Tag Archives: government

Azerbaijani President sacks long-serving Security Minister

OCT. 18/20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev sacked National Security Minister Eldar Mahmudov two days before police arrested seven other senior officials and accused them of abuse of office.

The move surprised analysts of Azerbaijan’s murky political scene as Mr Mahmudov had been considered a close ally of Mr Aliyev.

He had held the position as the powerful National Security Minister for 11 years and no reason was given for his dismissal. Mr Aliyev had handed him the position of National Security Minister within a year of taking over as president from his father.

Although Mr Mahmudov has not been arrested, the Azerbaijani Prosecutor-General opened criminal cases into his seven officials for abuse of office.

“Investigative operations have raised suspicions about a group of ministry officials abusing service powers, illegally intervening in the activities of entrepreneurs in violation of the law on entrepreneurship, and violating the judicially and legally protected interests of different individuals,” it said in a statement.

Human rights groups and opposition activists have previously accused Mr Aliyev of undermining his opponents by accusing them of corruption.

The arrests and the sacking of Mr Mahmudov, whether they are linked to corruption or not, add a degree of instability to Azerbaijan, already rocked by the imprisonment of journalists and opposition activists.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

SDK wins Kyrgyz election

OCT. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan released official results for its Oct. 4 parliamentary election that cemented the Social Democrat’s (SDK) grip on power. The SDK, the party of President Almazbek Atambayev, won 38 seats, up from 26 in 2010. Second was Respublika-Ata Jurt with 28 seats. The Kyrgyzstan party won 18 seats, Onuugu- Progress 13 seats, Bir Bol 12 seats and Ata-Meken 11 seats.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct.16 2015)

Comment: This was a successful election for Kyrgyz democracy

OCT. 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – On Oct. 4, Kyrgyzstan held parliamentary election marked by significant improvements in the country’s democratic development.

The elections have demonstrated the viability of Kyrgyzstan’s constitution adopted in 2010 that delegated more powers to the parliament and prevents the emergence of autocratic political power. Six political parties out of a total of 14 were able to pass the national and regional threshold, adding an important element of political plurality.

The elections are significant for three main reasons.

First, despite earlier skepticism, the Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan (SDPK), led by President Almazbek Atambayev gained only an estimated 38 seats out of total 120. This demonstrates that the president was unable to gain wide support despite his overwhelming influence over state media and the public sector.

Along with SDPK, the new parliament includes Respublika- Ata-Jurt bloc, Kyrgyzstan, Onuguu, Bir Bol and Ata-Meken parties.

Second, competing political parties tried to arrange their party lists to ensure both popularity and professionalism of their top members. As a result, the new parliament will include a greater number of powerful individuals better able to articulate their respective parties’ agendas. Greater professionalism in parliament can in turn boost the quality of political debates.

Finally, despite multiple cases of election fraud at voting booths and controversy surrounding a rushed collection of biometric data ahead of the elections, the electoral process was a progression towards greater transparency and accountability among political parties.

The government actively tried to eliminate fraud, while parties reported their campaign spending.

Televised debates featured representatives of competing parties who sought to distinguish themselves with creative policy solutions to pressing issues.

The new parliament will inevitably have a strong minority coalition either led by Respublika- Ata-Jurt block or will be composed of smaller parties aligning against SDPK.

But regardless of who will end up in the ruling coalition, the process of coalition formation is likely to be highly contentious and fraught with difficulties.

By Erica Marat, Assistant Professor at the College of International Security Affairs of the National Defense University, Washington DC

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

Kazakh CBank delays move

OCT. 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kazakh Central Bank will probably delay its high-profile move to Astana from Almaty because of the worsening financial crisis, Central Bank chief Kariat Kelimbetov said. The Central Bank is the last remaining major government institution based in Almaty. It was slated to move to Astana by 2017.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

Turkmen President reshuffles top officials

OCT. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan’s president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov reshuffled his top security officials, according to state media. Begench Gundogdiyev, minister of defence, was demoted to head of the navy. The head of the national security service, Yaylym Berdiyev was appointed as the new defence minister.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

Comment: Georgia needs to stop the political persecutions

OCT. 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The imprisonment of a former mayor of Tbilisi from the opposition United National Movement (UNM) has underscored fears that Georgia’s governing Georgian Dream (GD) is using the judiciary to settle scores.

