TCA
ASTANA (TCA) — Kazakhstan has announced it will outline a new alphabet by the end of this year as the country plans to switch from a Cyrillic-based script to Latin, RFE/RL reports.
WASHINGTON (TCA) — Fears of a ‘spillover’ of extremists from Northern Afghanistan into the states of Central Asia is nothing new. These claims have been echoed by Russia and the leaders of Central Asia for years; however there is little evidence to suggest genuine concern. For the Central Asian elite, this claim attracts foreign aid from wealthy states, while allowing regimes to squash both religious and secular dissent. The late ruler of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, used this very tactic to eliminate threats to his regime in the early 2000s by coordinating with the United States to extinguish Islamists. The Central Asian elite commonly use their security apparatus against political dissenters, and Karimov jailed hundreds of opponents under the disguise of counterterror.
TCA
ASTANA (TCA) — With the commissioning of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line this year, cargo from China will be transported through Kazakhstan along a shorter route to Turkey and on to Europe. This was said during a working trip to Azerbaijan and Georgia by Kanat Alpysbayev, the head of Kazakhstan’s national railways company Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ), the company’s press service reported on July 25. Alpysbayev visited the objects of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line, whose commissioning is planned for October this year.
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BISHKEK (TCA) — Kyrgyzstan is playing host to the 2nd Military Sports Games of friendly armies of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a loose association of post-Soviet republics.
TCA
TASHKENT (TCA) — Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has approved measures to improve tax administration and increase tax collection in the country, the official Jahon information agency reported.
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KABUL (TCA) — The Taliban has seized control of a district in southeastern Afghanistan, the third to fall to the militants in three days, RFE/RL reported citing a local official.
