Turkmenistan: Former Soviet Republic

Part 1 of 2

PEOPLE AND HISTORY

Flag of the Turkmenistan Soviet
Socialist Republic

The majority of Turkmenistan's citizens are ethnic Turkmen; other ethnic groups include Russian, Uzbek, and Kazakh. Turkmen is the official language of Turkmenistan, though Russian still is widely spoken as a "language of inter-ethnic communication" (per the 1992 constitution). Education is universal and mandatory through the secondary level, the total duration of which is 10 years.

 

The territory of Turkmenistan has been populated since ancient times, as armies from one empire to another decamped on their way to more prosperous territories. Tribes of horse-breeding Turkmen drifted into the territory of Turkmenistan, possibly from the Altay Mountains, and grazed along the outskirts of the Karakum Desert into Persia, Syria, and Anatolia.

 

Alexander the Great conquered the territory in the 4th century B.C. on his way to India. One hundred fifty years later the Parthian Kingdom took control of Turkmenistan, establishing its capital in Nisa, an area now located in the suburbs of the modern-day capital of Ashgabat. In the 7th century A.D. Arabs conquered this region, bringing with them the Islamic religion and incorporating the Turkmen into Middle Eastern culture. It was around this time that the famous "Silk Road" was established as a major trading route between Asia and Europe.

 

In the middle of the 11th century, the powerful Turks of the Seljuk Empire concentrated their strength in the territory of Turkmenistan in an attempt to expand into Afghanistan. The empire broke down in the second half of the 12th century, and the Turkmen lost their independence when Genghis Khan took control of the eastern Caspian Sea region on his march west. For the next 7 centuries, the Turkmen people lived under various empires and fought constant intertribal wars.

 

From the 16th century on, Turkmen raiders on horseback preyed on passing caravans, pillaging and taking prisoners for the slave trade. In order to consolidate the Tsarist Empire in Central Asia, and upon the pretext of freeing Russian citizens from slavery, Russia sent forces to Turkmenistan, and in 1881 fighting climaxed with the massacre of 7,000 Turkmen at the desert fortress of Gokdepe, near modern Ashgabat; another 8,000 were killed trying to flee across the desert. By 1894 imperial Russia had taken control of Turkmenistan. The October Revolution of 1917 in Russia and subsequent political unrest led to the declaration of the Turkmen Republic as one of the 15 republics of the Soviet Union in 1924. At this time, the modern borders of Turkmenistan were formed.

 

Following the end of the Cold War and the breakup of the Soviet Union, Turkmenistan declared its independence on October 27, 1991. Saparmyrat Niyazov became the first president of the new republic and was "president for life" until his death in 2006.

Special Representative for North Korea Policy Glyn Davies' Travel to Russia, January 31 - February 3, 2012

Office of the Spokesperson

Washington, DC

January 27, 2012

 

Special Representative for North Korea Policy Glyn Davies will travel to Russia January 31 - February 3, to deepen cooperation and share perspectives on North Korea.

 

Special Representative Davies will arrive in Moscow on January 31. While there, he will meet with senior Russian officials, including Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov and Ambassador-at-Large for Six-Party Talks Grigoriy Logvinov.

 

Special Envoy for Six-Party Talks Clifford Hart will accompany Special Representative Davies on this trip.

Bauer and Lenin: The Problem of Economic Calculation

By Ludwig von Mises (written in 1920)

 

Since recent events helped socialist parties to obtain power in Russia, Hungary, Germany and Austria, and have thus made the execution of a socialist nationalization program a topical issue, Marxist writers have themselves begun to deal more closely with the problems of the regulation of the socialist commonwealth. But even now they still cautiously avoid the crucial question, leaving it to be tackled by the despised "Utopians." They themselves prefer to confine their attention to what is to be done in the immediate future; they are forever drawing up programs of the path to Socialism and not of Socialism itself. The only possible conclusion from all these writings is that they are not even conscious of the larger problem of economic calculation in a socialist society.

 

To Otto Bauer the nationalization of the banks appears the final and decisive step in the carrying through of the socialist nationalization program. If all banks are nationalized and amalgamated into a single central bank, then its administrative board becomes

 

“the supreme economic authority, the chief administrative organ of the whole economy. Only by nationalization of the banks does society obtain the power to regulate its labor according to a plan, and to distribute its resources rationally among the various branches of production, so as to adapt them to the nation's needs.”

 

Bauer is not discussing the monetary arrangements which will prevail in the socialist commonwealth after the completion of the nationalization of the banks. Like other Marxists he is trying to show how simply and obviously the future socialist order of society will evolve from the conditions prevailing in a developed capitalist economy. "It suffices to transfer to the nation's representatives the power now exercised by bank shareholders through the Administrative Boards they elect, "in order to socialize the banks and thus to lay the last brick on the edifice of socialism. Bauer leaves his readers completely ignorant of the fact that the nature of the banks is entirely changed in the process of nationalization and amalgamation into one central bank. Once the banks merge into a single bank, their essence is wholly transformed; they are then in a position to issue credit without any limitation. In this fashion the monetary system as we know it today disappears of itself.

