On March 22, Russia suffered its worst terrorist attack since the Beslan school siege of 2004 in Chechnya. The four alleged perpetrators, all of whom are citizens of Tajikistan, killed over 140 people and left many more injured in an attack on a popular concert venue, Crocus City Hall, on the outskirts of Moscow. As … Read more
Since 2018, Tajik citizens have been able to travel to Turkey for up to 90 days without a visa. That opening is closing soon, with Turkish authorities announcing that a visa regime will be put in place starting April 20. The announcement came in the wake of the attack on the Crocus City Hall concert … Read more
As the holy month of Ramadan drew near, Tajikistan’s president expressed his concern about frequent hajj and umrah pilgrimages performed by Tajik citizens and the amount of money spent on them. “In 2023 alone, 63,000 citizens of the country undertook hajj and umrah ceremonies,” Emomali Rahmon said, altogether spending more than 1,200 billion somoni, or … Read more
In the aftermath of the March 22 attack on Crocus City Hall, a concert venue in Krasnogorsk on the outskirts of Moscow, which resulted in at least 139 deaths, Kyrgyzstan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement recommending that Kyrgyz citizens avoid travel to Russia. The Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) has reportedly claimed responsibility … Read more
When it comes to Central Asia, one of the hottest topics among Western policymakers and scholars alike is China’s engagement in the region, especially since the 2013 launch of the Belt and Road Initiative. In a recent quantitative analysis of Chinese scholarship on Central Asia, Frank Maracchione and Bradley Jardine tackled some prominent assumptions in … Read more
On February 8, the U.S. Department of State hosted the inaugural meeting of the C5+1 Critical Minerals Dialogue (CMD) alongside senior officials from all five Central Asian countries. The event represented the first step in implementing the CMD, announced in September during U.S. President Joe Biden’s historic summit with the Central Asian heads of state … Read more
On February 8, 2024, the U.S. Department of State hosted the inaugural meeting of the Critical Minerals Dialogue (CMD) in the C5+1 format, chaired by Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment Jose W. Fernandez. The initiative to hold a dialogue on critical minerals was announced by the presidents of the United States, … Read more
On March 11, Group 24 – a banned Tajik opposition movement – issued a statement that its leader, Sohrab Zafar, had gone missing from Turkey. “His phone is also switched off. It is not known where he is,” the statement said. Zafar, who has lived in Turkey since October 2014, is the second Group 24 member … Read more
With the rise of Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and a litany of international sanctions levied against Russia, the most popular global shipping routes have become increasingly unreliable. Some companies are avoiding the Suez route altogether, preferring to go around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. In Russia, westbound cargo throughput along … Read more
Domestic violence and gender-based violence is a significant problem across Central Asia, as we at the International Partnership for Human Rights’ (IPHR) highlighted in an article on the topic exactly one year ago. On March 8, this year, we launched a new report called “‘When I got married I lost my life’: Unveiling the Epidemic … Read more