Robert Parsons

Also by Robert Parsons

• November 07, 2005

  Azerbaijan: International Observers Criticize Parliamentary Elections

  (RFE/RL) The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe have sharply criticized the way in which yesterday's parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan were conducted. Both have operated observation missions in Azerbaijan in the months before and during the election itself. While they said that voting had been generally calm, the election process had been marred by significant deficiencies in the count.

• November 06, 2005

  Azerbaijani Election Gauges Democratic Development

  Azerbaijan's parliamentary elections have been described as a make-or-break moment in the country's democratic development.

• November 04, 2005

  Media Still Weighted Against Opposition

  Nothing could have crystallized more clearly the critical role played by the media in Azerbaijan's parliamentary election campaign than the public confession on state television this week of a former minister that he and certain opposition leaders had been involved in a plot against the government. The opposition cried foul, but the damage had been done. The government has conceded the principle of free and equal airtime for party political broadcasts but its domination of the state media has led to accusations of pro-government bias.

• November 03, 2005

  Doubts Persist Ahead Of Vote

  With just days remaining to Azerbaijan's parliamentary elections on 6 November, international observers have been flying into the country to try and ensure that the poll is free and fair. But accusations of fraud and intimidation have been prevalent. The opposition accuses the government of President Ilham Aliyev, who was elected in controversial circumstances in October 2003, of trying to stack the new parliament with its supporters.

• November 02, 2005

  A Challenged Opposition

  Ignored and marginalized for the last 10 years, Azerbaijan's political opposition has regained a modicum of respectability in the run-up to the 6 November parliamentary elections.

• November 02, 2005

  Azerbaijan's Elections

  Azerbaijanis went to the polls yesterday in their first parliamentary elections in five years. The country has a weak record of fair elections -- something the international community is well aware of.

• October 26, 2005

  Iraq: People Vote For Constitution, But Remain Wary Of Future

  Ballots in Baghdad (epa) Iraqis have given the go-ahead to the country's new constitution in a referendum the UN says was conducted to the highest standard. To defeat the new project, "no" voters," who were predominantly Sunni Arabs, had to take two-thirds of the vote in at least three provinces. But they only won in two, paving the way for parliamentary elections in December. The question now, though, is whether the passage of the constitution will contribute to healing the country's wounds or further inflame them. Many Sunni leaders have called the referendum a farce that will destroy the unity of the state and place the country's oil wealth in the hands of the Shi'a majority.

• October 25, 2005

  EU: Means Sought To Tighten Defenses Against Bird Flu

  (file photo) (epa) The European Union today began procedures to ban the import of live exotic birds. Agriculture ministers meeting in Luxembourg announced they will seek approval from the bloc’s member states for taking action. The bird-flu virus is mainly spread by migrating birds, but the death in Great Britain of a parrot, which was found to be infected by the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, has raised the possibility that the import of exotic birds may also be spreading the virus. The European Commission also announced that it was banning the import of birds and bird meat from Croatia after the presence of avian flu in the country was confirmed by EU inspectors.

• October 25, 2005

  Shanghai Bloc Challenges U.S.

  Is it possible that a little-known alliance called the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) could challenge the might of the world's only superpower -- if only in the vast landlocked spaces of Central Asia? The SCO brings together China and Russia plus the four Central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan in a marriage of convenience that seems set on squeezing the United States out of the region. RFE/RL looks at the shifting balance of power in Central Asia and the strength of the Sino-Russian alliance in this second part of a five-part series on the battle for Central Asia.

• October 21, 2005

  Middle East: UN Inquiry Into Hariri Assassination Points Finger At Syria

  The scene after the bomb blast that killed former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on 14 February (AFP) A UN inquiry into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri says there is evidence of both Lebanese and Syrian involvement in his death. Hariri was killed on 14 February by a massive car bombing which, the report says, could only have been carried out by a group with extensive organization. The findings of the report, which are to be discussed by the UN Security Council next 25 October, are likely to further Syria's isolation in the Arab world and lead to increased pressure from the West.

• October 20, 2005

  China: Exit Rumsfeld, Enter Ivanov

  Washington is concerned about China's military expansion (epa) U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has left China after a three-day visit in which he expressed concern about Beijing's military buildup. Speaking today before his departure, Rumsfeld said China appears to be expanding its nuclear strike capability and said the move is raising doubts in the region about Beijing's intentions. No sooner had the U.S. defense secretary left, China was playing host to another important guest -- Igor Ivanov, secretary of Russia's National Security Council. On the agenda: strategic security cooperation between Russia and China.

