Tag Archives: international relations

Azerbaijan spars with US

MAY 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – In an interview with local media, Azerbaijani foreign minister Elmar Mammadyarov compared Azerbaijan’s sparring with the United States to a new Cold War.

Mr Mammadyarov’s comparison may highlight how relations between the West and Azerbaijan, a key energy provider, have worsened although the anti-US rhetoric may be designed to appeal to a local audience.

“Bearing in mind the growing media interest on Azerbaijan with regards to the first European Games some people are trying to exploit the current situation for their nefarious purposes with Cold War style propaganda,” Mr Mammadyarov said.

The main sticking point is the heavy-handed suppression of civic rights in Azerbaijan over the past couple of years. Free media has been all but chased out of the country, human rights defenders and opposition leaders have been locked up.

Azerbaijan is particularly sensitive to criticism from the West at the moment. Next month it hosts the European Games which it desperately wants to use to showcase the country.

Azerbaijan’s media has hit back, though. A Bulletin correspondent said progovernment media in Azerbaijan had posted a series of articles attacking the United States’ reputation.

But Zardusht Alizade, Baku based political analyst told RFE/RL the anti-America campaign is targeted at a local audience to show that the government is powerful enough to criticise the US. The row, he said, may not be that serious.

“I think the real politics between the two countries is still great,” he said. “Gas flows, oil flows and this is the real politics.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 230, published on May 6 2015)

Tajikistan signs CASA-1000 deal

APRIL 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – At a ceremony in Istanbul, Tajik, Pakistani and Afghan officials signed a deal that will mean electricity generated in Tajikistan’s Pamir Mountains will power households in Islamabad.

The CASA-1000 project should generate income for Dushanbe from its hydro-stations and for Kabul as a transit country while plugging a shortfall in electricity in Pakistan.

As well as an economic success, the $1.2b project is seen as a diplomatic highlight by the United States which is keen to involve Central Asian countries in trade deals with Pakistan and Afghanistan. It sees this as a way to foster stability once it withdraws its forces.

Richard Hoagland, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Central Asia, said: “We’ve already seen the efficacy of such an approach in the successes of the CASA-1000 energy project, which brought together a grouping of countries that had never before worked together on a development project.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)

Armenia wants sanction-free Iran

APRIL 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Perhaps looking to boost relations with its neighbour, Armenia has been quick to welcome a potential reduction in sanctions over Iran, media reported quoting Armenian foreign minister Eduard Nalbandyan. Armenia and Iran have steadily improved trade and political links.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)

US gives military aid to Georgia

APRIL 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The US will give Georgia $20m to update its military, media reported. The cash comes at a sensitive time with Russia and the US increasingly at odds with each other over Ukraine. NATO has also said that it plans to set up a training base in Georgia.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)

Armenia remembers 1915

APRIL 24 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia officially marked the 100th anniversary of the killing of thousands of its countrymen by Ottoman Turks, an event it wants recognised as a genocide.

On the eve of the ceremony in Yerevan, Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag, joined a growing list of countries calling the death of up to 1.5m Armenians a genocide.

“What happened in the middle of the First World War in the Ottoman Empire under the eyes of the world was a genocide,” media quoted Bundestag Presi- dent Norbert Lammert as saying at the debate on the issue.

The issue is sensitive in Germany as historians have said Nazi leader Adolf Hitler used the killings of the Armenians in the east of modern-day Turkey as evidence the world would turn a blind eye to his plans to kill Jews in Europe.

Presiding over the sombre ceremony in Yerevan, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said: “Recognition of the genocide is a triumph of human conscience and justice over intolerance and hatred.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Francois Hollande were among the foreign dignitaries to attend the service.

The US sent a delegation but President Barack Obama has pointedly steered away from describing the deaths as a genocide.

Turkey has denied the genocide. It says Armenians died in the chaos around the final days of the Ottoman Empire.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has said that he feels Armenia’s pain over the killings but he is quick to criticise descriptions of the deaths as a genocide.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)

Lukashenko visits Georgia for the first time

APRIL 24 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The president of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko visited Georgia for the first time on April 23-24.

Officially, this visit, initiated by Minsk, was to strengthen Georgian-Belarusian relations. The parties signed 15 different agreements and declared that they want to boost bilateral trade from $65m/year to $200m/year.

But analysts think that this visit was planned to improve Lukashenko’s position at home, in Moscow and amongst western European leaders before the upcoming presidential elections in Belarus in November.

During his visit, Lukashenko once again expressed his support for Georgia’s territorial integrity. He also called for a better dialogue between the Kremlin and Tbilisi, and expressed hopes that Belarus, Georgia and Russia can someday live as “one family like before”.

The director of Georgian Institute of Politics Kornely Kakachia said Mr Lukashenko’s visit had some positive implications for Georgia because he expressed support for Georgia’s territorial integrity over the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

“But on the other hand, Lukashenko is a side player and does not have big influence on Moscow-Tbilisi relations,” he said. “Also, the president of Belarus is not the best company for Georgia to be seen with by the West.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)

Hollande visits Azerbaijan

APRIL 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – After visiting Yerevan, French President Francois Hollande travelled to Baku to meet Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev. According to reports he raised concerns about Azerbaijan’s human rights record. Importantly, French businesses have won a handful of lucrative deals in Azerbaijan

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)

Kuwaitis visit Uzbekistan

APRIL 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A parliamentary delegation from Kuwait visited Uzbekistan to discuss boosting ties. Kuwait wants to win a non-permanent seat at the UN Security Council in 2018-19.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)

Greece refuse Georgia’s extradition request

APRIL 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Greece rejected an extradition request from Georgia for its ex-domestic intelligence chief, Data Akhalaia. Reports did not specify just why Greece’s Supreme Court had turned down Georgia’s request but Europe and the US have accused Georgia of using the law to settle vendettas.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)

Turkmen President to visit Astana

APRIL 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov will travel to Astana to meet with Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev soon, Kazakh media reported. This is important because Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan are partnering up on a rail project linking Central Asia with Iran.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)