DEC. 26 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Tajik authorities flirted with blocking up to 131 websites ahead of a presidential election at the start of the year, media reported. An order to block the websites, mainly news and social media, was circulated on Dec. 20, only to be cancelled a week later. Tajikistan periodically blocks websites.
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(News report from Issue No. 118, published on Dec. 28 2012)
DEC. 14 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Gagik Tsarukyan, leader of Prosperous Armenia, the second largest party in the Armenian parliament, announced he would neither field a candidate in February’s presidential election nor publicly support any of the other candidates, media reported. His rivals said this move undermined the election.
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(News report from Issue No. 118, published on Dec. 28 2012)
DEC. 27 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev pardoned and released from jail 87 prisoners, including journalists, human rights activists and political opponents, state media reported. The Azerbaijani authorities have clamped down heavily on their opponents over the past couple of years.
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(News report from Issue No. 118, published on Dec. 28 2012)
DEC. 13 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Maksim Bakyiev, son or former Kyrgyz president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, appeared for his first court hearing in London over an extradition request from the US where authorities have accused him of masterminding a complex insider dealing system, media reported. Mr Bakiyev fled to London after a revolution in 2010.
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(News report from Issue No. 117, published on Dec. 14 2012)
DEC. 10 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Perhaps it was just scare-mongering, but Nikolai Patrushev, the head of Russia’s National Security Council and a close adviser to president Vladimir Putin, said that his staff were monitoring Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan for signs of any re-emergence of the so-called colour revolutions, Russian media reported.
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(News report from Issue No. 117, published on Dec. 14 2012)
DEC. 3 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Tajik authorities unblocked Facebook, a social networking website, and the website of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), a US-funded news service. Tajikistan worries the internet may spread unrest and has periodically blocked access to websites. Facebook and RFE/RL had been blocked for about a week.
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(News report from Issue No. 116, published on Dec. 7 2012)
NOV. 29 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – At her first meeting with her new Georgian counterpart, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton publicly criticised Georgia’s new government for arresting several officials linked closely to the previous government. The previous government has described the arrests as a witch-hunt against them.
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(News report from Issue No. 115, published on Nov. 30 2012)
NOV. 29 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Media in Tajikistan reported that the government had blocked access to Facebook, the social networking website, and the website of US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The Tajik authorities have previously temporarily blocked media websites, including Facebook, on fears they could spread unrest.
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(News report from Issue No. 115, published on Nov. 30 2012)
NOV. 16 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Police in Georgia arrested more senior officials, mainly linked to the opposition, throughout the week in an operation some have described as a witch-hunt by the new government. Highlighting the alarm felt by Georgia’s foreign allies, the US publicly asked the authorities to stop the arrests.
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(News report from Issue No. 114, published on Nov. 23 2012)
NOV. 20 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – After five years in exile, Georgia’s former defence minister Irakli Okruashvili returned to Tbilisi to face accusations of bribe-taking and forming an illegal armed group. Mr Okruashvili had been an ally of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili before becoming an opposition leader in 2007 and then fleeing.
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(News report from Issue No. 114, published on Nov. 23 2012)
