EU steps up support to prevent violent extremism, radicalization in Central Asia
BISHKEK (TCA) — The European Commission has mobilized additional €4 million to prevent violent extremism and counter radicalization in Central Asia. Continue reading
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Central Asian Salafi-Jihadi and Al Qaeda: From Bayat to global Jihad
BISHKEK (TCA) — Radical Islamists from Central Asia continue to join the ranks of global terrorist organizations, representing a threat to their home region and countries. We are republishing the following article on the issue, written by Uran Botobekov*: Continue reading
China opposes defamation of counter-extremism efforts in Xinjiang
BISHKEK (TCA) — China firmly opposes officials and media of certain countries "politicizing and stigmatizing" the efforts and measures taken by China to fight terrorism and eliminate extremism in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said as reported by Xinhua news agency. Continue reading
Kazakhstan: OSCE and joint UN/EU program hold workshop on management of violent extremist prisoners
ASTANA (TCA) — An OSCE-supported seminar on assessing and managing the risks of violent extremist prisoners, including the rehabilitation of returning Foreign Terrorist Fighters, concluded in Astana last week. The two-day workshop was organized by the OSCE Programme Office in Astana together with the joint United Nations System and European Union programme on the prevention of violent extremism in prisons. Continue reading
Terror threat turns inward on Central Asia
BISHKEK (TCA) — Central Asian countries may face a growing threat of terrorism, largely caused by the Islamic State’s shift in focus toward Afghanistan and the repressive policies of Central Asia’s authoritarian regimes. We are republishing this article on the issue, written by Ashley Scarfo: Continue reading
Kazakhstan: The jihadis that never were?
ALMATY (TCA) — Under the pretext of fighting terrorism and extremism, authorities in Kazakhstan are waging a war on opposition and dissent. We are republishing this article on the issue, written by Joanna Lillis, originally published by Eurasianet: Askhat Sharbat stood up in a Kazakh court earlier this month and admitted to a litany of grave offenses. He allowed his rented apartment to be used as an improvised studio for a video propagandizing terrorism. And then, last November, he distributed this footage through a popular messaging app. Sharbat even agreed he had expressed support for a political organization now banned by the government for purported extremism. But Sharbat was not in the dock. He was a witness for the prosecution in the trial of three men accused of hatching a violent plot to overthrow 78-year-old President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Sharbat’s testimony, given in an Almaty court over several days this month, elicited howls of protest from the dock on November 8. The men on trial, Almat Zhumagulov, Kenzhebek Abishev and Oralbek Omyrov, deny the charges of propagandizing terrorism, which rest heavily on the footage distributed by Sharbat. What they cannot understand – and protested about in court – is why they, and not their accuser, are on trial. Rights activists and commentators watching this peculiar case detect a familiar story of political repression and score-settling. It is not religious extremism that mostly appears to unnerve Kazakhstan’s government, but dissent. The main item of evidence presented by the prosecution has been widely disseminated and credulously reported by local media. It looks almost like a parody. The footage shows three men in white face masks standing in front of a black flag bearing a resemblance to the Islamic State standard. One figure uncertainly reads out a script, urging violent jihad against Kazakhstan. He is flanked by a pair holding fake AK-47 rifles. The case of the prosecution is not that the people in the footage are Zhumagulov, Abishev and Omyrov. Those individuals have never been identified. The narrative being weaved by the prosecution is far more convoluted. The trio now on trial say they barely knew one another when they were arrested. The one thing they did have in common, however, was involvement in an informal political discussion group called Alash. The group would gather in Almaty’s Mahatma Gandhi Park and discuss, among other things, their unhappiness with Nazarbayev’s rule. It was hardly underground plotting though. The meetings were broadcast live on Facebook. “What united us was a striving for justice,” Mamet Kabylbekov, a 52-year-old electrician who used to attend, told Eurasianet. “We just raised social questions. We have concerns about what’s happening in the country. We want to live well, in a democratic country.” The only defendant with a demonstrable link to the would-be jihadi video is Omyrov. In one cutaway sequence also released to the media, he is shown appearing to give stage directions to the masked men. This has raised questions about Omyrov’s precise role in the drama. The other...
