurasiaNet

A EurasiaNet Partner Post from: RFE/RL Three 19-year-old students who attended university with the surviving suspect in the April 15 bombings at the Boston Boming of the Marathon have been charged in connection with the case. Dias Kadyrbaev and Azamat Tazhayakov from Kazakhstan were charged on May 1 with conspiring to obstruct justice. The third man, U.S. citizen Robel Phillipos, has been charged with making false statements to federal investigators. Kadyrbekov and Tazhayakov are accused of trying to dispose of a laptop computer and backpack that belonged to bombing suspect Dzhokar Tsarnaev. The affidavit says the two Kazakh nationals concluded from news reports that Tsarnaev was one of the bombers. The pair allegedly removed the backpack, which contained fireworks emptied of gunpowder, from Tsarnaev’s dormitory room. FBI agents were reported late last week to be searching in a landfill near the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth where the suspects all went to school. Kadyrbekov and Tazhayakov were detained by immigration services more than a week ago for violating their student visas. Kadyrbekov and Tazhayakov face a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Phillipos faces up to eight years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
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News that the suspected perpetrators of the April 15 Boston bombings have links to Kazakhstan – albeit extremely tenuous ones – has brought unwanted attention to this oil-rich Central Asian state neighboring Kyrgyzstan, where the two suspects have family roots. The media spotlight shone on Kazakhstan when two Kazakhstani students were arrested near Boston on April 20 over alleged immigration violations after being questioned by police about their links to suspected bombers Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who died in a shootout with security forces, and his surviving brother Djokhar, who is hospitalized and charged with using a weapon of mass destruction to kill. It has also emerged separately that their uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, once worked in the oil business in Kazakhstan and was an associate of powerful figures close to Timur Kulibayev, son-in-law of President Nursultan Nazarbayev. On the strength of that association, Tsarni later testified in a UK court in favor of fugitive Kazakh oligarch Mukhtar Ablyazov, a sworn enemy of Nazarbayev’s, Forbes Kazakhstan reported on April 22. Tsarni has been prominent in the US media in the aftermath of the bombings, condemning his nephews as “losers”  and giving interviews about Tamerlan’s alleged radicalization. According to some media reports, the Tsarnaev
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Eurasianet Commentary Last Monday I was on Boylston Street, having just completed my first Boston Marathon, when the bombs detonated. As is so often the case in the digital age, I may have been just a couple of hundred yards from the epicenter, but in the immediate aftermath, people watching on television and following via social media knew far more than I about the unfolding horror. I could hear the sirens, could see some anxious faces, but I was shielded from the full force of events. The fact that I never felt that initial sense of panic proved to be a calming factor in ensuing days, as I repeatedly contemplated my good fortune at not having been in the wrong place at the wrong time. But now, as editor of EurasiaNet, I’m wrestling with the news that those suspected of carrying out the Boston bombings, Tamerlan and Djokar Tsarnaev, are Chechens who lived for a long stretch in Kyrgyzstan.This adds a potentially volatile element to efforts to seek justice for the victims of the attacks, as well as to foster a sense of closure for those in the Boston metropolitan area, and all those affected by the mind-boggling events of
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Half a world away from Massachusetts, a small town in Kyrgyzstan is reeling from the news that two of its own are suspected of carrying out the Boston  bombings. News coverage that points to Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev as being the marathon bombers seems to have hit a raw nerve among members of the Chechen Diaspora community in Tokmok, a leafy settlement of about 50,000 an hour by car east of Bishkek. Long subjected to hardship, discrimination and the suspicion of other ethnic groups, many Chechens seem skeptical about the accusations against the Tsarnaevs, especially since the picture of them as terrorists does not square up with the memories of the kids they knew. Friends and former classmates in Tokmok remember Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev as polite boys and good students – not, as American investigators believe, as Islamist terrorists. The two spent a good part of their formative years in Tokmok. Badruddin Tsokayev, a 60-year-old pensioner who described himself as a close friend of the Tsarnaev family, said he does not believe the news. “I’m in shock. Never in my life will I believe that they did it. Never in my life,” he said, shaking his head. Uzbek Aliev,
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Kyrgyzstan’s efforts to attract investors by auctioning off mining licenses, starting with the country’s second-largest gold deposit, have run into problems – both self-inflicted and beyond authorities’ control. The ailing Kyrgyz economy is desperate for investment, with the country’s leaders eager to put years of social unrest behind them. But would-be investors have plenty of reasons to fear: in February, the government voted to scrap the existing agreement with the country’s largest investor, a Canadian gold miner. A number of foreign exploration projects have faced violent attacks in recent years by locals feeling they do not benefit from the country’s mineral wealth. And this week gold suffered its worst two-day slide in 30 years, sending convulsions through the industry. Market analysts had predicted declining gold prices, but the plunge beat even the gloomiest forecasts. Jerooy, with an estimated 84 metric tons of gold, is supposed to be a fresh start, signaling that Kyrgyzstan is open for business. It is also a test case, one that potentially sets an example for other gold and marble mines that possibly could come up for auction later this year, according to officials at the State Geology Agency. A tender starting at $300 million opened
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Recent media and human-rights activist reports claim that the South Caucasus countries of Georgia and Azerbaijan are playing an indirect role in supplying diesel fuel, weapons and cash to the embattled government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Government employees deny the charges to EurasiaNet.org, but key details about the alleged shipments remain unclear. A March 7 report by Human Rights First, a US-based non-profit organization that “works to identify and disrupt” Syrian government supply chains, named the two countries as among the “enablers” of al-Assad’s regime. Citing a Reuters article, the overview claimed that small vessels from Georgia have shipped diesel fuel to Syria. Based on a ProPublica investigation, it maintained that Azerbaijan also allows Russia to use its airspace for shipments of weapons and cash to the Syrian government. A subsequent report by Reuters claimed that the Georgian Black Sea port of Kulevi, a facility majority-owned by the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic (SOCAR), had dispatched one diesel-fuel cargo to Syria in February and several in January. The claim appeared to rest on unspecified firms that ship energy to Syria. Azerbaijani government officials have not yet addressed the allegations and could not be reached for comment. But
