Tag Archives: politics

Georgia’s court reinstates two parties for election

TBILISI, SEPT. 13 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Indicating just how fraught campaigning in Georgia has become ahead of a parliamentary election next month, a court in Tbilisi reversed an earlier decision by the Central Election Commission which had banned the Industrialist Party and the Our Homeland Party from the vote.

On Sept. 11, Tamar Zhvania, the Commission’s chairwoman, de-registered the two parties for submitting their party lists after the official dead- line had expired.

The Industrialists and Our Homeland appealed the decision and the Tbilisi court said that the Commission would now have to register the two parties for the upcoming parliamentary election on Oct. 8.

Both parties are staunchly pro- Russia and critics of former President Mikheil Saakashvili’s UNM party. Their reinstatement should boost the chances of another Georgian Dream coalition government being voted back into power.

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(News report from Issue No. 296, published on Sept. 16 2016)

Azerbaijan releases opposition figure

SEPT. 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijani authorities released from prison opposition activist Natig Jafarli, of the Republican Alternative Movement, arrested for financial crimes on Aug. 12. Before his arrest, Mr Jafarli’s organisation had won a grant from the US-based National Democratic Institute. The leader of Republican Alternative, Ilgar Mammadov, remains in prison. He was arrested in 2013 on charges of inciting mass violence. Human rights lobby groups, the US government and the Council of Europe have called repeatedly for his release.

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(News report from Issue No. 296, published on Sept. 16 2016)

New Georgian TV drama depicts prison torture under Saakashvili

TBILISI, SEPT. 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Herokratia, a fictional TV series based on prison tortures and government crimes that occurred under the government of former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, started broadcasting on prime time television, barely a month before Georgians vote in an acrimonious and bad-tempered election.

In the series, Mr Saakashvili, who is now the governor of the Odessa region in Ukraine, is portrayed as a megalomaniac living a life of opulent luxury while beatings are handed out casually, and brutally, in prisons.

The producer Goga Khaindrava, is known as a vocal opponent of Mr Saakashvili.

He said it was important to document the abuse.

“The main idea of this film is for people to really acknowledge what kind of disaster we went through,” he was quoted by journalists as saying. “People don’t know what kind of hell some people went through.”

The series has been paid for by former PM Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgia’s richest man and Mr Saakashvili’s sworn opponent, and is being broadcast on his son’s TV stations.

Mr Ivanishvili has previously commissioned documentaries on brutality in prison under Mr Saakashvili’s administration. The timing appears designed to undermine the remnants of his UNM party ahead of a parliamentary election in October.

Ketino, the owner of a bakery shop, said that during Mr Saakashvili’s period in power people lived in constant fear.

“It is necessary to show what this beast did, as it was necessary after WWII to show what the Fascists and the Nazis did in order not to forget,” she said.

Lasha, a 35 years old resident of Tbilisi, said the beatings were commonly known among people.

“Everybody knew what was going on in our prisons and still, the Americans sand the EU did nothing,” he said.

Mr Saakashvili is perceived in Georgia as being too pro-EU and US and too anti-Russia.

He was blamed for taking Georgia into a disastrous five-day war against Russia in 2008.

Investigations have shown that beatings did take place in prisons under Mr Saakashvili’s administration. Some officials have been imprisoned and the authorities have said that they want Mr Saakashvili to stand trial.

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(News report from Issue No. 296, published on Sept. 16 2016)

Kazakh President visits Karimov’s grave

SEPT. 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev flew into Samarkand to pay his respects to recently- deceased Islam Karimov, former Uzbek president. At the time of Karimov’s funeral on Sept. 3, Mr Nazarbayev was attending a G20 summit in China. During the visit, Mr Nazarbayev met with Uzbekistan’s acting president Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

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(News report from Issue No. 296, published on Sept. 16 2016)

Brother of Armenia’s richest man becomes PM

SEPT. 13 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan appointed Karen Karapetyan to the post of PM, brother of one of the richest Armenians.

A member of the Mr Sargsyan’s Republican Party, Mr Karapetyan will take over from Hovik Abrahamyan, who resigned on Sept. 8, after a steep fall in the government’s popularity over the last few months after gunmen calling for a new government captured a police station in Yerevan, triggering a two week stand- off with security forces in which three policemen died.

Mr Karapetyan is a former mayor of Yerevan and ex-chief executive of ArmRosGazprom, the Armenian subsidiary of Russia’s Gazprom. His brother is Samvel Karapetyan, owner of Tashir Group, a Russian real estate holding company that bought the electricity distributor, Electricity Networks of Armenia (ENA), last year from Russia’s Inter RAO.

