Category Archives: Central Asia & South Caucasus News

Azerbaijan to pay compensation for ill-treatment of political prisoners

JUNE 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The European Court of Human Rights said the Azerbaijani government should pay €15,000 ($17,000) compensation to both Leyla and Arif Yunus, two former political prisoners, for providing “inadequate medical treatment”. The couple, freed in April to seek urgent medical care, had spent more than a year in prison on what rights activists called trumped up charges. The Yunuses have now sought asylum in the Netherlands.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)

Iran plans jet fuel sales to Armenia and Tajikistan

MAY 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — This year, Iran will increase exports of jet fuel to Armenia and Tajikistan, Iranian officials said. Last year, Iran exported jet fuel to Armenia. Although detailed numbers are not public, volumes amounted to a few thousand tonnes. In 2016, Iran added Tajikistan to the list of buyers, a sign of closer commercial relations with Dushanbe. Central Asia has been quick to try to pull Iran into its economic circle since sanctions were eased in February.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)

Kyrgyz power broker steps down

JUNE 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A political chameleon who has served in government under the last three Kyrgyz presidents, Melis Turganbayev has earned a reputation as one of Kyrgyzstan’s biggest power brokers.

Now though, in a departure from the usual script for Central Asian politics, the 54-year-old Mr Turganbayev has apparently voluntarily stepped down as interior minister, a post he had held since October 2014.

“Everybody has the right to resign,” he told the Kremlin-linked Sputnik news agency in an interview soon after he had quit.

“There are no political motives. I just wanted to relax as I haven’t had a holiday for six years.”

Burn out, then. This could be a first for politics in Central Asia where senior government officials pride themselves on their macho longevity.

And Mr Turganbayev’s explanation hasn’t convinced too many people. Instead, analysts have said that the notoriously ambitious Mr Turganbayev may have jumped ship so that he can distance himself from the government and run in a presidential election set for 2017 as “the saviour of the nation”.

Born in Bishkek, then called Frunze, on Feb. 19 1962, Mr Turganbayev had been a career policeman, rising steadily through the ranks.

In 2008, under President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, he was promoted to be deputy interior minister, a job he kept under President Roza Otunbayeva, who took office after a revolution in April 2010. Current President Almazbek Atambayev shifted him to head the Bishkek police force in November 2012 and then promoted him to be interior minister less than two years later.

Controversy, though, has stalked Mr Turganbayev. In 2008, while deputy minister of interior, he was accused of beating and attempting to rape a 25-year-old woman. The case flickered briefly before dropping out of sight.

In February this year, Turat Akimov, a critic of the government and the editor of the Money and Power weekly newspaper, accused Mr Turganbayev of ordering thugs to beat him up. Mr Turganbayev dismissed the claim as “gibberish”.

For now, though, Mr Turganbayev has elected to drop out of the limelight. Despite his assertions that he has no comeback plans, it’ll surely only be a matter of time before he is back at the centre of Kyrgyz politics.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)

S. Ossetian fighters detain Georgian man

JUNE 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Fighters linked to the Georgian breakaway region of South Ossetia detained a Georgian man for illegally crossing the border, said Georgia’s government. Akaki Misireli, 65, was sent to a detention centre in Tskhinvali, the capital of the de facto state that was the focus of a brief war between Russia and Georgia in 2008. South Ossetian forces released Mr Misireli later but the incident highlights just how sensitive the border around the breakaway region is.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)

Kyrgyz CBank cuts interest rates

MAY 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s Central Bank cut interest rates late by two percentage points to 6% because it said that inflation had significantly slowed, local media reported. Annualised inflation measured 0.2% at the end of April, an indication that economic activity has slowed in Kyrgyzstan. The Central Bank has also kept the som-US dollar exchange rate below 70/1 for two months.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)

Uzbek officials remove satellite dishes

MAY 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbek authorities have removed dozens of satellite dishes from homes on Prospekt Kosmonavtov, a main road in Tashkent which runs down to the official residence of Uzbek President Islam Karimov. The website El Tuz, based outside Uzbekistan, said the action was connected to a face-lift for the capital city ahead of the upcoming summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)

A group attacks vegan restaurant in Georgia

MAY 31 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A group of unidentified people threw pork sausages at customers dining at Kiwi, a vegan cafe in Tbilisi, an attack that the owners of the Georgian restaurant attributed to a neo-Nazi group. Police arrived to the scene after the brawl had ended and no arrests were made. Conservative Georgians are opposed to alternative lifestyles and progressive causes espoused by shops like Kiwi.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)

Kazakhstan cycling team wins the race

MAY 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Vincenzo Nibali, captain of the Kazakhstan-sponsored Astana Cycling Team, won the Giro d’Italia, one of the classic cycling races. Mr Nibali won after the race leader Giacomo Nizzolo was disqualified for irregular conduct. Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna sponsors and funds the Astana Team. Wearing the country’s light blue colours, Mr Nibali has also won the Tour de France in 2014 and another Giro in 2013.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)

RusHydro to invest in Armenia

JUNE 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The International Energy Corporation, a subsidiary of Russia’s state- owned electricity company RusHydro, said it would invest 18.9b dram (around $4m) into modernising the Yerevan-1 hydropower plant. Yerevan-1 is part of a seven-hydropower plant complex collectively called Sevan-Hrazdan Cascade. RusHydro owns a 90% stake in the company.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)

Editorial: Pro-government demonstrations in Kazakhstan

JUNE 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A pro-government protest demonstrating against anti-government protests is not a new practice in Central Asia.

This was the scenario in Kazakhstan this week and even if it might not be a new issue but it is still an insightful one. The authorities are getting increasingly worried that their opponents are gaining in strength.

The main targets of the pro-government protest this week were the US consulate in Almaty and expatriate Kazakhs in San Francisco and New York.

The pro-government protesters, well organised and clearly linked to the authorities, accused the US of stirring anti-government feelings, a standard complaint by former Soviet governments facing popular discontent. They also denounced the protesters in the US as traitors who didn’t understand how loved President Nursultan Nazarbayev was in Kazakhstan.

But rather than criticise the protesters in the US and the US consulate in Almaty, perhaps it would be more effective for the authorities in Kazakhstan to listen to their critics.

ENDS

(Editorial from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)