Bush Administration Welcomes the Kyrgyz Revolution

[Dover]

BUSH ADMINISTRATION WELCOMES THE KYRGYZ REVOLUTION


Kyrgyzstan’s revolution is widely welcomed in Washington, and has some American policy planners contemplating the possibility of regime change in other Central Asian nations, especially Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

The tendency among Bush administration supporters is to see Kyrgyzstan, where Bishkek protesters pushed President Askar Akayev from power on March 24, as part of the trend toward genuine democracy in the former Soviet Union, closely linked to Georgia’s Rose Revolution in 2003, and Ukraine’s Orange Revolution in 2004. . In the Bush administration view, all three revolutions are, at their core, reactions against the "managed democracy" model of government, in which the trappings of a democratic system is grafted on to an authoritarian-minded leadership structure. .

Events in Kyrgyzstan help justify Washington’s pursuit of the "Bush Doctrine," or the globalization of American democratic values, Bush administration supporters contend. Many of those associated with the Republican Party establishment believe the Bush Doctrine served as a major source of inspiration for Kyrgyzstan’s popular protest movement, which began amid allegations of vote-manipulation during the country’s recent parliamentary election. .

Just a few years ago, Washington embraced Akayev as an ally, portraying him as the leader of Central Asia’s most progressive government. Indeed, Kyrgyzstan was at one point hailed as an "island of democracy." But the very event that brought the United States and Kyrgyzstan closer together, the September 11 terrorist tragedy, also prompted Akayev to embrace an increasingly authoritarian governing style. Faced with a rising threat presented by Islamic radicalism in Central Asia, Akayev sought to stifle political opposition. At the same time, his administration tolerated widespread corruption, while members of family accumulated vast fortunes by using political influence to establish extensive business networks....cont'd


By Ariel Cohen, Ph.D., a Senior Research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation and co-author and editor of Eurasia in Balance (Ashgate, 2005).

http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav022905.shtml

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Who do these neocons think they're kidding?
Of course this has NOTHING to do with our oil/gas interests along the Caspian Sea, and related pipelines.
More propaganda (notice how the 'war on terror' follows the oil/gas and other resource development) >

__


Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline: not yet finished and already threatened

The long-delayed 1000-mile Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline to transport 1 million barrels of oil a day from the Caspian to the Turkish port of Ceyhan is progressing toward completion as early as 2005. But even before the construction is finished, terrorist elements may already be planning attacks on this high quality target.

According to Azerbaijan’s National Security Minister, Namiq Abbasov, the country’s special services had obtained information that regional insurgents and members of al Qaeda are planning acts of sabotage designed to derail construction of the pipeline. If true, this means that the BTC, which traverses some of the world’s most unstable regions, could be a target of a new terrorist campaign to disrupt the flow of much needed oil from the Caspian Sea to Western markets. The pipeline could provide livelihood for many people in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia as well as stimulate economic activity in eastern Turkey, and it will make a contribution to enhancing world energy security by developing a non-OPEC oil source. Therefore, failure of the countries involved to ensure the security of the project will have severe implications on the future of the region as well as global energy markets at large.

Who has an interest in damaging the pipeline? Of all the countries in the region Iran is perhaps the state actor with the strongest motivation to impede the BTC project. Engulfed by U.S. forces in both its neighbors Afghanistan and Iraq, Iran is agitated by growing U.S. military presence in Central Asia and views the U.S. led war on terror as an American pretext to penetrate the region and seize control over Caspian oil. To disrupt the flow of oil in the BTC pipeline Iran could use its web of proxies and the terrorist groups it sponsors. Iran is not only a major oil producing country but also a stepping stone between the Caspian region and the Persian Gulf. As such, it would like to see Caspian oil flowing through its territory rather than through Turkey. It is therefore offering an alternative route which runs from Kashagan and Tengiz oil fields in Kazakhstan along the eastern Caspian shore, through Turkmenistan and on to the Iranian border. From there the pipeline would run across the eastern part of Iran to the Persian Gulf terminal at Bandar Abbas. If the construction of the BTC pipeline is completed and the pipeline operates well, it will make very little sense for Iran to carry out its plan. However, if the flow of oil in the BTC pipeline is interrupted due to sabotage, there will be strong incentive for major oil companies to seek an alternative route.

