NEWS: RFE/RL Caucasus Repor - 3/30/2010 (rferl.org)

A review of RFE/RL reporting and analysis about the countries of the South Caucasus and Russia's North Caucasus region. For more stories on the Caucasus, please visit and bookmark our Caucasus page . Turkey Urges U.S. To Block 'Genocide' Bill Turkey is calling on the Obama administration to block passage of a bill that would label as "genocide" the World War I massacres of Armenians in Turkey. More
Flash Analysis: Reaction To Attacks Could Further Divide Russians While we were taping a few quick comments for our Flash Analysis today, RFE/RL Russian Service correspondent Irina Lagunina talked about the divisiveness that attacks like the March 29 metro bombings in Moscow can have on Russian society. More
'Muhammad' Marchers Face Charges Five men will face criminal charges in connection with a clash during a march in Baku marking the anniversary of the death of the Prophet Muhammad. More
Azeri Media Advocate Wins London Prize An Azerbaijani media rights activist has been awarded for his work by the London-based organization Index On Censorship. More
Georgian Protesters Want Bush Street Renamed Several people protested in the Georgian capital yesterday for a street named in honor of former U.S. President George W. Bush to be renamed. More
Armenian Court Green-Lights Mining Deal An Armenian court has rejected a lawsuit against a controversial mining project that ecologists say would further harm Armenia's shrinking forests, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reports. More
NATO Reassures Georgia On 'Open Door Policy' NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen today told Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili that Georgia will be able to realize its longtime goal of joining NATO once it meets benchmark criteria. More
Fallout From Fake Georgian News Report Continues Georgia's opposition parliamentary Christian Democratic Party has called for the creation of an ad hoc parliament commission to assess the authenticity of two tape-recorded telephone conversations relating to the screening on March 13 by the pro-government television station Imedi of a fake news report about a purported new Russian invasion. More
Daghestan's Leaders Move To Placate One Ethnic Group As Moscow Antagonizes A Second As widely anticipated, Daghestan's parliament has unanimously approved the appointment of Magomedsultan Magomedov as its new speaker. The crucial factor in the choice of Magomedov was, however, his nationality: he is a Kumyk. The Kumyks are Daghestan's third-largest ethnic group after the Avars and Dargins; the Lezgins rank fourth and the Laks fifth. More
Kabardian Insurgent Leader Killed In Nalchik The website of the Kabarda, Balkaria, and Karachai jamaat of the North Caucasus insurgency this morning confirmed Russian military claims that its leader, Anzor Astemirov (nom de guerre Amir Seyfullakh), was killed late on March 24 in a shoot-out with police on the street in Nalchik. More
Ingushetian President Denies Pressuring Judiciary Senior judges in Ingushetia have written to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev complaining that republican President Yunus-Bek Yevkurov interferes in the work of the judiciary by dictating to individual judges what verdict to hand down. Yevkurov for his part has flatly rejected that accusation and insists that he only asks that judges should abide within the framework of the law. More
Georgia Denies Citizenship To Presidential Hopeful The Georgian authorities have rejected a formal application for Georgian citizenship by Moscow-based Georgian businessman Aleksandr Ebraelidze, who is head of the World Congress of Peoples of Georgia and announced last May that he plans to participate in the Georgian presidential ballot due in January 2013. More
Further Call For Repealing Daghestan's Controversial 'Anti-Wahhabism' Law Publicist and independent trade-union head Isalmagomed Nabiyev has written to Daghestan's new president, Magomedsalam Magomedov, urging him to annul the republican law passed in September 1999 banning "Wahhabism" and "other extremist activity." More
With Mafia Arrests, Spain Turns Suspicious Eye On Post-Soviet Immigrants Recent arrests in Western Europe have underscored the extent to which people from the former Soviet Union are seen as dominating much of Europe's criminal underworld. More
Azerbaijan, Georgia 'Show The Way' To Fight TB In Prisons Ahead of World Tuberculosis Day, the International Committee of the Red Cross is praising Azerbaijan and Georgia for their success in helping bring tuberculosis under control inside prisons, and urging other affected countries to follow their example in tackling the problem. More
Georgian Opposition Seeks International Support For 'Ending Dictatorship' Six Georgian opposition parties met in Tbilisi to discuss coordinating a new program of measures to bring about peaceful regime change, drafting an appeal to the international community to focus on ending what they termed the "dictatorship" of President Mikheil Saakashvili and on restoring Georgia's territorial integrity. More
Georgian Minister Rules Out Probe Into Incriminating Tapes More