 

When in addition the single central bank is nationalized in a society, which is otherwise already completely socialized, market dealings disappear and all exchange transactions are abolished. At the same time the Bank ceases to be a bank, its specific functions are extinguished, for there is no longer any place for it in such a society.

 

This is excerpted from Economic Planning in the Socialist Commonwealth.  Read or download the entire book at the AntiMarxists Internet Archive e-library.

 

Image and book courtesy of the Ludwig von Mises Institute

Russia/North Korea: Joint Naval Exercises in 2012

Office of the Spokesperson (State Department)

Washington, DC

Question Taken at the September 14, 2011 Daily Press Briefing

Question: What is your reaction to Russia’s announcement that it will hold joint naval exercises with North Korea in 2012?

Answer: We are aware from press reports that Russia and North Korea have announced their intention to hold joint naval exercises next year.

We refer you to the Russian government for details of what those exercises might entail.

Any engagement with the North Koreans should be conducted in a way that does not detract from the international community’s clear message of concern about the North’s weapons programs, and the necessity for Pyongyang to do what is necessary to return to the Six-Party talks.

Note: Wow… what a big surprise (NOT)!

Russia and the West: Moving the Reset Forward

By Rose Gottemoeller

Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and ComplianceRemarks at the Atlantic Council

Washington, DC

September 9, 2011

As prepared

Thank you for inviting me to speak here today. It is a pleasure to be here and to be part of this distinguished panel. All of you have made and continue to make such valuable contributions to the U.S. - Russia discourse, so I look forward to an interesting discussion.

Actually, Rick and I were on a panel together almost a year ago to the day and at that point, we were still in the process of getting New START through the Senate, so I am very happy to be here talking about the next steps.

New START Treaty Implementation

The New START Treaty implementation is going very well. It’s been a bright spot in the U.S.-Russian relationship, and we see it continuing to be an area of positive cooperation.

So far, the process of Treaty implementation has been very pragmatic, business-like, and positive – a continuation of the working relationship we established during the negotiations in Geneva.

Negotiators worked very hard to find innovative new mechanisms to aid in the verification of this Treaty and the results of that work are already evident. The regime is simpler to implement than the original START Treaty and it lessens disruptions to the day-to-day operations of both sides’ strategic forces, while allowing for effective verification of the Treaty.

On-site inspections are underway and, as of today, the U.S. has conducted nine inspections in Russia and Russia has conducted eight inspections in the U.S.

We have also just exchanged our 1,300th notification between the United States and the Russian Federation under the New START Treaty. These notifications help to track movements and changes in the status of systems.

The New START Treaty data exchanges are providing us with a very detailed picture of Russian strategic forces and the inspections will give us crucial opportunities to confirm the validity of that data. Of course, the Treaty’s verification regime is backed up by our own National Technical Means: our satellites and other monitoring platforms.

Our experience so far is demonstrating that the New START Treaty’s verification regime works, and is setting an important precedent for future agreements.

Now let’s look to the next steps.

Next Steps in U.S.-Russian Reductions

The United States has made it clear that we are committed to continuing a step-by-step process to reduce the overall number of nuclear weapons, including the pursuit of a future agreement with Russia for broad reductions in all categories of nuclear weapons – strategic, non-strategic, deployed and non-deployed. The President communicated this continued commitment in Prague when he signed the New START Treaty in April 2010.

While we still have much homework to do, we can begin talking with Russia about some big concepts, important ideas and the definitions that go with them. We are not ready for the negotiating table, but we are ready for conversation.

In addition to starting the conceptual conversation, we would also like to increase transparency on a reciprocal basis with Russia. We are in the process of thinking through the types of transparency measures that might be helpful and how they could be implemented.

We will consult with our NATO Allies on the development of transparency initiatives, as well as the next steps more broadly. Addressing non-strategic nuclear weapons will require close coordination, as NATO reviews its overall deterrence and defense posture, including its nuclear posture.

We have a lot of very complicated issues to consider, so the more creative and innovative ideas we have to work with, the better off we will be.

Missile Defense

With regard to missile defense, cooperation with Russia is a Presidential priority, as it has been for several previous U.S. Administrations. We have been clear that the United States cannot accept limitations or restrictions on the development or deployment of U.S. missile defenses. We do believe, however, that missile defense cooperation with Russia will strengthen our bilateral and NATO-Russia relationships and could enhance NATO’s missile defense system.

Persistent misperceptions about the capabilities of the proposed NATO system—specifically that the system would target Russian ICBMs or undermine Russia’s strategic deterrent—are unfounded. We have worked at the highest levels of the United States Government to be transparent about our missile defense plans and capabilities and to explain that our planned missile defense programs do not threaten Russia or its security.

Successful missile defense cooperation would provide concrete benefits to Russia, our NATO Allies, and the United States – and will strengthen, not weaken – strategic stability over the long term.

Conventional Forces in Europe

Even as we think about further cooperation on nuclear reductions and missile defense cooperation, we need to continue efforts to revitalize conventional arms control in Europe. Our conventional agreements play a vital role in contributing to military and political stability across the European continent.

