Tag Archives: Armenia

South Caucasus-Iran relations worsen

FEB. 16 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Attacks against Israeli targets in Georgia, India and Thailand and an acrimonious row between Baku and Tehran have thrown a spotlight over the relationship between the South Caucasus and Iran.

The same day that Georgian security forces disarmed a car bomb in Tbilisi another exploded in Delhi, injuring an Israeli woman (Feb. 13). Israel has blamed Iran for both attacks and another in Bangkok the following day.

Three weeks earlier the authorities in Baku arrested two Iranians for conspiring to assassinate Israeli diplomats, although Iran denied the charges.

The South Caucasus has a complex, fluid relationship with Iran.

Over the past year, much to the irritation of the US, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia have strengthened ties with Iran. Gas deals have been made, railway and air links solidified, visa regulations waived and military delegations hosted. Private business and trade links have also surged.

But behind these strengthening connections relations often remain strained.

Azerbaijan has built up good links with Israel and Georgia’s main backer is the US. Both are Iran’s sworn enemy. Armenia has more cordial ties with Iran but it also needs to be flexible.

The South Caucasus countries have to deal with their powerful neighbour but they are also wary.

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(News report from Issue No. 77, published on Feb. 16 2012)

Opposition journalist arrested in Armenia

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FEB. 3 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Police in Yerevan arrested Hayk Gevorgyan, editor of the pro-opposition daily newspaper Haykakan Zhamanak, for allegedly knocking over a man while driving. Mr Gevorgian’s supporters say he has been set up by the police. He was granted bail on Feb. 6.

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(News report from Issue No. 76, published on Feb. 9 2012)

The limits of press freedom in Central Asia and the South Caucasus

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FEB. 1 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Media freedom rankings by the France-based NGO Reporters Without Borders reflect another tough year for local journalists in Central Asia and the South Caucasus.

Turkmenistan retains its standard position at the bottom of the 179-country list, just above North Korea and Eritrea, underlining its reputation as one of the world’s most repressive states. Twenty places above Turkmenistan is Uzbekistan, also in familiar territory.

But this year, between Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, sliding 10 places to 162nd is Azerbaijan.

In 2011, the authorities in Azerbaijan quashed anti-government protests and imprisoned journalists and bloggers. In November a prominent Azerbaijani journalist was also murdered in Baku.

Reporters Without Borders called Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev a “predator” of the media.

“Violence is back in a big way there, with threats, beatings and abduction of opposition journalists,” the report said.

The report was compiled between Dec. 1 2010 and Nov. 30 2011, before the Kazakh authorities’ crackdown on media after riots in the west of the country.

Even so, Kazakhstan comes in at 154th position and looks set to slip in the next rankings.

Armenia enjoys the most media freedom in the region. In 77th position it has regained ground lost after opposition protests and a state-of-emergency in 2008.

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(News report from Issue No. 75, published on Feb. 2 2012)

France bans Armenian genocide denial

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JAN. 23 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – France’s parliament voted to make the denial of genocide of ethnic Armenians by Ottoman Turks in eastern Turkey at the end of World War I a crime. Armenia’s foreign minister, Eduard Nalbandian, said “this day will be written in gold”. Turkey threatened France with reprisals.

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(News report from Issue No. 74, published on Jan. 26 2012)

World Bank forecasts growth for C.Asia and S.Caucasus

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JAN. 18 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – In its annual growth forecasts, the World Bank said weakening markets in the West would hit the developing world in 2012. For 2012 growth forecasts for Central Asia and the South Caucasus were: Tajikistan 6%, Kyrgyzstan 5.5%, Kazakhstan 5.5%, Uzbekistan 8%, Turkmenistan N/A, Azerbaijan 3.1%, Georgia 5%, Armenia 4.3%.

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(News report from Issue No. 73, published on Jan. 19 2012)

Armenia to compete at Azerbaijan’s Eurovision

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JAN. 17 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia will compete at the Eurovision Song Contest in Azerbaijan later this year, the Eurovision event organisers said. Armenia and Azerbaijan are still technically at war over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

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(News report from Issue No. 73, published on Jan. 19 2012)

US diplomat leaves Azerbaijan post

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JAN. 1 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – The United States has started 2012 without a permanent ambassador in Azerbaijan.

US senators have to approve new ambassadors and a pro-Armenia group blocked the permanent appointment of Matthew Bryza, an experienced south Caucasus diplomat, as President Barack Obama’s envoy in Baku.

Mr Bryza was able to serve one year as temporary ambassador in Azerbaijan but he left the country on Jan. 3 2012 after his supporters failed to persuade the pro-Armenia group to drop its objections.

At the heart of the issue is Nagorno-Karabakh, the mountainous slither of land wedged between Azerbaijan and Armenia which the countries fought over after the 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union.

A 1994 ceasefire holds but Azerbaijan and Armenia are still technically at war and although Mr Bryza specialised in the South Caucasus as US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Eurasian Affairs between 2005 and 2010, the pro-Armenia lobby say he and his Turkish wife are too close to Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan’s president, to be unbiased.

The international spotlight falls on Azerbaijan, and inevitably its human rights record, in 2012 when it hosts the Eurovision Song Contest and, with its increasing importance to European energy supplies and NATO logistics in Afghanistan, the US needs to decide on a permanent representative in Baku soon.

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(News report from Issue No. 71, published on Jan. 5 2012)

Armenia’s 2012 budget sees tax rises

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DEC. 11 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia will raise taxes to 25% from 20% for people earning over $5,250 per month in a 2012 budget which aims to reduce the national deficit and increase spending, local media reported. Detractors say tax increases will hit small and medium-sized businesses. Armenia holds elections in 2012.

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(News report from Issue No. 69, published on Dec. 14 2011)

Prominent Azerbaijani journalist murdered in Baku

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NOV. 30 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Rafiq Tagi, a 61-year-old widely respected Azerbaijani journalist, died of stab wounds in a Baku hospital on Nov. 23, four days after an unknown assailant attacked him.

He wrote articles critical of both the state and hard line Islam. Muslim extremists, though, are suspected of organising Tagi’s murder.

Whether or not the authorities or Muslim extremists are the main threat, for local journalists the former Soviet South Caucasus and Central Asia states are often both difficult and dangerous to report on.

In Turkmenistan police this year tracked down and imprisoned journalists who reported on an explosion at an arms depot. In Uzbekistan most local correspondents from international news agencies have been chased out and in Tajikistan the BBC’s reporter was jailed.

Southern Kyrgyzstan remains dangerous for ethnic Uzbek journalists and in Kazakhstan in October attackers armed with baseball bats and a gun beat a camera crew covering protests in the west of the country against the state oil company.

A 2010 press freedom index compiled by the US-based NGO Reporters Without Borders scored the countries of the South Caucasus and Central Asia poorly. Armenia, Georgia and Tajikistan ranked slightly better but Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan were in the bottom quarter of the index.

The report card for 2011 may well be even worse.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 67, published on Dec. 1 2011)

Russia boosts military support to Armenia

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NOV. 25 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Through the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) Russia agreed to boost military support to Armenia by increasing training and helping to modernise its army, media reported. The CSTO is a military pact involving many ex-Soviet states but not Azerbaijan, Armenia’s enemy. Russia has a large military base in Armenia.

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(News report from Issue No. 67, published on Dec. 1 2011)