Category Archives: Uncategorised

GM Uzbekistan to produce new model car

MAY 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Car manufacturer GM Uzbekistan will produce a new model of Chevrolet Aveo cars for both the domestic market and exports to Russia, state-owned Uzavtoprom said. GM Uzbekistan, 75% owned by Uzavtoprom and 25% owned by US- based GM, said production of the new model will cost around $100m and its Uzbek plant will manufacture 73,600 cars/year. GM Uzbekistan is an important part of the Uzbek economy as it is one of its biggest JVs outside oil and gas.

ENDS

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

Editorial: Georgia’s election

JUNE 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Perhaps with the Council of Europe’s criticism in mind, Georgia’s President Giorgi Margvelashvili sent a bill that would have weakened the Constitu- tional Court’s ability to temper the government back to Parliament.

Mr Margvelashvili has shown both courage and wisdom by sending this bill back. It was political meddling at its worst by the Georgian Dream coalition which had wanted to extend its control over the Constitutional Court, an independent body that is supposed to safeguard the country’s governing principles.

His action also gives another insight into the Georgian Dream coalition, only a few months before what is likely to be a hotly contested parliamentary election. PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili said both that he did not agree with the veto, but also that the Georgian Dream coalition MPs would not exercise their right to override the presidential decision in parliament.

The Georgian Dream coalition is internally divided and the President and the PM disagree on fundamental issues. The governing coalition looks to be in a weak state in the run up to the election.

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

Tajikistan silences opposition

DUSHANBE, JUNE 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Tajik authorities finally snuffed out the country’s only genuine opposition party, the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), after a court sentenced its top leaders to life in prison for plotting a coup last year.

It’s been a long-winded and very public end for the IRPT which had once laid claim to be an alternative to President Emomali Rakhmon and the Tajik elite.

Eight months after they were arrested, the Tajik Supreme Court imprisoned Saidumar Khusayni and Makhmadali Khait, two deputy leaders of the IRPT, for life for plotting a coup. Another dozen senior IRPT officials received sentences of between 14 and 28 years, including Khikmatullo Sayfullozoda, the editor of the now banned IRPT newspaper.

Zarafo Rakhmoni, the IRPT lawyer, was the only woman sent to prison. She received a two year jail sentence.

A Dushanbe-based analyst, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Conway Bulletin correspondent in Dushanbe that the verdicts were deliberately harsh and designed to send a strong message to other potential dissenters.

“Even those who are ideologically against the IRPT, were not happy with the verdict, because the verdict was fully politically motivated and lacked transparency,” he said.

“The authorities did not care if society or the international community think the verdict is harsh, inhuman, and falsified. It was a very open move to punish the main opposition figures, as well as to show who is the boss in the county.”

The IRPT’s leader, Mukhiddin Kabiri, fled into exile earlier last year. Several pro-government demonstrations were staged this year outside European embassies to try to pressure them to extradite Mr Kabiri.

And Mr Kabiri had a warning for the Tajik authorities. In an interview with Reuters before the verdict was announced he said the charges were trumped up and that banning the party would create more problems.

“What is happening in the country will play into the hands of radicals and more and more youths, having lost all trust in the government, will join the ranks of extremist groups,” he said.

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

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.

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(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.

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(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.

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(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.

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(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.

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