Other players who would like to see the project fail are terrorist groups operating along the pipeline route. Such groups strive to weaken the governments they oppose by denying them revenue from the pipeline. The Turks, for example, are a long way away from reaching a settlement with the Kurds and are involved in fighting with the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK). Until the Kurdish issue is resolved, Kurdish groups might want to derail the project. The PKK has already attacked pipelines as recently as last month. Turkish television reported that on October 24 a remote controled device was detonated on a pipeline in the Garzan region. Two days later the PKK bombed an oil pipeline in southeastern Turkey. In addition there is increasing threat by Islamist groups operating in the Caucasus such as the Islamic Party of Eastern Turkestan, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), Chechen separatists and Hizb-ut-Tahrir al-Islami. The later group seeks to seize power and supplant existing governments with Sharia-based Caliphate for the purpose of jihad against the west. The head of the Kazakh National Security Committee Nartai Dutbayev said that the Hizb has recently increased its clandestine activities in Kazakhstan and poses "a real threat to Kazakhstan's security." In early September, Kazakhstan’s President, Nursultan Nazarbayev, publicly admitted that Hizb-ut-Tahrir is making significant inroads in his country.

In the Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh the conflict between Armenian and Azeris still goes on. Armenian nationalists might decide to attack the BTC in order to hurt Azerbaijan, which derives most of its income from oil sales.

Much of the stability along the BTC corridor would depend on Russia. Russia is not supportive of BTC. It sees it as a U.S. plot to gain control over the Caucasus and cut all links between Moscow of the former Soviet states, building an economic infrastructure that would prevent the former Soviet states to ever reunite with Russia. Moscow also views BTC as a way to weaken its position as major supplier of oil to the European markets. In a recent article at Asia Times Online, John Helmer refers to the BTC project as an effort “to redraw the geography of the Caucasus on an anti-Russian map.”

Another problem BTC poses Russia has to do with its tense relations with Georgia. As it is, the Georgia suffers from many domestic problems: it is emerging from a civil war and is rife with corruption, but perhaps its most serious problem is the growing likelihood of war with Russia over the two breakaway territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The August 8 Moscow News quotes Georgian leader Mikheil Saakashvili: “If war begins it will be a war between Georgia and Russia, not between the Georgians and Ossetians. … We are very close to a war (with Russia), the population must be prepared.” ...cont'd

http://www.iags.org/n1104041.htm
----------------------------------------

REGIONAL DATEBOOK

March 24-26: Russian President Vladimir Putin to make a two-day visit to Armenia to hold talks with Robert Kocharian and participate in a ceremony marking the start of the "Year of Russia" in Armenia

March 29: US First Lady Laura Bush heads to Afghanistan

March 30-31: Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili visits Kazakhstan for talks with counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev; talks expected to cover regional issues, bilateral cooperation, including Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline

March 30-31: Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev visits Poland for talks with counterpart Aleksander Kwasniewski on bilateral, regional issues

[LSparkle]

1. What color scarves did the WH send this time?

Green? Purple? Yellow?

[RaleighNCDUer]

2. Does anyone see a certain irony in this? n/t

[buczak]

3. welcome!

I, for one, welcome our new Kyrgyz overlords..

oh wait, wrong message board.

[central scrutinizer]

4. all you need to know about this article is:

By Ariel Cohen, Ph.D., a Senior Research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation

It might as well have been written by Karl Rove - they want to give Bushco credit for any event, anywhere in the world if they can spin it as part of the "Bush Doctrine" (gag, I have to go rinse out my keyboard after typing that)

[struggle4progress]

14. The Bushistas started making happy noises with the very first ...

... rumblings in Kyrgyzstan.

Then *shh!* happy Bushista noises suddenly disappeared from all media reports.

And now -- happy noises are back ...