• October 19, 2005

  Quliyev Arrest Highlights Interpol Role

  The international police-support group has been thrust into the unfamiliar world of Azerbaijani politics. Opposition leader and parliamentary hopeful Rasul Quliyev was detained en route to Baku when his name appeared on an Interpol fugitives list.

• October 17, 2005

  Azerbaijan: Opposition Leader Returning From Exile

  Rasul Quliyev (file photo) (Turan) A leading member of the Azerbaijani opposition, Rasul Quliyev, left London on a chartered flight on 17 October, intending to return to Azerbaijan. A former speaker of parliament, Quliyev has lived in exile in the United States since 1996 and is wanted in Azerbaijan on charges of embezzlement. But he denies any wrongdoing and says he intends to stand in parliamentary elections on 6 November.

• October 13, 2005

  Middle East: Syrian Interior Minister's Death Linked To Lebanon

  The Syrian authorities say they have launched an investigation into the circumstances of the death of Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan, who is believed to have shot himself yesterday. Kanaan was Syria's top security official in Lebanon for 20 years before returning to Syria in 2002. His death comes one week before the United Nations is to publish a report into the murder of Rafiq Hariri, the former prime minister of Lebanon, whose death many blame on Syria.

• October 11, 2005

  Balkans: Vukovar Massacre Trial Begins In The Hague

  People gather at a cemetery in Vukovar in August 2001 to commemorate Croatian victims of the 1991-95 war The trial has begun at the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague for the former Yugoslavia of three former Yugoslav army officers charged with a massacre in the Croatian town of Vukovar in 1991. Veselin Sljivancanin, Mile Mrksic, and Miroslav Radic deny the charges of murder, torture, and persecution. The siege of Vukovar was one of the key events in Croatia's 1991-95 war of independence. Prosecutors say that after the capture of Vukovar, the Yugoslav Army (JNA) handed over several hundred Croats to rebel Serbian forces. Of these, at least 264 were shot and buried in mass graves.

• October 06, 2005

  Iraq: U.K. Blames Iran For Attacks On British Soldiers

  British troops in Al-Basrah British Prime Minister Tony Blair has repeated British suspicions of Iran's involvement in the deaths of eight British soldiers killed in Iraq this year, a claim that Iran has strongly denied. Blair was speaking at a joint press conference today in London with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. Earlier, Britain accused Iran of responsibility for the deaths of the eight British soldiers killed in Iraq this year. A senior British official said members of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps had been supplying explosives technology to a Shi'ite group operating in southern Iraq. He also suggested Iran was cooperating with some Sunni groups in Iraq. Iran has denied all those charges. It insists it wants a stable Iraq, and has countered that Britain is the one fomenting instability in the country.

• September 30, 2005

  Azerbaijan: Preelection Tensions Mount

  With just five weeks remaining to Azerbaijan's parliamentary elections, fears of violence in the country are growing stronger. The opposition parties accuse the government of trying to prevent or marginalize their demonstrations and of filling the electoral commissions with government supporters. They've announced a hunger strike in protest and are planning to demonstrate this weekend in the center of the capital, Baku, in spite of a government ban. The presidential elections in 2003, condemned as seriously flawed by international observers, were marred by violent clashes.

• September 29, 2005

  Algeria: Will Referendum On Amnesty End Civil War?

  Algerians vote today in a referendum the government hopes will put an end to a 13-year-old civil war that has claimed 150,000 lives. They are being asked whether they approve of an amnesty for Islamic rebels who have already laid down their weapons and those who are prepared to do so now. Critics of the referendum say it fails to address the part the state played in the atrocities and disappearances that traumatized Algeria for so long.

• September 23, 2005

  Turkey: Court Bans Conference On Armenian Massacre

  The numbers of Armenians killed and how they died is extremely controversial in Turkey A Turkish court has banned a conference of academics and intellectuals on the massacre of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915. The conference was expected to challenge the official version of events surrounding the mass killings of Armenians. It is the second time the conference has had to be called off because of legal intervention. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has condemned the ruling, which comes just 10 days before Turkey is due to begin accession talks for membership in the European Union.

• September 22, 2005

  Ukraine: No Clear Winners From Government Crisis

  Yuriy Yekhanurov 22 September 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, has voted in favor of President Viktor Yushchenko's candidate for prime minister, Yuriy Yekhanurov.

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