NOV. 7 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Incumbent Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon won re-election with 83.1% of the vote in a presidential election. Mr Rakhmon didn’t face any genuine opposition in the election which observers have described as a sham. Mr Rakhmon, who consolidated his power in the mid-1990s after a civil war, will now rule until 2020.
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(News report from Issue No. 160, published on Nov. 13 2013)
NOV. 7 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Fuel shortages and a power struggle in Uzbekistan appear to have claimed another major scalp in Shavkat Majidov, the long-serving first deputy chief of Uzbekneftegaz. Although no official information has been made available, media reported Uzbek President Islam Karimov sacked Mr Majidov over continued fuel supply problems.
Mr Majidov was a powerful man, in charge of oil-related affairs in Uzbekistan and closely linked with Gulnara Karimova, Mr Karimov’s elder daughter.
Ms Karimova had once been considered a potential presidential successor but more recently she has come under pressure from rivals. Prosecutors in Europe and Uzbekistan have opened investigations into her business affairs; her supporters are being targeted.
Mr Majidov’s removal, according to a media report, is linked to an investigation into shortages at the Ferghana Oil Refinery. Ms Karimova’s ally Akbarali Abdullayev had controlled the refinery until police arrested him in October. This arrest, it appears, left Mr Majidov vulnerable. It has also allowed outsiders another glimpse of the interwoven world of politics and business in Uzbekistan.
Sultan Alisher, a member of parliament loyal to Mr Karimov, and director of the Shurtangaz chemical plant, has taken over as deputy head of Uzbekneftegaz. He’s a safe pair of hands that Mr Karimov can rely on as the power game in Uzbekistan unfolds.
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(News report from Issue No. 160, published on Nov. 13 2013)
NOV. 6 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev promoted the deputy chief of the presidential staff, Bakhyt Sultanov, to finance minister as part of a cabinet reshuffle. Mr Sultanov, 42, replaces Bolat Zhamishev who moves on to become regional development minister, considered an important role in Kazakhstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 160, published on Nov. 13 2013)
NOV. 4 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in the scruffy provincial town of Sheki in northern Azerbaijan set a date for the start of the politically sensitive trial of Ilgar Mammadov, a high profile opposition leader, and 17 others who are accused of inciting anti-government riots.
International human rights groups have called the trials political motivated and described them as part of the Azerbaijani authorities’ strategy to clamp down on dissenters.
The judge scheduled the case to begin on Nov. 28.
Mr Mammadov and the other 16 defendants are accused of inciting violence in the town of Ismayilli on Jan. 23.
Anti-government protesters gathered in the town after a confrontation with family members of the local ruling elite. The protesters burnt cars hurled rocks at interior ministry forces in the worst outbreak of civil violence in Azerbaijan in President Ilham Aliyev’s decade-long rule.
Prosecutors say that Mr Mammadov, chairman of the opposition group REAL, and Tofig Yagublu, a columnist for an opposition newspaper and chairman of the Musavat political party, travelled to Ismayilli from Baku the following day to encourage the protesters to continue to confront police. They were arrested a few days later held in detention since then.
Both men have denied the charges and have instead said that they travelled separately to Ismayilli to simply investigate what had happened.
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(News report from Issue No. 159, published on Nov. 6 2013)
NOV. 6 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Nobody is in any doubt what the result of a presidential election in Tajikistan on Nov. 6 will be. Incumbent president Emomali Rakhmon will win with a thumping majority.
The authorities in Tajikistan have already disqualified Mr Rakhmon’s only serious contender, a female human rights campaigner. He is left to face five loyal candidates who lend only the facade of an opposition movement to the election.
In power since the end of a civil war in the mid-1990s, Mr Rakhmon, 61, does not brook opposition and this election will rubber stamp his grip over Tajikistan for another seven years.
Democracy advocates, human rights campaigners and anti-corruption lobbyists may complain but the realpolitik of the situation is more complex.
When NATO forces withdraw from Afghanistan next year, Tajikistan moves onto the frontline of the fight against militant Islam. What NATO and Russia and China want more than anything else is a strongman in power who is able to impose stability and act as a bulwark against the potential move north of the Taliban.
For them, a clear win for Mr Rakhmon is their preferred option. And they’ll get it.
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(News report from Issue No. 159, published on Nov. 6 2013)
NOV. 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a snub to Georgia’s out-going President Mikheil Saakahsvili, Giorgi Margvelashvili, the president-elect, said he would not be taking up residence in the new presidential palace. Mr Margvelashvili said instead he would turn the controversial glass-domed building overlooking Tbilisi into a university.
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(News report from Issue No. 159, published on Nov. 6 2013)
NOV. 3 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — In one of his last acts as Georgia’s President, Mikheil Saakashsvili pardoned ex-interior minister Bacho Akhalaia who was found guilty last week of abuse of power. Mr Saakashsvili has said the case is politically motivated. Akhalaia remains in prison, though, waiting for a new trial on a different case to begin.
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(News report from Issue No. 159, published on Nov. 6 2013)
NOV. 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police clashed with anti-government protesters armed with sticks in central Yerevan, media reported, raising the spectre of instability in Armenia. Reports said police arrested 20 people after the small-scale scuffles petered out. Protesters were complaining that a presidential election in February was unfair.
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(News report from Issue No. 159, published on Nov. 6 2013)
NOV. 1 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a reference to a power struggle in Uzbekistan, Gulnara Karimova, eldest daughter of Uzbek president Islam Karimov, accused Rustam Inoyatov, head of the national security service, of harbouring presidential aspirations. Ms Karimova has thinly veiled presidential aspirations herself.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 159, published on Nov. 6 2013)
NOV. 4 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A judge in Azerbaijan set the start of the trial of opposition leader Ilgar Mammadov for inciting anti-government violence in January for Nov. 28. Human rights groups have described the trial of Mr Mammadov and others as politically motivated.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 159, published on Nov. 6 2013)
