APRIL 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan said that he would not stand for a third consecutive term. His announcement comes just as his government are at a low ebb. Mr Sargsyan is facing low opinion poll ratings and had to appoint a new PM after his ally of six years. Tigran Sargsyan resigned this month.
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(News report from Issue No. 180, published on April 16 2014)
APRIL 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — With the carrot of closer EU ties dangling before it, the Georgian government introduced a long delayed anti-discrimination bill to parliament.
The bill, whose passage is necessary to conclude a visa-free travel deal with the EU, is meant to provide protection against discrimination on the grounds of ethnicity, colour, gender, religion and sexual orientation. In highly conservative, macho Georgia, discrimination still persists.
A first draft, prepared by the Justice Ministry together with civil society groups, was ready in January and it had envisaged financial penalties for state and private sector institutions that broke the law.
After consultation with various lawmaker, though, the new draft ditched these provisions.
Human Rights activist Tamta Mikeladze, who helped draft the original version, is disappointed. She said the Georgian Orthodox Church lobbied the government to water down the original version.
“I can’t say whether this will be enough for the EU to grant visa-free travel, but I can tell you that it’s not enough to protect minorities from discrimination,” she said.
The government wants to pursue EU integration and pander to the demands of the Church, a powerful group, which contains many anti-European elements. One of its major fears is that it will be forced to accept same-sex marriages.
It remains to be seen if this anti-discrimination bill will be enough to either persuade the EU that Georgia deserves visa-free travel and if it will improve the plight of minorities in the country.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 180, published on April 16 2014)
APRIL 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s parliament approved extending the powers of the PM, media reported, a move that some analysts have said shows President Islam Karimov’s influence is waning. It is still unclear what powers have been transferred to the PM although Radio Free Europe said that parliament would control the cabinet’s activities.
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(News report from Issue No. 180, published on April 16 2014)
APRIL 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia is considering launching a state-run development bank to support large-scale infrastructure projects, media reported. Former Georgian PM and head of the Georgian Dream coalition Bidzina Ivanishvili first voiced the idea of a Georgian Development Bank.
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(News report from Issue No. 180, published on April 16 2014)
APRIL 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s parliament officially voted in Djoomart Otorbayev as the new PM. Mr Otorbayev is a former World Bank official who served as deputy PM in the previous government.
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(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
APRIL 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The spectre of Kazakh police shooting dead oil workers during a strike in 2011 haunts trade union members who are now too afraid of the security forces to launch long-term industrial action.
The issue of workers’ rights in Kazakhstan surged into the public consciousness in December 2011 after police shot dead at least 15 people in the scruffy western oil town of Zhanaozen, bringing to an end a six month strike aimed at increasing oil workers’ salaries.
In an interview with The Conway Bulletin in Almaty, Aleksei Nigai, deputy head of the small Odak union, said that although conditions for workers in general had not improved since 2011, workers avoided long stand offs with the security forces.
“Since then [Zhanaozen], there have been more and more strikes but the scale has been modest because workers fear the government’s reaction,” he said.
“Nobody wants to be shot for a salary increase.”
Mr Nigai was talking just a few days after a four-day strike hit an oil services company in western Kazakhstan.
He also said the government was planning to introduce legislation that would increase the punishment for strikes not authorised and organised by the official government-linked union.
In other words, Mr Nigai said, the Kazakh state wanted a Potemkin union system that it could easily control.
“There will be only one umbrella organisation, the Federation, which is appointed by the President,” he said with a sigh and a shrug.
“Tell me how this is different to, say, Turkmenistan.”
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(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
APRIL 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tigran Sargsyan, 54, resigned as Armenia’s PM without giving a clear explanation as to why. Mr Sargsyan, no relation to Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan, had been PM since 2008. He had previously been head of the Central Bank. His government had grown increasingly unpopular over pension reform.
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(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
APRIL 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Under gentle pressure from the World Bank, a key donor, Kyrgyzstan plans to increase the retirement age for women by two years to 60-years-old.
The idea is to both equalise the retirement age of men and women and generate revenue for the state pension plan.
But reforming Soviet-era pension plans is an emotive issue. In neighbouring Kazakhstan, a similar plan last year triggered protests and the resignation of a government minister.
Kyrgyzstan currently has a young population but with a grey economy worth 40% of GDP, payments into the government’s pension pot and other forms of social assistance are miserly.
This needs to change to support a society where life expectancies are increasing, although people in sight of retirement are unlikely to be thinking fiscally.
Varya Zirilenko, 53, said her hands ached from the repetition of sorting potatoes at the processing plant in the northern city of Tokmok where she works.
“When I come home at night they shake. Is that normal? Must I go on like this for another seven years before I can receive a full pension?” Varya expects her monthly pension to be over 6,500 Kyrgyz soms ($120). Many are even smaller.
Perhaps, though, the retirement age is just one of the issues surrounding Kyrgyzstan’s pension scheme. Another is corruption, endemic throughout the country.
Akhmatbek Keldibekov, an opposition politician from the country’s south is currently on trial for corruption. The charges relate to his time as head of the Social Fund under former president Kurmanbek Bakiyev.
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(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
APRIL 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev re-shuffled his government, bringing back Karim Massimov as PM.
Nurlan Nigmatulin, formerly the Nur Otan head in parliament, was promoted to replace Mr Massimov as head of the presidential administration.
Mr Nazarbayev also gave his eldest daughter Dariga Nazarbayeva a boost by promoting her to head Nur Otan in parliament. Nur Otan is Mr Nazarbayev’s political party.
The re-emergence of Mr Massimov, who had been PM between 2007 and 2012, and the promotion of Ms Nazarbayeva set off speculation over who would eventually succeed Mr Nazarbayev.
Ms Nazarbayeva, 50, has enjoyed a resurgence back into public life after winning a seat in parliament in 2012. Until 2007 she had been prominent but fell from grace when her then husband, Rakhat Aliyev, argued with her father and then fled abroad.
Both Ms Nazarbayeva and Mr Massimov are among the favourites to succeed Mr Nazarbayev when he finally steps aside.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
APRIL 1 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan plans to invest about $500m into its broadband infrastructure over the next few years, media reported quoting the Azerbaijani minister for communications Ali Abbasov. It remains to be seen if Azerbaijan will follow through on this proclamation.
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(News report from Issue No. 178, published on April 2 2014)
