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Armenia charges its second and third presidents in one case
Armenia's Anti-Corruption Committee detained six people early on 25 August, second president Robert Kocharyan and his son Sedrak among them. The prosecutor had opened public criminal prosecution against Kocharyan on nine counts the day before, and his lawyer confirmed on Tuesday that the charge had been presented. By mid-afternoon the committee said it had brought a charge in the same case against Serzh Sargsyan, the country's third president.
Georgia's jailed ex-premier gets a new charge priced at 11 to 15 years
Prosecutors charged Irakli Garibashvili on Monday with taking a 750,000 lari bribe, about $290,000, over classified military-hospital procurement during his premiership. Four days earlier he wrote from prison that his father was being threatened with arrest.
Kyrgyzstan gives itself until Friday to move 11,900 medical students
The health ministry says 10,100 university students and 1,800 college students must transfer out of closed medical schools by 28 August, with online classes starting 2 September. How many have actually moved, the ministry is not yet saying.
Anti-corruption officers reach the Kocharyans before parliament resumes
Armenia's Anti-Corruption Committee searched addresses of Robert Kocharyan and his family on Tuesday morning and took the former president to its offices, a day after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told his son from the parliament floor that the family would return its wealth “piece by piece”. The committee has not named the case.
Pashinyan asks parliament to found the Fourth Republic
Nikol Pashinyan presented the 2026-2031 government programme to the National Assembly on Monday as a change of state: "the Republic of Armenia is transitioning to the historical phase we call the Fourth Republic", built to deliver peace, freedom and security inside 29,743 square kilometres.
Five parties are in, and the observers split over the count
Kazakhstan's election commission gave the Kurultai vote its first official numbers on Monday: Adilet at 71.17%, five parties past the 5% bar, turnout trimmed overnight to 74.08%. By evening the OSCE's mission had assessed more than a third of the counts it watched negatively, while the CIS, SCO and Turkic missions cleared the vote in full.
Avaza pins three summits to three October days
Turkmenistan's government site lists the dates of the autumn in Avaza: Caspian environment ministers on 7 October, the Consultative Meeting of Central Asian heads of state with Azerbaijan on 8 October, and a session of the CIS Council of Heads of State on 9 October.
Ten days before the guests, Bishkek audits the preparations
The city hosting the SCO summit has ordered a check of what the preparations cost. At Thursday's municipal collegium, mayor Aibek Dzhunushaliev's departments were told to verify expenditure on the summit and the World Nomad Games and to inform law enforcement "in the established manner".
Georgia's jailed ex-premier says the pressure now reaches his father
Irakli Gharibashvili, 8 months in custody, has sent a third statement out of prison. In a letter passed through an intermediary, netgazeti reports, he describes pressure to give evidence and a threat of arrest hanging over his 65-year-old father.
Ashgabat opens its hosting season with a Tajik signature
Serdar Berdimuhamedov received Tajik foreign minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin on Thursday, and the two foreign ministries signed a cooperation program for 2027 and 2028. The reception is advance work for an autumn in which Avaza hosts two summits.
Armenia's cabinet approves a programme for the Fourth Republic
Armenia's government adopted its 2026 to 2031 programme on Thursday and cleared it for parliament, turning this week's agenda item into a five-year contract that reaches from the Baku peace file into the affairs of the Armenian Church.
Kazakhstan's first Kurultai campaign ends with 59,000 questions
Wednesday night's television debates closed the argument phase of Kazakhstan's first elections to the Kurultai, the 145-seat single chamber replacing the Senate and the Mazhilis. Two campaign days remain; the country votes on Sunday.
Baku's wanted list reaches into a Moscow ministry
Aleksey Chadayev, an adviser to Russia's transport minister, announced his resignation late Tuesday after Azerbaijan's Prosecutor General's Office charged him and 2 media figures over summer livestreams and put them on a wanted list. Russia's foreign ministry, for its part, has stepped back from the commentators: their views, it says, in no way reflect Moscow's position.
Kazakhstan’s foreign vote loses 3 stations before Sunday
Polling stations in Ukraine, Iran and Ethiopia will not open for the 23 August Kurultai election, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday, as ballots go out to 70 stations abroad and the campaign closes tonight on television.
Baku hands Moscow’s envoy a list of 3 broadcasts
Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry summoned Russian ambassador Mikhail Yevdokimov on Tuesday and lodged what it called a firm protest over “provocative, insulting and threatening statements” about Azerbaijan’s state, people and leadership in Russian media.
Washington's transshipment map reaches the region, and Tbilisi demands facts
A White House report on Chinese tariff evasion places Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in one category of small transit economies, and on Tuesday Georgia's prime minister answered it: show a fact.
Seven leaders draw lots for the last word before Saturday
Kazakhstan's seven party leaders draw lots Tuesday morning, live on 24KZ, for the speaking order in Wednesday's final televised debate, the last set piece of the campaign before Saturday's Kurultai election.
Armenia changes its military police chief while Delhi's defence secretary is in town
President Vahagn Khachaturyan appointed Major General Aram Hovhannisyan chief of the military police on Monday, on Nikol Pashinyan's recommendation, the second security appointment inside a week. The same day, the general staffs of Armenia and India exchanged a new cooperation framework.
In Chon-Gara the border swap becomes citizenship paperwork
The Uzbek and Kyrgyz interior ministries met in Kadamjai on Monday and built the machinery for moving people, property and citizenship across the territories the two states are exchanging. In Chon-Gara, a village now under Kyrgyz jurisdiction, registration has already begun.
Pashinyan answers Baku on Metsamor and replaces his Security Council secretary
Armenia’s prime minister broke a day and a half of silence to answer Ilham Aliyev point by point without naming him, and in the same week replaced his Security Council secretary of eight years, the man reported to have run the quiet channel to Baku.