The United States values the OSCE Vienna Document for its contribution to European security, but this set of confidence- and security-building measures is not a substitute for the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (or CFE) Treaty with its system of verifiable equipment limits, information exchange, and verification. These regimes are complementary, not interchangeable. As we saw several years ago when we attempted to “harmonize” the regimes, there is no simple way to adjust the provisions of the Vienna Document to incorporate all the elements of the CFE Treaty.

That is why, beginning in April 2010, the United States led renewed and intensified efforts among the 30 CFE States Parties, plus the 6 non-CFE NATO Allies, to try to break the impasse that has prevented full implementation of the Treaty.

Considerable progress was made this past year in narrowing differences, but more work remains to close gaps on the most difficult issues if we are to overcome the current impasse. The United States and our Allies stand ready to return to the negotiating table whenever we have a signal that real progress can be made on the remaining issues.

Conclusion

With that, I’ll stop, but I look forward to the remarks of the panelists and your questions. Thank you.

NOTE: With the exception of the cooling period following the Russian invasion of the Republic of Georgia, a former breakaway Soviet state, relations have greatly warmed between the United States and Russia.

Victory parade photo is in the public domain. S-300 launxher photo is the property of "pilgrims74 (Anton)" and is used via Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license. Both images wre obtained from Wikimedia Commons.

GEORGIA: People and History

Georgia's recorded history dates back more than 2,500 years. Georgian, a South Caucasian (or "Kartvelian") language, unrelated to any outside the immediate region, is one of the oldest living languages in the world and has its own distinct alphabet. Located in the picturesque Mtkvari River valley, Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi, is more than 1,550 years old. In the early 4th century, Georgia became the second nation in the world to officially adopt Christianity. Georgia has historically been situated on the margins of great empires, and Georgians have lived together in a unified state for only a fraction of their existence as a people. Since at least the 1st century B.C. through the 18th century, much of Georgia's territory was fought over by Persian, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Mongol, and Turkish armies. The zenith of Georgia's power as an independent kingdom came in the 11th and 12th centuries, during the reigns of King David the Builder and Queen Tamar, who rank among the most celebrated of all Georgian rulers.

In 1783, the king of Kartli (in eastern Georgia) signed the Treaty of Georgievsk with the Russians, by which Russia agreed to take the kingdom as its protectorate. In 1801, the Russian empire began the piecemeal process of unifying and annexing Georgian territory, and for most of the next 2 centuries (1801-1991) Georgia was ruled from St. Petersburg or Moscow. Exposed to modern European ideas of nationalism under Russian tutelage, Georgians, like the influential writer Ilya Chavchavadze, began calling for greater Georgian independence.

Red Army in Tbilisi, 1921

The independent Republic of Georgia was established on May 26, 1918, in the wake of the Russian Revolution. Pro-Menshevik president Noe Zhordania and a social-democratic government led the country until March 1921, when it was occupied by the Bolshevik Red Army. Georgia became a Soviet Socialist Republic the following year. Several of the Soviet Union's most well-known leaders in the 1920s and 1930s were Georgian, such as Joseph Stalin, Sergo Orjonikidze, and Lavrenti Beria, the head of Stalin’s secret police. During the Soviet period, Georgia was one of the wealthiest and most privileged republics, and its Black Sea coastline was a popular holiday destination for the Soviet elite. On April 9, 1991, shortly before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Supreme Council of the Republic of Georgia declared independence from the U.S.S.R.

Georgian soldiers charge against an
Ossetian rebel position, 2008.

Like other former Soviet Republics, Georgia’s newly declared independence was followed by ethnic and civil strife. Secessionists took control of parts of South Ossetia and most of Abkhazia prior to cease-fire agreements brokered in 1992 and 1994, respectively. Georgia began to stabilize in 1995. However, the separatist conflicts in Georgia's regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia remain unresolved. Periodic flare-ups in tension and violence culminated in a 5-day war in August 2008 between Georgia and Russia. French President Nicolas Sarkozy negotiated a cease-fire between Presidents Mikheil Saakashvili and Dmitriy Medvedev on August 12, 2008, which remains in effect, although Russia has not fulfilled some of its cease-fire commitments, including withdrawal of its forces to pre-war positions. As part of the Saakashvili-Medvedev cease-fire agreement, the European Union established the EU Monitoring Mission (EUMM), which patrols the undisputed Georgian side of the administrative boundary lines with Abkhazia and South Ossetia but does not have access into those regions of Georgia. The cease-fire also called for international peace talks on the situation, which have taken place regularly in Geneva since October 2008 among the EU, United Nations (UN), Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Georgia, Russia, and the United States, with the participation of de facto representatives from Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

In August 2008, Russia recognized the independence of both Abkhazia and South Ossetia. As of August 2011, only three other countries had recognized the independence of the two territories. All other countries, including the United States, have confirmed their continuing support for Georgia’s political sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Painting and Red Army photo in the public domain. Georgian soldier photo by Jonathan Alpeyrie via

Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 Licence. All images obtained from Wikimedia Commons.