Azerbaijan’s parliamentary elections will be taking place this weekend. azerbaijan.neweurasia.net will have live reporting by Katy (who is in Baku), Marianna and Ben. To get the full roundup of events from last week, check Marianna’s latest update.

Nick over at uzbekistan.neweurasia.net posts about the plight of the Aral Sea and its implications for the autonomous republic of Karakalpakstan.

turkmenistan.neweurasia.net keeps up its great posting frequency and has new reports on: Yet another dismissal (this is becoming quite regular news), a Turkmen film screened at the Teheran International Youth Film Festival, and the reason for the dismissal in link #1…

Over at kyrgyzstan.neweurasia.net, Claire has posted a roundup of recent events some days ago. It includes pictures of recent rallies in Bishkek and has a wealth of information.

Ben on kazakhstan.neweurasia.net has further posts about the upcoming elections. In this post, he takes a criticial stance on a recent WaPo article, whereas here, he gives a short hint why the Kazakh political system will likely remain the same.

First of all, check the preliminary neweurasia site. Ollie has now installed a new CMS for the site that will go online in November. Quite a lot of things remain to do.

Quite a few things happening in the neweurasia blogosphere over the second half of the week:

uzbekistan.neweurasia.net
The leader of Sunshine Uzbekistan was arrested in Tashkent. Ali and Ben have the details.

Olesya gives sanctions against Uzbekistan a closer look. She says that the EU would only be true to its rhetorics if it imposed more sanctions on the Central Asian state. Nathan over at the Registan shows what falls under the current regulations.

turkmenistan.neweurasia.net
First off, welcome Peter to the team! He has started posting over last week’s Independence Day celebrations in Ashgabad. Moreover, he has a hilarious post about a recent visit to Ashgabad by Vladimir Zhirinovsky, enfant-terrible of Russia’s Duma, and provides an update on the Ukrainian-Turkmen gas row.

kyrgyzstan.neweurasia.net
Claire witnessed protests in the capital Bishkek and has photos. More of them are at her personal blog Mental Wanderlust.

kazakhstan.neweurasia.net
Ben posts about the political system in Kazakhstan. There is no change in sight: The parliament will remain weak and only an arena for possible successors of Nazarbayev. Who will it be?

Coming soon:
Check azerbaijan.neweurasia.net for the upcoming weekly update.

Wednesday morning, time for a quick blog roundup:

uzbekistan.neweurasia.net
Nick writes that the BBC is facing an increasingly hostile environment in Tashkent. Ali posts that the leader of the opposition movement ‘Sunshine Uzbekistan’ has been arrested. Follow up on the Registan and on the organisation’s blog.

kyrgyzstan.neweurasia.net
Claire posts pictures of a pro-Kulov rally on Bishkek’s main square. The heat is on in Kyrgyzstan, and the mounting pressure on the prominent Northern political could lead to a potential crisis.

turkmenistan.neweurasia.net
Rico posts on unusual discontent with a presidential decree: The Khalk Maslahaty (People’s Council) uniformly rejected the president’s decision to hold presidential elections in 2009. Apparently, that’s not consistent with prior legislation that appointed Nyazov for president-for-life.

armenia.neweurasia.net
Katy points us to a recent World Bank study casting light on brain-drain. She believes that this might not apply to Armenia, though.

kazakhstan.neweurasia.net
Ben has two posts over at the semi-reactivated Kazakh blog. One gives a brief roundup of news related to the upcoming presidential elections in December, the other discusses an outrageous construction project in Astana.

Claire at kyrgyzstan.neweurasia.net has a new roundup of events in Kyrgyzstan. The focus lies on the protests that were sparked off by supporters of the murdered deputy Tynchbek Akmatbaev.

Marianna over at azerbaijan.neweurasia.net has her newest election watch online. The much-anticipated return to Baku of the Democratic Party’s chairman, Rasul Guliyev, is discussed in great detail.

The new blog layout of our country blogs is taking shape over at uzbekistan.neweurasia.net. All country blogs will be adapted over the coming days. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know.

uzbekistan.neweurasia.net has been active over the last days. Nick informs the reader of a debate in the House of Commons about whether to ban an Uzbek Islamist group in the wake of recent anti-terror legislation.

Olesya picks up on Russia’s foreign secretary Sergei Lavrov’s visit to Tashkent, which could be seen as Moscow’s reaction to Condoleezza Rice’s latest visit to the region.

Rico over at turkmenistan.neweurasia.net also has details on Lavrov’s visit to Ashgabad earlier. There are also new housewarming parties in the Turkmen capital…

Keep your eyes peeled for Marianna’s Azerbaijan roundup to be published this weekend. The situation in Baku is increasingly becoming volatile in the run up to November’s elections.