Gigi Ugulava’s conviction came just after the Constitutional Court ruled that holding him 14 months in pre-trial detention was unconstitutional and set him free. Twenty-four hours later a court convicted him of using his position to give out hundreds of jobs to UNM loyalists and sentenced him to 4.5 years.

A former youth leader representing the “new guard” that brought Mikheil Saakashvilli to power after the Rose Revolution, Ugulava entered the mayor’s office before he turned 30. After the GD’s victory in parliamentary elections in 2012, he was forced from office in December 2013 amid accusations of misuse of funds.

The conviction of Ugulava is a harsh blow to the UNM in advance of the pivotal October 2016 parliamentary elections, a repeat of the 2012 contest that toppled Saakashvilli and eventually led to his leaving the country and his citizenship rather than face criminal charges.

Like a number of UNM officials, Saakashvilli is now plying his reformism for the new Western darling Ukraine, where he is now governor of Odessa.

Saakashvilli’s energetic reformism in Georgia produced massive overhauls in public administration and policing that are still considered among the best in the non-Baltic former Soviet Union.

But his centralization of power and demonisation of opponents, including through Ugulava’s position as head of the capital’s administration, eventually sparked the Georgian Dream backlash.

Georgia is grappling with the problem common across Eurasia of how to consolidate rule of law after a transition in government.

Uprooting corruption may well require prosecuting former officials, but it is hard to escape the sense that GD is repaying UNM its own repression in kind, rather than building a common polity where diverse parties can compete without fear of persecution if they lose or fall out with the ruling elite.

The cycle of accumulation, revolution, and persecution appears on track to continue which is bad news for Georgian democracy.

By NateSchekkan, programme director at Freedom House

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)

Turkmen President writes new book on plants

SEPT. 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen president Kuyrbanguly Berdymukhamedov is a man of many achievements. Not only is he a self- styled father figure for the Turkmen people but he is also a champion jockey and a leading intellectual.

Now, is appears, that he can add to this list the status of feted international botanist.

Official Turkmen media reported that at a book fair in Ashgabat, South Korean diplomats praised Mr Berdymukhamedov, a dentist by training, for producing a third volume of his book ‘Medical plants of Turkmenistan’.

Like the first two volumes of ‘Medical plants of Turkmenistan’ this book has already been translated into Korean and distributed to libraries around the country, South Korean diplomats were quoted as saying.

And the Turkmen media had more.

“Speakers at the presentation emphasised the importance of research work by the head of the Turkmen State into healing properties of plants,” it reported, adding that Mr Berdymukhamedov’s research had been translated dozens of times.

As well as the research, there may, of course be another reason for the South Korean interest in Mr Berdymukhamedov’s books. South Korean is an important investor in Turkmenistan’s economy.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)

Kazakhstan to cut in tax for oil producers

SEPT. 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kazakh government has said it is considering cutting taxes for oil producers to encourage them to raise output. Some energy companies operating in Kazakhstan, especially the smaller ones, have said they will not produce oil until prices recover. Kazakhstan has cut its projected oil production in 2015 by 1m tonnes to 79.5m tonnes.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)

Seagal flies into Azerbaijan to give President Aliyev a pep talk

SEPT. 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Steven Seagal, the Hollywood actor best known for his 1980s and 1990s martial arts movies, pitched up in Azerbaijan to meet President Ilham Aliyev for a chat and photo op.

His acting commitments have waned but the 63-year-old appears to have created a decent business giving pep talks to leaders of ex-Soviet states. His clients include President Vladimir Putin in Russia.

Now Mr Aliyev’ clearly felt he needed Mr Seagal’s help. Relations with Europe and the US have worsened over human rights and vote monitoring.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)

Georgia picks banking board

SEPT. 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The members of Georgia’s new Banking Supervisory Board are all close allies of former PM Bidzina Ivanishvili, drawing immediate allegations of cronyism. The Banking Supervisory Board replaces the Central Bank as the authority over commercial banks. The head of the board is Konstantine Sulamanidze, former CEO of Progress Bank in which Mr Ivanishvili owns a stake.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)