[UpInArms]

5. here's a graphic to go with that article

[Dover]

6. Excellent..thanks! n/t

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. So, what you're pointing out is that Kyrgyzstan is 1000 miles

from the Caspian, has no significant oil or gas fields, and that no-one has proposed putting a pipeline through it either?

[UpInArms]

13. nope, merely giving a map of the region ....... eom

[Dover]

7. MOSCOW’S STANCE ON KYRGYZSTAN GOES FROM CRITICAL TO CONCILIATORY

MOSCOW’S STANCE ON KYRGYZSTAN GOES FROM CRITICAL TO CONCILIATORY
Sergei Blagov and Igor Torbakov 3/29/05

The sudden ouster of President Askar Akayev’s administration in Kyrgyzstan appeared to catch the Kremlin completely off-guard. Recovering from the initial shock, Russian officials are now striving to establish a solid working relationship with the provisional government in Bishkek.

Although Kyrgyzstan’s provisional government has hinted that it wishes to steer the country in a more democratic direction, the new leadership does not appear to harbor hard feelings for Russia. Indeed, interim Kyrgyzstani President Kurmanbek Bakiyev voiced a desire to work with Moscow during a March 26 telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Putin seized on the political opening and ordered that foreign aid be made available to Kyrgyzstan. He also expressed Russia’s readiness to assist the provisional government in promoting political stabilization measures in Kyrgyzstan. At the same time, Putin refrained from commenting on the Kyrgyzstani revolution. "Political developments are very dynamic there, and they are yet to finish. We will not comment on these developments yet. But bearing in mind our special relations with Kyrgyzstani people and humanitarian reasons, we will provide assistance as necessary," Putin said at a meeting with top cabinet ministers on March 28. It was reportedly agreed that Russia would provide fuel, seeds, and low-interest loans to Kyrgyz agricultural sector.

As it seeks to assist Kyrgyzstan’s new leaders, Russia is playing host to the ousted Akayev, who is living in an undisclosed location outside Moscow. It remains to be seen whether this dichotomy develops into a source of tension in Russia’s budding relationship with the Kyrgyzstani provisional government.

Akayev has shown that he is not willing to fade quietly into history. On March 29, in a live interview broadcast by Ekho Moskvy radio, he reiterated that he had not resigned, while leaving open the possibility of returning to Kyrgyzstan. Akayev went on to assail the provisional government as illegitimate, and said he would conduct political negotiations only with the speaker of the unicameral parliament – Omurbek Tekebayev. In the wide-ranging interview, Akayev additionally warned that Islamic radicals were stirring up political turmoil, seeking to take advantage of the uncertain conditions to expand their support base.

Meanwhile, Russian leaders have begun to engage in spin control, seeking to recast Russia as a supporter, rather than a critic of change in Kyrgyzstan. "We are not surprised," Mikhail Margelov, head of the Russian Federation Council’s International Affairs Committee, told reporters on March 29, referring to the sudden turn of events in Bishkek.

The Russian government "welcomes revolutions of any color in Kyrgyzstan, except a green one," Margelov said, adding that Russia intended to remain closely engaged with Kyrgyzstan and other Central Asian states....cont'd

http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav032905a.shtml

By Sergei Blagov is a Moscow-based specialist in CIS political affairs. Igor Torbakov is a freelance journalist and researcher who specializes in CIS political affairs. He holds an MA in History from Moscow State University and a PhD from the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. He was Research Scholar at the Institute of Russian History, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow; a Visiting Scholar at the Kennan Institute, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington DC; a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University, New York; and a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University. He is now based in Istanbul, Turkey.

----------------

Yeah, I'm sure Russia is thrilled :eyes:

A little history:
http://www.transnational.org/forum/power/1999/12oilcompanies.html
Dec 2, 1999


LONDON- Rarely, if at all in the post Cold War world, has there been such a stark case of high politics and doubtful economics. The oil company's director of international affairs has been openly blunt about it: "The only way this is going to work is to make the pipeline as affordable as possible for shippers to put their oil down it. We are asking the U.S. government to attract as much oil as possible and to attract as much financing as possible".

