09/15/14 9/19/14

On Monday, President Erdogan reiterated a call for the

establishment of a buffer zone on Turkeys border against
the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants.
Erdogan stated that Turkish armed forces are in the midst of
drawing up plans for the buffer area. Erdogan first called for
a buffer zone in 2011 at the beginning of the conflict in
Syria, urging NATO to aid in securing Turkeys border.
Todays Zaman Wall Street Journal
Billionaire Vladimir Evtushenkov was placed under house
arrest on Tuesday on suspicions of money laundering. The
charges against Evtushenkvov, the majority shareholder of
the conglomerate Sistema, stem from his majority
ownership of oil company Bashneft. Although government
officials have stated that the case is not political, others
have expressed concerns that the arrest is related to state
business interests.
Bloomberg New York Times
President Poroshenko addressed the U.S. Congress on
Thursday requesting lethal and non-lethal aid from the
U.S. to support the Ukrainian armys efforts in Eastern
Ukraine. While President Obama reiterated that the U.S.
would not supply lethal aid, he did promise a $46 million
package in non-lethal aid, such as armor and vehicles.
CNN ABC News
On Wednesday, the Georgian Parliament began to discuss
the status of a bill that would delay the broader use of jury
trials by an additional two years. The bill stated that jury
trials would become available for all criminal cases
punishable by prison beginning October 1, 2014. Now,
officials have raised concerns about the necessary
infrastructure and resources required for widespread use of
jury trials. Georgia introduced jury trials in 2011 for cases
of aggravated murder in several large cities.
Civil.ge RFE/RL
An ethnic Armenian soldier was killed by enemy fire in
Nagorno-Karabakh on Thursday morning. Twenty-four-
year-old Mher Hakobyan was fatally wounded on the
frontlines between Armenian and Azerbaijani fire in the
region. The shooting marks the first Armenian military loss
since early August. An investigation has been opened into
the death.
Armenia Now Public Radio of Armenia
Members of the Moldova Socialist Party were incensed at a
statement made by Romanian Prime Minister Ponta arguing
for the reunification of Romania and Moldova by 2018. The
Socialists, a political opposition group, have urged the
government to make a formal complaint to the Romanian
leadership. Ponta has since clarified, saying the statement
referred to Moldovas recent signing of an Association
Agreement with the EU, of which Romania is already a
member.
ITAR-TASS RFE/RL

Prime Minister of Turkey Ahmet Davitoglu declared that
Turkey will continue to be near Azerbaijan in its fight until
each square meter of Azerbaijani lands is liberated.
Davitoglu recently took over the prime-ministers office
from now President Recep Tayyip Erdoan, who is
attending the launching ceremony of the Southern Gas
Corridor in Baku.

Eurasia Review
APA.AZ
Belarus signed an agreement with the Kurdistan Regional
Government (KRG) of Iraq that includes cooperation in the
fields of industry, agriculture, education and tourism.
Foreign Minister of Belarus, Vladimir Makei visited Erbil
and met with KRG senior officials.


