Peter Church contributed to The Weekly Standard in 2005 and 2006, writing about geopolitical developments in Central and South Asia, the Caucasus, and the Middle East. His articles covered topics including the Afghan parliament, Azerbaijan, and Kurdish political dynamics.
SO GOES AN OLD KURDISH ADAGE. On a recent visit to Turkey's southeastern city of Van, a Kurdish businessman told me that, "America has just one friend in the Middle East and that is the Kurds. Kurdish people like America because of protecting Kurds in north Iraq. But if America fights Kurds, it…
IN NOVEMBER 2005, Azerbaijan held parliamentary elections. Voter participation was down 20 percent from the 2000 elections, and President Ilham Aliev's party won overwhelmingly in what was regarded by international observers as a questionable, if not fraudulent, election. The small but increasingly…
WHAT'S CLEAR about Afghanistan's parliamentary elections, which were held on September 18th, is that they will bring to Afghanistan a popularly-elected legislative body working under a constitution for the first time in its history. The new parliament should open for its first session sometime in…