My apologies for being away from the blog for so long, but I was in Afghanistan for three weeks and just returned. I had been working as an observer during the recent parliamentary elections, and was sent by Democracy International, an NGO based in Bethesda, Maryland.
While Afghanistan is somewhat outside my normal baliwick, I can wholeheartedly recommend this piece in Foreign Policy magazine by journalist (and DI colleague) Ben Skinner, who wrote about our shared geographic area of responsibility, Bamyan Province. Ben’s angle is the role of women in Bamyan’s social and political landscape, a big part of what makes the province unique.
As for the Caucasus, recent news brings us right back to Afghanistan…
Four Georgian servicemen were killed in Afghanistan yesterday. The men were attached to the Georgian Army’s 31st infantry battalion, which deployed to Afghanistan in April of this year. The fatalilties were due to a mine explosion in Helmand, where the 31st is based, and included a colonel and three NCO’s, according to a statement released by the Georgian Defense Ministry early today.
Coincidentally, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen is visiting Georgia, and made a television appearance with President Saakashvili today in which he expressed his support for Georgia and offered condolences. Rasmussen also reiterated NATO’s support for eventual Georgian membership in the alliance, provided it “fulfils the necessary criteria,” whatever that means.
This is a grievous loss for Georgia, which has deployed more personnel per capita to Afghanistan than any other country, including the US. The 31st battalion has been operating in conjunction with US Marine Corps units in Helmand, and has roughly 950 soldiers in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, Armenian media report that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon supports the idea of withdrawing Armenian and Azeri snipers from the Nagono-Karabakh Line of Contact, although there is little or no reporting of this by the meek, compliant Azerbaijani press. The Secretary General is said to have endorsed the proposal during a meeting with Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian in New York earlier this week.
I am still waiting on confirmation of Ban’s endorsement from the UN Press Office. In July, Azerbaijani Defense Ministry spokesman Eldar Sabiroglu said, “It is impossible to solve the problem and change the situation of occupation by withdrawing the snipers from the contact line.”
Will post more in a day or two on other news from the Caucasus, including President Ilham Aliyev’s meeting in New York with Barack Obama.