Rudaw.Net
MFA Belarus

On Tuesday, Ayatollah Khomeini announced that Iran had
rejected an American request for cooperation against ISIS.
This announcement came after Iran was excluded from a
meeting of 24 countries in Paris on Monday that was aimed
at confronting the Islamic State. Senior Iranian officials,
including President Rouhani and Iranian Foreign Minister
Mohammad Zarif, have followed up on Ayatollah
Khomeinis comments with increasing criticism of the US-
led coalitions campaign against ISIS.
The Guardian ABC News
Construction has begun on a new gas pipeline, known as
Line D, through Tajikistan. The pipeline will transport gas
from Turkmenistan to China and will supplement an
existing pipeline that runs through Uzbekistan and
Kazakhstan. Line D is expected to come online in 2016 and
will transport 30 billion cubic meters of gas per year to
China, increasing Chinese imports of Central Asian gas to
85 billion cubic meters per year.
Interfax EurasiaNet
On Monday, representatives of Turkmenistan and the
European Union met in Brussels for the sixth round of their
Human Rights Dialogue. The European Union delegation
reported that they discussed individual cases as well as
general concerns about conditions in detention, censorship,
restrictions on civil society, and violations of the right to
freedom of religion. The next round of the dialogue will
take place in 2015 in Ashgabat.
KUNA RTT News
Mongolian officials said on Monday that a tax dispute with
the mining and metals corporation Rio Tinto has been
resolved. Rio Tinto has been involved in the Oyu Tolgoi
copper mine as part of a $6.5 billion project, which will
produce more than 300,000 tons of copper concentrate per
year once finished. The dispute arose between Rio Tinto
and the Mongolian government regarding an outstanding
tax bill for $130 million.
Reuters Sydney Morning Herald
On Tuesday, British public relations firm Davidson Ryan
Dore published undated photographs of Gulnara Karimova
surrounded by guards. The firm claimed that the photos
show Karimova in house arrest, under which she has been
held for more than seven months for political reasons. The
photos surfaced after Ms. Karimova was charged by the
Uzbekistani prosecutor-general last week for having ties to
organized crime.
This week, a court in Kyrgyzstan postponed the trial of
former President Bakievs son, after reopening the trial on
September 15. Maksim Bakiev is charged by the Kyrgyz
Republic with serious financial misconduct and fraud
through illegal banking operations during his fathers
presidency. Maksim Bakiev fled Kyrgyzstan in 2010 and
currently resides in London. Maksim Bakiev was previously
sentenced in absentia to 25 years in prison.
Tazabek RFE/RL
Guardian New York Times
Afghan journalist Palwasha Tokhi was killed on Tuesday,
when she was stabbed by an unknown person outside her
home in Mazar-i-Sharif. She is now the seventh journalist to
have been killed in Afghanistan since the beginning of 2014,
making this the deadliest year for news media since the fall of
the Taliban. Tokhi had been working for Bayan Radio in
Mazar-i-Sharif. An investigation into her death is currently
underway.
Huffington Post New York Times
Vladimir Putin signed an agreement on Friday with
Kazakhstan that outlines military-technical cooperation
between the two countries. Under the agreement the
Movement of military goods from one partys territory to
another partys territory will be based on the extracts from
the lists issued by the parties competent authorities,
without taking respective decisions on the military products
supply and licensing, the statement said.

TengriNews.kz
RIA Novosti
of-cease-fire-deal?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=world
Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski appointed Ewa
Kopacz, Polands parliamentary speaker, as the countrys
new prime minister on Monday. Before becoming
parliamentary speaker, Kopacz had also served as health
minister and as a member of parliament from 2001 until
2007. Kopacz will take over as prime minister after
December 1, when current Prime Minister Donald Tusk will
become the new European Council president.

Global Post Novinite
Supreme Court Judge Daniela vecov was elected as the
new head of the Slovak Supreme Court by the Judicial
Council in second-round voting on Tuesday. vecov
defeated fellow Supreme Court Justice Daniel Hudk in the
election. The position has been vacant since June 22, when
tefan Harabins term ended. Harabin attempted to win re-
election but did not make it to the second round of voting.
Slovak Spectator Aktuality.sk
Romania and Bulgaria announced that they will begin a
joint air policing drill this month. Codenamed Blue Bridge
2014, the operation is intended to increase cooperation
between the Romanian and Bulgarian air forces and
improve their readiness to engage in joint operations. The
military exercise will occur in two phases, in September and
October, and will focus on responding to hijacked or
suspicious aircraft threatening strategic facilities near the
border between the two countries.
Radio.cz
Xinhuanet.com
ITAR-TASS Baltic Course
The Latvian government announced on Tuesday that it
would be selling its 75% share in Citadele Banka to an
American private equity firm. The ERBD will maintain its
25% share in the bank. The sale will likely be completed at
the end of the month for a currently undisclosed sum.
Citadele is the successor of Parex Bank, which was bailed
out by the Latvian government in 2008.
Bloomberg Reuters
Deutsche Welle ABC
Official Vilnius declared that Russia has detained a fishing
vessel that belongs to Lithuania. Vilnius says that the
detention took place while the vessel was operating in
international waters; however Moscow held the vessel based
on the alleged claim that it entered Russias territorial waters.
The vessel had 28 people on board, the nationalities of whom
remain unknown.

Delfi.lt
RFE/RL
Despite the latest developments in Ukraine, Tallinn thinks
there are no signs that will prevent the enforcement of the
long-awaited border treaty between Estonia and Russia. The
treaty that was signed earlier this year is expected to be
ratified by Russian and Estonian Parliaments. There has
been not a single signal from the Russian side that the
process may be suspended,- said Urmas Paet, Foreign
Minister of Estonia on Wednesday.

