Bruce Pannier writes the Qishloq Ovozi blog and appears regularly on the Majlis podcast for RFE/RL.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blames Fethullah Gulen, a cleric living in self-exile in the United States, for being the mastermind behind the alleged plot to overthrow his government. Turkey has urged other countries to shut their "Gulen schools," including in Central Asia.
In Afghanistan's northern Faryab Province, paramilitary forces are helping government security forces battle the Taliban. But these same armed groups are often preying on ordinary Afghans, too.
Central Asian states bordering Afghanistan are concerned about the potential implications of their southern neighbor's security problems, even more so since some of their nationals are members of militant groups that have been plaguing the Kabul administration.
With its involvement in Afghanistan winding down, the United States is attempting to restructure the relationship it has had with Central Asia for the last 15 years -- where for Washington, security had been the priority.
Turkmenistan is apparently having enormous economic problems. The country's system is so opaque that it is always difficult to know much about what is going on there. But the recent decision to scrap the two entities that were overseeing the oil and gas sector and to restructure the management of that industry give the impression that the authorities in Ashgabat are getting desperate.
In Kazakhstan, it has been difficult to receive accurate information -- or sometimes even any information -- from media and officials, especially from the country’s president, while dramatic events unfold.
RFE/RL's Uzbek Service has been looking into the current state of Uzbek militants and uncovered some interesting details about them.
Turkmenistan’s Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov made a rare visit to three northwestern Afghan provinces last month. The trip, and what it means to Turkmenistan’s posturing toward Afghanistan, bears a closer look.
The June 5 violence in Kazakhstan's northwestern city of Aqtobe was surprising. Such incidents don't usually happen in Kazakhstan. But on those rare occasions when they do, it seems like it's in western Kazakhstan, or more specifically, the Aqtobe area.
There is fighting in all eight of the northern Afghan provinces that border Central Asia. It's been close to two decades since there was such widespread violence along Central Asia's southern border.
Almost every referendum in Central Asia since the breakup of the Soviet Union has been about the executive branch of power and they are usually about giving the executive branch more power. Tajikistan's May 22 poll is no exception.
Tajikistan is holding a national referendum on May 22 on changes to the constitution. The 41 proposed amendments include lowering the eligibility age to become president from 35 to 30, which would mean that President Emomali Rahmon's son Rustam could succeed him in the next election.
The groundbreaking ceremony for the Central Asia-South Asia electricity transmission project, known as CASA-1000, is set for next week in Tajikistan, although questions remain about it and a regional gas pipeline.
A sound not heard for many years just came across Uzbekistan's southern border -- the sound of rocket fire from Afghanistan.
One topic guaranteed to inflame passions in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan is land and China. China has taken land from Central Asia and farmers from China are already working rented fields in Central Asia and that has not sat well with locals.
It's National Health Month again in Turkmenistan and I'm sure many of you have seen the images of people exercising all around the country. But these public expressions of patriotic pride in a healthy population have a price, and it's the people who are paying it.
In a region used to long-lasting, authoritarian leaders, speculation has been rife for many years about who might come to power next in the countries of Central Asia, but -- in at least four of the five states -- the systems are so opaque that even guesswork is difficult.
Uzbekistan has long had a bad reputation for ill-treatment of people taken into custody by law enforcement. But lately the country's police, security forces, and prison guards seem to have become even more brutal than usual, for reasons that are not clear.
A murky security operation on Tajikistan's border with Afghanistan on March 5 brought attention briefly back to an area that for nearly 25 years has rarely seen an entire week pass without some sort of incident taking place.
Winter had led to a lull in fighting in northern Afghanistan. But in recent weeks a renewal of hostilities has seen power lines coming from Central Asia cut and some amazing allegations from Afghan officials about militants in the north and their ability to sustain their efforts.
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