Thus BP Amoco, the world's third largest oil company, opens its begging bowl for a taxpayers' handout with the fulsome backing of the U.S. government. All in the cause of giving Russia, now supposedly no longer our enemy, a black eye. Left to itself and the dictates of the competitive market, BP Amoco would not build a new pipeline to carry Caspian Sea oil across Turkey, avoiding the old routes through Russia. But if the U.S. government makes it worth its while, well that is another story.

Not for nothing have the oil companies signed up high paid consultants the likes of former U.S. Secretaries of State Al Haig and James Baker and former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski. Insecure when it comes to political decisions whose stakes are this high the oil companies have bought the best advice money can buy. The truth is they've bought re-cycled Cold War warriors whose primary loyalty is not to their current paymasters but to their long-held convictions that the U.S. should first win the Cold War and then make sure that Russia can never again mount a credible challenge to the West. To integrate Russia with the West would be a mistake, they believe. Rather Russia should be reduced in power and then isolated. This is the Treaty of Versailles by another name and another method. Not reparations. Instead, no opportunities. And political encirclement - an expanded Nato on its western flank and a line of pro-western oil-rich client states- Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkmenistan and Kazahstan - on its southern Asian flank. And, of course, if possible, a Western orientated China on its east.

At the moment oil from the Caspian Sea goes from Azerbaijan across Georgia to Russia or up through Chechnya. The Russians, naturally, would want to see these routes, which are both the cheapest and the most direct, used to capacity. And, if they become overused, build an additional pipeline for oil and gas underwater to Turkey's Black Sea Coast.

The oil companies themselves have pushed for a new pipeline south via Iran with an outlet on the Persian Gulf. But the U.S., despite some tentative moves towards rapprochement with Iran, is not yet in the mood to consider ending its long standing embargo. It remains convinced that Iran is still intent on manufacturing nuclear weapons and targeting them on Israel.

The deal long in the making for the new Caspian pipeline across Georgia and then Turkey was announced two weeks ago by President Bill Clinton in Istanbul and immediately denounced in Moscow as one more piece of evidence that, although Washington talks a lot of peace, its clear long term purpose is hard real politik, a fundamental change in the whole strategic relationship between Russia and the West.

For now the Yeltsin Administration has its own reasons for keeping the Russian reaction in check. Yeltsin himself started the ball rolling by working to dismember the Soviet Union as part of his own bid to displace from power Mikhail Gorbachev - he needed to make his own position as the elected Russian premier the one that counted. But once Yeltsin ends his term of office next year a new man in the Kremlin - likely on the present line up to be more of a nationalist - will draw on the widespread anti-American antipathy that exists not just among those that follow such matters, but among a general populace that was startled by the expansion of Nato and is distinctly uneasy about America's wish to re-write the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. The oil pipeline confirms the worst suspicions of the Russian man and woman in the street who feel more by the day that America is trying to do their country down.

Clinton Administration apologists have their arguments. Mr Clinton himself has described the pipeline as "an insurance policy for the entire world because it would route energy supplies through multiple routes and not a single choke point"....cont'd

http://www.transnational.org/forum/power/1999/12oilcompanies.html

[daleo]

8. I am George Bush and I fully endorse this product and/or revolution. n/t

[MisterP]

10. but they like "Boiled" Karimov and "Turkmenbasi"

[CHIMO]

11. The Winds of Discontent

When is a revolution not a revolution but a coup in democratic-colored clothing? In Kyrgyzstan this week, crowds of angry young protesters have complained with some justification that very little has changed since last Thursday's ouster of longtime President Askar Akayev.

The country's new leaders -- yesterday's opposition leaders, some fresh out of jail or hiding -- are all former Akayev proteges who have returned to their former posts. Kurmanbek Bakiyev, Akayev's prime minister until three years ago, is prime minister again; "people's general" Felix Kulov is security chief again; and former Foreign Minister Roza Otunbayeva is back in her old job, too.

While Akayev's ouster initially looked like an uprising of the disenfranchised against rampant corruption, the smoke has now cleared to reveal a virtual palace coup, in which most of the country's elite under Akayev remains in place undisturbed.