The Czech Red Cross, in cooperation with the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, is providing medical
aid for Ukraine. This accounts for the 7th delivery of the
humanitarian aid from the Czech Republic to Ukraine.
Earlier this week, the Czech Government authorized 50
million Czech crowns to be given to Ukraine for projects that
aim to tackle health issues and educational and social
facilities across the Ukraine.

The United States is concerned with the recent developments
concerning NGO raids in Hungary. Kate Byrnes, Deputy US
representative to the OSCE in Vienna made a statement that
the measures taken by the Hungarian Government
represent the accelerating intimidation of civil society in
Hungary.


Politics.hu EuroNews

Tsvetan Vassilev, the majority shareholder in Bulgarias
Corporate Commercial Bank (Corpbank), surrendered to
Serbian police on Wednesday. Bulgarian courts have 40
days to decide whether to extradite Vassilev to Bulgaria,
where he is wanted on charges of embezzlement. The
charges against Vassilev come in the wake of a run on
Corpbank in June that forced the Bulgarian Central Bank to
take over and shut down Corpbank.
Reuters Sofia Globe
Fifteen people were detained by authorities in Kosovo on
Wednesday as part of a raid intended to combat the
recruitment of ISIS fighters in Kosovo. Several imams were
among those detained, including Shefqet Krasniqi, the head
of Pristinas Grand Mosque and one of the leading clerics in
Kosovo. This follows a similar operation that took place last
month and resulted in the arrest of 40 people.
BBC Reuters
The head of Gazproms International Projects Department,
Alexander Siromyatin, was quoted this week as saying that
the construction of the Serbian stretch of the South Stream
pipeline will start as planned in October. Siromyatin
emphasized that the Serbian construction work will be
unaffected by the situation in Bulgaria, where South Stream
construction was indefinitely suspended until the project
fulfills EU Regulations.
ITAR-TASS ABC News
Croatian analysts predict that the country may take an
international bailout to help reform the Croatian economy.
Since 2000, lawmakers have shunned market reforms and
increased spending. Croatian officials still shy away from the
idea of outside aid, but analysts have increasingly called for
EU and IMF aid if Croatia begins to roll back public
spending. The Croatian economy is predicted to grow only .7
percent for 2015.
Dalje
Reuters
Albanian officials have contacted Interpol with concerns
about a possible attack on Pope Francis during his visit this
weekend. Officials point to the danger posed by militants
recently returned from Syria. The Vatican has issued a
statement, declaring that there is no cause for alarm and that
the Pope will not take extra security precautions for his trip
to Albania.

2 people are confirmed dead amid severe flooding in
northeast Slovenia and the wider Balkan region. A 30 year
old man and 17 year old girl were overtaken by floodwater
in a van. The flooding comes as the Krka and Sava rivers
overflow due to torrential rainfall. Neighboring Croatia has
also suffered under the flooding, with about 2,000 people
evacuating the central town of Karlovac.

ABC News Yahoo
ABC News
Huffington Post
Apa.az
Rtch.me
Focus B92
The Republic of Ilirida, an ethnically Albanian region in
Macedonia, was declared on Thursday by the Albanian
Party for Democratic Action in Macedonia. Party leader
Nevzat Halili has asked President Gruevski to begin
proceedings for the federalization of Macedonia,
threatening a referendum if Gruevski does not.
Prime Minister of Montenegro Milo Djukanovic met with
president of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliev in Baku. Aliev and
Djukanovi expressed their readiness for further development
of bilateral relations between the two countries in the fields
of energy, infrastructure and education. In Baku, Djukanovic
will attend the launch of the Southern Gas Corridor that will
connect Montenegro and Western Balkans to the Caspian
Energy.



Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller met with the president of
Republika Srspka, the Serbian political entity within Boznia
and Herzegovina, to discuss energy cooperation and the
South Stream project. Republika Srspka signed an agreement
to provide gas directly to the Serb entity, bypassing the
Bosnian state-owned importer BH-Gas. The deal is slated to
begin in the summer of 2015 and last until the completion of
South Stream construction.
Oil and Gas Eurasia Interfax Energy