FEB. 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Ukrainian police arrested ex-Tajik PM Abdumalik Abdullojonov in Kiev after he flew in from the US where he has been living since fleeing Tajikistan over a decade ago. The Tajik authorities have asked Ukraine to extradite Mr Abdullojonov. They accuse him of plotting to assassinate President Emomali Rakhmon.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 123, published on Feb. 8 2013)
FEB. 4 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Azerbaijan arrested two opposition leaders and accused them of orchestrating clashes between protesters and police in a provincial town last month. Human rights groups have said that the Azerbaijani authorities are using the clashes as an excuse to clampdown on their opponents.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 123, published on Feb. 8 2013)
FEB. 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Officials in Armenia confirmed that there will be no delay to a presidential election scheduled for Feb. 18 despite the attempted assassination of Paruyr Hayrikyan, a candidate. Under the election rules, Mr Hayrikyan could have asked for a two week postponement to the voting.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 123, published on Feb. 8 2013)
FEB. 1 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgian prosecutors accused the mayor of Tbilisi, Gigi Ugulava, of organising a fake job scheme which siphoned $3.25 million from the city’s budget into the coffers of the United National Movement party (UNM), the political party of President Mikheil Saakashvili. UNM officials says they have been unfairly harassed by prosecutors since losing a parliamentary election in October.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 123, published on Feb. 8 2013)
JAN. 31 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – A gunman shot and injured Paruyr Hayrikyan, a pro-Western outsider in Armenia’s Feb. 18 presidential, close to his home in Yerevan — potentially destabilising the country.
Mr Hayrikyan was relatively lucky. The bullet lodged itself in his shoulder, missing vital organs and arteries. Doctors have said that Mr Hayrikyan’s injuries are not life-threatening and Serzh Sarksyan, the Armenian president, has been photographed chatting to him by his hospital bedside.
The attempted murder, though, does indicate that somebody may want to destabilise the election and possibly Armenia itself.
Stability in Armenia is relatively fragile and elections act as flash-points. Rivalries bubble up, tension simmers over. In 2008, when Mr Sarksyan won power, protesters clashed with police in a central Yerevan square. Ten people died in the fighting.
Nobody has yet claimed responsibility for the attempted assassination of Mr Hayrikyan, although conspiracy theories are flying around. Analysts have also said that if Mr Hayrikyan withdrew from the election it could delay the vote by a fortnight.
All this could potentially destabilise Armenia, and the wider South Caucasus region.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 122, published on Feb. 1 2013)
JAN. 28 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s government resumed pressure on Centerra Gold, the Canadian mining company that owns the Kumtor mine which accounts for about 12% of the country’s economy, for more cash. Economy minister Temir Sariyev said that an agreement signed with the previous government in 2009 was “murky” and may be torn up.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 122, published on Feb. 1 2013)
JAN. 26 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Riot police in Baku detained roughly 40 people at a demonstration in support of protesters who had clashed with police two days earlier in the provincial town of Ismayilli, media reported. The authorities have poured in hundreds of reinforcements to quash the protesters in Ismayilli, roughly 200km north of Baku.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 122, published on Feb. 1 2013)
JAN. 31 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – A gunman shot and injured Paruyr Hayrikyan, a pro-Western outsider in Armenia’s Feb. 18 presidential, close to his home in Yerevan — potentially destabilising the country.
Mr Hayrikyan was relatively lucky. The bullet lodged itself in his shoulder, missing vital organs and arteries. Doctors have said that Mr Hayrikyan’s injuries are not life-threatening and Serzh Sarksyan, the Armenian president, has been photographed chatting to him by his hospital bedside.
The attempted murder, though, does indicate that somebody may want to destabilise the election and possibly Armenia itself.
Stability in Armenia is relatively fragile and elections act as flash-points. Rivalries bubble up, tension simmers over. In 2008, when Mr Sarksyan won power, protesters clashed with police in a central Yerevan square. Ten people died in the fighting.
Nobody has yet claimed responsibility for the attempted assassination of Mr Hayrikyan, although conspiracy theories are flying around. Analysts have also said that if Mr Hayrikyan withdrew from the election it could delay the vote by a fortnight.
All this could potentially destabilise Armenia, and the wider South Caucasus region.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 122, published on Feb. 1 2013)
JAN. 26 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Riot police in Baku detained roughly 40 people at a demonstration in support of protesters who had clashed with police two days earlier in the provincial town of Ismayilli, media reported. The authorities have poured in hundreds of reinforcements to quash the protesters in Ismayilli, roughly 200km north of Baku.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 122, published on Feb. 1 2013)
JAN. 28 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s government resumed pressure on Centerra Gold, the Canadian mining company that owns the Kumtor mine which accounts for about 12% of the country’s economy, for more cash. Economy minister Temir Sariyev said that an agreement signed with the previous government in 2009 was “murky” and may be torn up.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 122, published on Feb. 1 2013)
