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LONDON (TCA) — Recent reports from various sides concerning the increasing lack of cash flow for Daesh (IS) in the Near East due to difficulties in its Turkish oil smuggling chain add a new dimension to the already existing threat of extremist forces’ concentration in Afghanistan bordering the southern republics of Central Asia. Ever increasing assessments of the area’s world-class gold mining reserves must have drawn the attention of gang leaders of Taliban, Al-Qaeda and Daesh looking for alternative baits and a motive behind their “spring offensive” in Afghanistan and beyond. Continue reading
OSH, Kyrgyzstan (TCA) — Precious metals and stones, along with ferrous and non-ferrous metals, worth according to some estimates up to 3 trillion dollars are waiting under Afghanistan’s soil to be exploited. But to do so appears to be a remote dream at best for mining entrepreneurs given what happens on the ground rather than beneath it, leaving mining activity to thugs and terrorists whose variety in Afghanistan is hardly less rich. Continue reading
BISHKEK (TCA) — As Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan have been involved in tensions concerning disputed border areas in the Ferghana Valley, a densely populated region shared by Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, we are republishing an article by Paul Goble, entitled “Central Asia’s ‘Karabakhs’ may be even more dangerous than the original”, originally published by the Jamestown Foundation’s Eurasia Daily Monitor, which draws a parallel between the Caucasus and Central Asia. The article is below: Continue reading
LONDON (TCA) — With the recent removal of the sanctions on Iran, Europe and the former Soviet republics have jumped on the platform to announce “breakthrough” deals on the occasion. Today most of those “new” deals are in fact a lot older, and it will take several years before a concrete benefit will be achieved both for Central Asia and Iran. Today Iran needs every bit of cash to cope with its huge socioeconomic problems while Central Asia access to the sea and alternative export routes has always been of high priority. Continue reading
ASHGABAT (TCA) — Turkmenistan’s dream to become a world energy player seems to have gone up in smoke just when it could have grasped a glimpse of reality. A trade conflict with Russia’s gas giant Gazprom has prematurely locked its gas outlet to the north, leaving only China as its customer. Ashgabat’s lack of market insight in the midst of a continental price slump appears to be the main cause of Turkmenistan’s inability to cash in on its monoculture. Continue reading
LONDON (TCA) — Videos have emerged last week of a largely Uzbek group called The Iman Bukhari Jamaat (IBJ) fighting Kurdish forces with mortars, machine guns and crude artillery pieces — another militant group fuelling the fire of war and instability in the nearby regions. Continue reading