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Eurasianet Commentary There’s a coffee shop in an out-of-the-way part of Baku where the walls are covered with illustrations from an early 20th century satirical magazine called Molla Nasreddin. The magazine represents a bygone era, when Azerbaijan was a font of new cultural trends in the Muslim world, pioneering such issues as female emancipation, anti-clericalism, anti-colonialism and labor rights Although Azerbaijan was the birthplace of the magazine, arguably the country affected most by its essays and illustrations was Iran. At one time Jalil Mammadqulu-zadeh, the editor of Molla Nasreddin, even moved its editorial offices to Tabriz, a city with a heavily Azeri population in the north of Iran. The ideas propagated by the magazine even contributed to the intellectual foundations of Iran’s Constitutional Revolution of 1905. Looking at the Molla Nasreddin illustrations hanging at the Ali and Nino coffee shop today, one is tempted to ask whether Azerbaijan can again inspire a democratically oriented transformation in Iran. In theory, it has the potential to do so. The Azerbaijani republic was born on the ashes of the Soviet Union with the promise of a democratic, European future. The fact that most Azerbaijanis are, at least notionally, Shi’a Muslims and speak the
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Turkey’s potential as a regional energy hub could help alleviate the financial turmoil hitting the divided Mediterranean island of Cyprus, analysts say. But before any steps are taken, Ankara would like to see movement toward a resolution of the decades-long conflict between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. And that is a long shot over the short term. The International Monetary Fund’s 1-billion-euro (over $1.28 billion) contribution to a 10-billion-euro (over $12.8 billion) rescue package, announced on April 3, may ease concerns that the meltdown of Cyprus’ financial system could trigger a major crisis for the euro zone, but Greek Cypriots still have an incentive to seek alternative ways of stimulating their economy, observers note. Turkey, capitalizing on its growing role as a regional energy hub, has offered options. But its 38-year-long territorial conflict with Cyprus over the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus could prove an insurmountable barrier to a solution. The major area of possible cooperation is over hydrocarbon deposits in the waters off Cyprus. These resources — estimated to include some 60 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves, a find possibly worth hundreds of billions of dollars — are deeply contentious. Greek Cypriots have granted exploration licenses to international
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China may have been able to carve out quickly a large economic role for itself in Central Asia, but it will take a lot more than money for Beijing to solve some of its geopolitical dilemmas in the region, according to a report released today by the Brussels-based think tank International Crisis Group. The ICG report, titled China’s Central Asia Problem, takes an in-depth look at the near-term challenges that Chinese officials are facing. It notes that China is now an economic force in Central Asia, with trade between Beijing and the five Central Asian states rising from $527 million per year in 1992 to $30 billion annually by 2010. Beijing sees the region as a source of raw materials and energy, as well as a market for its cheap consumer goods. China has also pumped hundreds of millions of dollars in aid and investment into Central Asia in the hopes that such lavish spending will promote stabilization in its western Xinjiang Autonomous Region. “The core of its strategy seems to be creation of close ties between Xinjiang and Central Asia, with the aim of reinforcing both economic development and political stability,” the report states. “This in turn will, it is hoped,
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As diplomats from major world powers prepare to sit down with Iranian officials on February 26 in Kazakhstan’s commercial capital, Almaty, Iran is sending conflicting signals about its nuclear intentions. An International Atomic Energy Agency report leaked to the media February 21 found that Iran has slowed the buildup of its stockpile of 20-percent enriched uranium, but has also started installing advanced low-enrichment machines at its nuclear facility in Natanz. That move would potentially allow Iran to accelerate its nuclear program. The US State Department described it as “yet another provocative step.” Against this backdrop, diplomats will strive in Almaty to break an existing deadlock on the Iranian nuclear issue. Iran will be negotiating with a six-nation group chaired by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton called P5+1, consisting of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – the United States, China, Russia, Britain and France – plus Germany. Iranian leaders insist the country’s nuclear program is oriented toward civilian applications, while the international community fears Tehran is intent on developing nuclear weapons. Speaking at the United Nations on February 13, Ashton urged Tehran to show “flexibility” in Almaty. Iran’s UN mission hit back with a statement, quoted
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With the official outcome of Armenia’s February 18 vote widely seen as a given, attention within the country is instead focusing on the election process itself. The favorite, incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan, 58, faces six competitors, although his closest contender, the American-born Raffi Hovhannisian, the 53-year-old head of the tiny opposition Heritage Party and a onetime Armenian foreign minister, has been trailing the president by some 40-percentage points in recent opinion polls. The final struggle between the two men, though, could come down more to alleged election violations, than to percentages of the vote won. Hovhannisian’s campaign already has compiled and distributed a long list of grievances about alleged vote-tampering by local officials, a body made up overwhelmingly of members from Sargsyan’s Republican Party of Armenia. In comments to RFE/RL, President Sargsyan said that whether or not the vote had been fair would only be known “ after the election results have been summarized.” Preliminary results will be released by the evening of February 19, with final results coming a week later. Yet, based on initial reports from Armenian media and watchdog organizations, some bad habits from elections past appear to be dying hard. “The election violations are just the
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