From: trh@jack.sns.com (Al Trh)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish
Subject: RFE/RL report excerpts
Date: 30 Sep 1992 00:38:48 -0500
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
Reply-To: Turkish Cultural Program List <TRKNWS-L%USCVM.BitNet@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU>
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

                                        No. 187, 29 September 1992

                   SUCCESSOR STATES TO THE USSR

RUSSIA SENDS REINFORCEMENTS TO TAJIKISTAN AS FIGHTING CONTINUES.
The head of Kurgan-Tyube's city council, Nurali Kurbanov, told a
press conference that hundreds of people, including the city's
chief law enforcement official, were killed on 27 September in an
attack on the city by Tajik forces loyal to deposed President
Rakhmon Nabiev, Interfax, as quoted by Western agencies, reported
on 28 September.  Kurbanov also claimed that Russian troops
stationed in Tajikistan were helping the pro-Nabiev forces from
Kulyab Oblast.  Tajik Radio was quoted as having said that acting
President Akbarsho Iskandarov had sent a protest to Russia over
the use of Russian tanks by Kulyab forces. The tanks were
supposedly stolen by Kulyab fighters from a Russian unit.
ITAR-TASS reported that additional Russian troops were being sent
to Tajikistan to help those already there defend themselves. (Bess
Brown, RFE/RL Inc.)

YELTSIN-SHEVARDNADZE MEETING ON ABKHAZIA.  Following Georgian
State Council Chairman Eduard Shevardnadze's protest on 27
September against the Russian parliament's statements on the
conflict in Abkhazia, Russian President Boris Yeltsin met with
Shevardnadze for talks at the latter's request on 28 September in
Moscow. According to Vyacheslav Kostikov, the Russian president's
press secretary, the two leaders discussed ways to implement the
Russo-Georgian agreement of 3 September on settling the Abkhazian
conflict. Yeltsin and Shevardnadze also agreed to hold regular
talks and scheduled a meeting for 13 October.  Shevardnadze said
he was satisfied with the talks. Speaking at a news conference
after the meeting, Shevardnadze said Yeltsin is determined to
follow through on democratic reforms in Russia, ITAR-TASS
reported.  (Suzanne Crow, RFE/RL Inc.)

FIRST NORTH CAUCASIAN VOLUNTEERS LEAVE ABKHAZIA.  The first group
of fighters sent to Abkhazia by the Confederation of Mountain
Peoples of the North Caucasus left Abkhazia for Groznyi on 28
September, ITAR-TASS reported. About one hundred were flown out in
a Russian plane.  The Abkhaz had stated earlier that their
departure had been suspended.  (Ann Sheehy, RFE/RL Inc.)

STATE OF EMERGENCY REVOKED IN KABARDINO-BALKARIA. The state of
emergency proclaimed in Kabardino-Balkaria on 27 September was
revoked on 28 September, Radio Mayak reported, and Musa Shanibov,
the president of the Confederation of the Mountain Peoples of the
Caucasus, was released, an RFE/RL correspondent in Moscow was told
by a local official. The state of emergency had been proclaimed
after supporters of the Congress of the Kabardian People staged
violent protests in Nalchik to protest Shanibov's detention on 23
September for his role in the despatch of volunteers to Abkhazia.
Shanibov is to address an extraordinary congress of the
confederation in Groznyi on 2 October. The events in
Kabardino-Balkaria are reminiscent of last year's events in
Chechnya when the Russian authorities also found it necessary to
back down in the face of local resistance.  (Ann Sheehy, RFE/RL
Inc.)

RUSSIAN CEASEFIRE OBSERVERS ARRIVE IN BAKU. A first batch of
Russian observers who will monitor a ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh
arrived in Baku on 28 September, Azerinform-TASS reported.
Additional observers from Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine are
expected soon.  Meanwhile, both the Azerbaijani and Armenian sides
accused each other of violating the ceasefire. On 28 September
Armenpress-TASS quoted a report from Stepanakert stating that
Azerbaijani forces had fired on the road connecting
Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia, but traffic did not stop moving.
Interfax reported the same day that Azerbaijan's minister of
internal affairs had rejected the idea of inviting in CIS troops
for peacekeeping duties in the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute. (Bess
Brown, RFE/RL Inc.)

UZBEK OPPOSITION LEADER ON CRACKDOWN. Uzbek writer Muhammed Salih,
chairman of the tiny opposition Erk (Will) Party, was quoted by
Reuter on 28 September as warning that he will call for street
demonstrations if the Uzbek government crackdown on the opposition
does not stop. Uzbek President Islam Karimov fears that unrest
will spread from neighboring Tajikistan and has taken various
measures to silence and intimidate the opposition in Uzbekistan.
Erk, the only genuine opposition party to be registered, has had
its newspaper closed and its bank account confiscated, according
to Salih. (Bess Brown, RFE/RL Inc.)