So attempts to fit Kyrgyzstan into George W. Bush's mantra of "freedom on the march," a la Ukraine and Georgia, do not quite work. After all, this time not even the opposition leaders are claiming that Akayev stole the election from them.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/03/30/006.html

[Vladimir]

12. The correct analysis IMO n/t

[Dover]

15. Some info about Kyrgyzstan's resources

After seven decades of Soviet rule, Kyrgyzstan emerged as an independent state with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. A small, mountainous country with a predominantly agricultural economy, Kyrgyzstan has been the most progressive country in Central Asia in enacting market reforms, selling off state-owned enterprises, and adopting democratic principles.

(Their economic crisis worsened due to the cost of servicing the US $1.27 billion foreign debt. This debt accounts for 40 percent of the total budget. In 1999, Kyrgyzstan defaulted on repayments to Turkey, Pakistan and Russia. The GDP for 1999 was estimated at US $978 million. GDP grew by 3.6 percent in 1999 compared to 10 percent in 1997, but with inflation at around 40 percent, and a dramatic fall in industrial production, joblessness and hunger became widespread. The national census in May showed a total population of 4.8 million, a 13 percent increase since 1989. The largest increase of 23 percent was in the southern city of Osh which now has a population of 1.1 million. )

Hydropower
Kyrgyzstan's abundant water resources give it significant hydroelectric potential. The energy potential of Kyrgyzstan's mountain rivers is estimated at 163 Bkwh per year, of which only about 10% is currently exploited. Hydroelectric energy meets approximately 20% of Kyrgyzstan's primary energy requirements and accounts for nearly 20% of its total exports. With rapidly growing energy demand in neighboring Asian countries, Kyrgyzstan's hydroelectric power potential will likely become more attractive to foreign investors.

In May 2000, Turkish construction companies Entes and Kanalet signed a protocol of intent with Kyrgyzstan on construction of a hydroelectric station (Kambar-Atinskaya Hydroelectric Station-2) on the Naryn River. The project will require investment of up to $1 billion, of which the two Turkish firms are prepared to invest $230 million. Work on the station, which began during the Soviet era but was halted in the early 1990s due to a lack of funds, is 30% complete.

Since 1997, the World Bank has been involved in financing the modernization of Kyrgyzstan's hydropower sector. Four hydropower plants have been built within the framework of the $90-million World Bank program to upgrade the sector. In October 2000, Kyrgyzstan began operating a 0.2-Bkwh-capacity hydropower station in the north of the country. The $11-million station, in which Kyrgyzenergo invested $1 million, will generate electricity for the northen part of the country and for Bishkek.

Privatization
Kyrgyzenergo, which is state-owned and holds a monopoly on Kyrgyzstan's power sector, is set to be restructured and privatized. Kyrgyzstan is to start privatizing energy companies in 2001, according to Anatoly Makarov, first deputy CEO of the committee for the management of state property. As part of a denationalization program, a number of electricity networks were separated from Kyrgyzenergo in mid-January 2001 and four grid companies were set up based on these networks.

Kyrgyzstan plans to announce an international tender for the privatization of the grid company Severelektro, which unites the electricity distribution networks of the three northern regions of the country. Makarov said that energy companies from the U.S., France, the U.K., and Germany that already have experience in Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States will take part in the tender. Funds received from the privatization of Severelektro will be used to repair and reconstruct power grids in the country.

However, Prime Minister Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who took office in January 2001, has signaled his intention to fight the privatization unless his government has sufficient time to study all the details of the restructuring process. The state has an 80.5% share of Kyrgyzenergo and a 15% share is fixed in the ownership of the Kyrgyz Social Fund and company employees. The State Property Committee is planning to sell the remaining 4.5% at auction. Kyrgyzenergo's assets include 17 hydroelectric stations and two thermal electric stations in Kyrgyzstan. In June 2000, former Prime Minister Amangeldi Muraliyev said in an interview to journalists that the large Toktogul hydropower station would remain under state control even after the structural reorganizations were carried out in the power engineering sector.