Not too much activity on the neweurasia blogs as the week goes by. We are still recruiting bloggers, most ardently over at uzbekistan.neweurasia.net and kyrgyzstan.neweurasia.net

There is also a new call for bloggers on this site. If you’re interested or know people that might be, please assist us in getting the word out. The launch of the site has again been delayed, apologies for that. Work is still ongoing, though – and the new template looks hot – but that’s pretty much all I can say for now.

Now moving on to our blogs:

Claire over at kyrgyzstan.neweurasia.net has another roundup of events unfolding in Bishkek. The main headlines this week are related to U.S. Foreign Secretary Rice’s visit to the region.

uzbekistan.neweurasia.net welcomes two new bloggers to reinforce Olesya. A warm welcome goes out to Ali, who has been posting twice over the last two days, and Nick, who will be joining force soon.

Ali’s posts include a reflection on Andijon, an event that has placed Uzbekistan firmly in the West’s awareness-spectrum.

Although there is quite a sleepy athmosphere over at the other country blogs, there is stuff coming up: With Kazakhstan’s election drawing closer, the blog will feature an ongoing series on December’s voting. Also, we’re about to recruit local contributors for the same blog. So, stay tuned!

A couple of new posts from around our blogs:

Claire at kyrgyzstan.neweurasia.net has posted a comprehensive news roundup, covering the main stories in Kyrgyzstan these days. For all of you that need a little familiarisation with political events in the country, this is a must-read.

Olesya at uzbekistan.neweurasia.net reports on gas shortages that seem to paralyse the Uzbek streets. However, Ali has another impression in the comments. Have your say.

Speaking of gas, Rico over at turkmenistan.neweurasia.net says that the Ukraine is not paying the amount of money it owes the Turkmen government.

Marianna has her latest Azerbaijan Election Watch online. In focus this time are continuing protests in Baku – protests that increasingly turned violent. Marianna has also a discussion going in the comments section.

Olesya over at uzbekistan.neweurasia.net has posted on Uzbek-Russian relations. It seems that amidst EU sanctions and increasingly harsh rhetorics between the West and Uzbekistan, Russia is now becoming the country’s strategic ally.

Rico of turkmenistan.neweurasia.net has put up two posts. The first one discusses recent dismissals due to the poor cotton harvest, a mass prisoners’ pardoning (some 65% percent of the prison population was sent home), as well as the Earthquake commemoration.

Olesya over at uzbekistan.neweurasia.net has commenced posting, putting up two entries related to youth and education in Uzbekistan. The first discusses new regulations keeping students away from conferences that are co-sponsored by international organisations. The other post points us at the latest UN’s World Youth Report and informs about the Uzbek government’s practice of sending students to work in the cotton fields – taken if they can’t pay the bribe to evade the “service to the Motherland”.

Claire over at kyrgyzstan.neweurasia.net posted her opening and calls for interested co-bloggers. You can contact Claire using information provided here.

Rico has posted his newest entry on turkmenistan.neweurasia.net, where he discusses the busy agenda of President-for-life Turkmenbashi. There is now a new anti-terrorist centre in Ashgabad.

Finally, Joel has a new post on georgia.neweurasia.net analysing the fall-out of a mortar incident last week in South Ossetia. Also, some people in Moscow seem to have gotten used to the fact of a Georgia without South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Welcome to the neweurasia blog homebase. While we’re still busy setting up our nascent project (mostly technical work), there is already activity on many of our country blogs

Turkmenistan:
Rico over at http://turkmenistan.neweurasia.net has commenced posting last week. His two posts shed light on a recent dismissal from President Nyazov’s (or Turkmenbashi) cabinet and the state of the Turkmen gas production.

Kazakhstan
Joel and I have started working on this country blog yesterday. The posts have so far covered recent attacks on independent press as well as election-related news. Kazakhstan holds a presidential ballot in December.

Georgia
Joel has posted a long entry on mid-term elections that showed a victory for the ruling coalition as a result. The other two posts cover news on Georgia’s territorial integrity.

Azerbaijan
Marianna continues her excellent coverage of events heating up in the run-up to the elections in November. There were rallies recently in Baku and a TV channel installed for political education is already blasted for its pro-government bias. Nathan from the Registan has a post on tensions in Azerbaijan here.

On a more technical note, please be advised that this blog’s and all country blogs’ layout will considerably change over the coming days. Also, the Uzbek and Kyrgyz versions should commence posting really soon. If you are interested in joining our editorial crew, please do get in touch with me at ben(at)thinking-east.net