JULY 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Tajikistan jailed Jaloliddin Mahmudov, a senior official in the opposition Islamic Renaissance party, for illegally handling weapons, media reported. Opposition groups in Tajikistan have said that they are being unfairly targeted by the authorities.
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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)
JULY 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – YEREVAN — Armenia’s opposition accused President Serzh Sargsyan of trying to fiddle with the constitution so that he can run the country from parliament after he leaves the presidency in 2018.
Last week, Armenia’s Constitutional Court unveiled plans for a transition to a parliamentary democracy. Armenians are due to vote on the reforms in December.
The government has said a new system would strengthen democracy.
The opposition disagree.
“Serzh Sargsyan is carrying out the reform with one purpose only: to circumvent the constitutional ban on seeking a third term as president and thus extend his own power, Levon Zurabyan, the head of the ANC parliamentary faction,” said in an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Armenia’s constitution currently concentrates power with the president. It limits him or her to two terms of five years, a ceiling that Mr Sargsyan will hit in 2018.
David Harutyunyan, an MP from the ruling Republican Party, defended the constitutional changes.
“The basic idea of constitutional reform is to prepare the country for a peaceful change of power, he told journalists at a press conference.
“The current constitution with a semi-hybrid form of government has brought some countries to a dangerous situation. For Armenia, it may have even more damaging consequences.”
There is precedent for reducing the power of the president and switching to a parliamentary democracy in the Central Asia and South Caucasus region.
JULY 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s parliamentary speaker Davit Usupashvili travelled to NATO HQ in Brussels to urge for its membership of the Western military alliance to be sped up. “I told our partners very clearly, unequivocally that Georgia is ready for more,” he told Georgian media.
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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)
JULY 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Husband and wife Arif and Leyla Yunis will go on trial, accused of financial crimes, on July 27, a year after they were arrested, media reported. Both Arif and Leyla Yunis are high profile human rights defenders and their trial is almost certain to act as a flash-point.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Ever the populist, Turkmen leader Kurbanguly Berydmukhamedov increased salaries and pensions for people working in government funded companies by 10%, official media reported. In May, Mr Berdymukhamedov increased salaries of state officials by 9.5%. The Central Bank devalued the Turkmen manat by 30% on Jan. 1
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Vienna acquitted ex-Kazakh spy chief, Alnur Mussayev and presidential guard Vadim Koshlyak of murdering two Kazakh bankers in 2007. The case involved Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s former son-in-law Rakhat Aliyev who was found hanged in prison earlier this year.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A special commission on constitutional reforms started consultations to shift Armenia’s constitution towards a parliamentary democracy, media reported. Executive power, it is envisaged, would be held by the PM rather than by the president. A referendum is due at the end of 2015.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz police detained MP Hajimurat Korkmazov for extorting a bribe of $100,000 from the brother of Nariman Tuleyev, a jailed MP, the AKIpress agency reported. The case highlights corruption among officials in Kyrgyzstan.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan’s President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov sacked deputy PM Annamukhamed Gochyev “for serious drawbacks in his work” and several other government officials on allegations of corruption. Mr Berdymukhamedov rotates ministers to reduce their power.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov signed a decree to pardon over 1,300 prisoners on the eve of a religious holiday. Mr Berdymukhamedov regularly issues presidential amnesties to celebrate official holidays.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