http://www.nigc.org/eia/kyrgyz.asp

____________


Iran and Kyrgyzstan to sign economic cooperation agreement

28-09-04 A Kyrgyz official said that the meeting of Iranian and Kyrgyz economic experts have been successful.
Kyrgyz Deputy Communication and Transportation Minister Azad Ajikov said that the meeting was held in two sessions and a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the 7th Iran-Kyrgyzstan Joint Economic and Trade Cooperation Commission, to be held in Bishkek, was finalized and ready to be signed. An Iranian delegation headed by the Minister of Commerce Mohammad Shariatmadari and the head of joint commission will arrive in Bishkek.

The experts have been able to lift main obstacles to mutual economic cooperation and draw up the outlines of the agreement, he added. He told that the agreement embraces all the issues related to banking, customs, communication, energy, industry, engineering and technology.
The two countries` officials are also keen to expand ties in other areas including scientific, vocational and tourism fields, the Kyrgyz official stated. The two nations private sectors` representatives are also participating in the talks.

Earlier in September, President Mohammad Khatami met with Kyrgyzstan President Asghar Akayev on the sidelines of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) meeting in Dushanbe. Khatami said that the two nations should use all their political and economic potentials to expand bilateral cooperation in all areas.
The two nations will achieve constructive results within the framework of their joint economic commission which is to be held in Bishkek, the Iranian president remarked. He also said that regional trade blocks have important role in the world, adding "ECO members states have many cultural and historical commonalties, ample natural resources and vast markets and the strengthening of the organization will ensure the interests of the countries." ..cont'd

http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/news/h_ntr_left.htm

____________

Recent history:

http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav011801.shtml

____________


Thieves take 10 bn cm out of Kazakh transit pipeline
12-12-01 Kairat Sharipbayev, the director of Kazakhstan's national gas pipeline operator Kaztransgaz, said in Bishkek that his company had discovered that gas bound for Uzbekistan was being siphoned out of the transit pipeline in Kyrgyzstan. Thieves in Kyrgyzstan have taken about 10 bn cm of Kazakhstani gas out of the pipeline so far, Sharipbayev said.
He demanded that Bishkek take action to prevent the thefts, saying that Kaztransgaz would have to build a new pipeline to bypass Kyrgyzstani territory to ensure the security of its gas shipments. This pipeline would follow a 130 km course through south central Kazakhstan, he said.

Gas shortages are common in Kyrgyzstan, which uses Kazakhstani and Uzbekistani gas to fuel its thermal heat and power plants. Both Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have halted gas deliveries to Kyrgyzstan several times in recent years.
Uzbekistan's state oil and gas company Uzbekneftegaz stopped delivering natural gas to Kyrgyzstan's Osh region early last month, citing the failure of the Osh region's main gas distributor to pay its 60 mm som ($ 1.3 mm) bn for previous deliveries of fuel. Uzbekneftegaz had also halted gas deliveries to Kyrgyzstan in mid-October after the two sides failed to reach a resolution on issues of supply and payment for previous supplies of fuel

___________-


HOW OIL INTERESTS PLAY OUT IN US BOMBING OF AFGHANISTAN
We have synthesized a number of current analyses into some key facts about how oil ties into the US government's long time involvement in Central Asia and its hopes of accessing the oil and gas riches of the area. Oil is clearly not the only force operating, and this is not a comprehensive analysis, but it is an important piece of a complicated political and economic struggle.

The United States has yet to provide concrete evidence that Osama bin Laden was behind the attacks, but has pursued a bombing campaign anyway against the Taliban and bin Laden with millions of innocent Afghanis caught in the middle. Some analysts are projecting a post-war Afghanistan where the US military is used as "pipeline police." Following are some key points in how US oil interests play into the current so-called "war on terrorism."

CENTRAL ASIA includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan, parts of India and China. For a map of the area go to: http://www.askasia.org/image/maps/cntasia1.htm

THE CASPIAN BASIN includes the Caspian Sea and surrounding countries, Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Turkey and Georgia. For a map of the area go to: http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/caspgrph.html

THE PERSIAN/ARABIAN GULF STATES include Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Oman. For a map of the area go to: http://gulf2000.columbia.edu/reference/gulfregion.html

The Central Asian Republics and the Caspian Basin are Staggeringly Resource Wealthy:

The Caspian Basin has an estimated US$5 trillion of oil and gas resources. (1)

Central Asia has enormous quantities of undeveloped oil resources including 6.6 trillion cubic meters of natural gas and 10 billion barrels of undeveloped oil reserves. (2)

Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are the two major gas producers in Central Asia. Turkmenistan contains the world's eighth largest natural gas reserves. (3)

......cont'd

http://home.att.net/~m.standridge/EnronAfghan1.html

[struggle4progress]

16. US helped Opp voices stay strong in Kyrgyzstan

CRAIG S. SMITH
Posted online: Thursday, March 31, 2005 at 0022 hours IST

BISHKEK, MARCH 30: Shortly before Kyrgyzstan’s recent parliamentary elections, an Opposition newspaper ran photographs of a .. home under construction for the country’s .. president, Askar Akayev ... The newspaper was the recipient of US government grants and was printed on an American government-financed printing press operated by Freedom House ... The money earmarked for .. programmes in Kyrgyzstan totaled about $12 million last year. Hundreds of thousands more filters into .. the country from other US government-financed institutions like the National Endowment for Democracy ... "It would have been absolutely impossible for this to have happened without that help," said Edil Baisolov, who leads a crucial coalition of nongovernmental organisations, referring to the uprising. Baisolov’s organization is itself financed by the US government through the National Democratic Institute ...

http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=67454

[struggle4progress]

17. U.S. Offers Hand to Kyrgyzstan Leadership

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan - ... (The) U.S. ambassador extended a hand to the new leadership of Kyrgyzstan ... The new Kyrgyz authorities are eager to secure Akayev's resignation, seeing it as an essential step to restore a sense of order and legitimacy to the nation's politics ...

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/89-03302005-469783.html

[Dover]

18. Iran and Kyrgyzstan to sign economic cooperation agreement (Sept. 04)

Iran and Kyrgyzstan to sign economic cooperation agreement

28-09-04 A Kyrgyz official said that the meeting of Iranian and Kyrgyz economic experts have been successful.
Kyrgyz Deputy Communication and Transportation Minister Azad Ajikov said that the meeting was held in two sessions and a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the 7th Iran-Kyrgyzstan Joint Economic and Trade Cooperation Commission, to be held in Bishkek, was finalized and ready to be signed. An Iranian delegation headed by the Minister of Commerce Mohammad Shariatmadari and the head of joint commission will arrive in Bishkek.

The experts have been able to lift main obstacles to mutual economic cooperation and draw up the outlines of the agreement, he added. He told that the agreement embraces all the issues related to banking, customs, communication, energy, industry, engineering and technology.
The two countries` officials are also keen to expand ties in other areas including scientific, vocational and tourism fields, the Kyrgyz official stated. The two nations private sectors` representatives are also participating in the talks.

Earlier in September, President Mohammad Khatami met with Kyrgyzstan President Asghar Akayev on the sidelines of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) meeting in Dushanbe. Khatami said that the two nations should use all their political and economic potentials to expand bilateral cooperation in all areas.
The two nations will achieve constructive results within the framework of their joint economic commission which is to be held in Bishkek, the Iranian president remarked. He also said that regional trade blocks have important role in the world, adding "ECO members states have many cultural and historical commonalties, ample natural resources and vast markets and the strengthening of the organization will ensure the interests of the countries." ..cont'd

http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/news/h_ntr_left.htm


---------

Whole page of articles on oil/gas business contracts, maneuvers, etc.

http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/news/h_ntr_left.htm

[montana_hazeleyes]

19. I probably shouldn't make lite

of it, but every time I see this name I want to go play scrabble.

[Rex]

20. Bush just loves to project onto others

This is my new definition of the BFEE and America, thanks team Bush!

Managed democracy - model of government, in which the trappings of a democratic system is grafted on to an authoritarian-minded leadership structure