Billionaire Samvel Karapetyan effectively helped out the Armenian government who needed to find a buyer for ENA quickly after Inter RAO said it wanted to sell up after a botched attempt to raise electricity prices had triggered street demonstrations.

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(News report from Issue No. 296, published on Sept. 16 2016)

Comment: Uzbekistan’s smooth power transition

SEPT. 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – In some quarters it had been feared that Islam Karimov’s death in Uzbekistan would set off instability in Central Asia’s largest country as rival groups battled for control. So far, though, the power transition in Uzbekistan since Karimov’s death on Sept. 2 has been smooth.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the former PM, has been installed as acting president and will, presumably, be given the job on a full-time basis at an election in December. There is still some time before his coronation can be complete but, so far, there doesn’t appear to be any other actors coming to the fore to challenge Mirziyoyev’s ascension.

There are several striking characteristic about the smooth Uzbek power shift. Firstly, it appears to have been well-organised and well-rehearsed before Karimov’s death. The authorities were able to control the information flow, apparently even delaying the official announcement of Karimov’s death until they were ready, put together a state funeral and arrange for the Speaker of the Senate to decline taking over in favour of Mirziyoyev.

There was planning and agreement in all this. Deals were made on how to retain power and status in Uzbekistan well before Karimov died.

And the second point is that Karimov must have been in on it.

He must have agreed to this succession process while he was alive. It appears that he finally gave up on the idea of installing his favourite daughter, Gulnara, as his successor in 2014. She was deeply unpopular with ordinary Uzbeks and the elite may have considered her a liability that they wanted to get out of the way before dealing with the succession issue.

Their chance came in 2013 and 2014 with corruption accusations linked to Western telecoms companies which had paid out bribes to the Karimovs seven years earlier to access the Uzbek market. The Uzbek elite were then able to imprison Gulnara’s supporters and place her under house arrest. She has not been seen or heard of since.

March 2014, marked the real transition of power in Uzbekistan. Karimov was unable to protect his daughter and most probably had to go along with plans devised by the Uzbek elite to hold on to power.

And their plan meant stripping the Karimov family of power.

In Uzbekistan this month we have seen the natural culmination of what is effectively an internal Uzbek regime change.

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(News report from Issue No. 296, published on Sept. 16 2016)

Azerbaijan’s opposition protests

SEPT. 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s opposition coalition, the National Council of Democratic Forces held a rally in Baku, protesting against the upcoming constitutional referendum. The coalition said the rally would be the first of a series of demonstrations against the government’s plans to change the Constitution. Wrapped in flags and chanting against corruption, thousands took part in the rally. The organisers said over 10,000 participated. Official figures said only 2,500 were at the rally. Importantly, the rally had been authorised by local officials.

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(News report from Issue No. 296, published on Sept. 16 2016)

Berdy scraps age limit for Turkmen presidents

SEPT. 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov signed amendments into the Constitution that will allow him to be president indefinitely, completing a busy round of political manoeuvring this summer across Central Asia.

Mr Berdymukhamedov’s tweaks to the Turkmen constitution follow the death of Islam Karimov, president of Uzbekistan, and the apparent promotion of Shavkat Mirziyoyev as his successor, and a reshuffle of top officials by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev designed to secure his succession.

The Turkmen Constitutional amendments, approved in one day by Parliament and the Council of Elders, removed the age limit on the president, previously set at 70, and extended presidential terms from five to seven years.

Turkmenistan holds a presidential election next year, which the 59-year- old Mr Berdymukhamedov referenced when he commented on the Constitutional amendments.

“The Presidential elections will demonstrate the social and political activity and maturity of our citizens and their understanding of the greatest importance of elections in defining the future of the country,”

Neutral Turkmenistan, the government’s official news agency, quoted Mr Berdymukhamedov as saying.

Turkmenistan is considered one of the most repressive countries in the world. It has never held an election judged by Western vote monitors to be free and fair and has no free media.

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(News report from Issue No. 296, published on Sept. 16 2016)

Ministers resign in Georgia

SEPT. 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Two ministers linked to the ruling Georgian Dream party resigned ahead of the October election to comply with eligibility requirements. Otar Danelia, minister of agriculture, and Kakha Kaladze, minister of energy, resigned to run as high-profile candidates in the Georgian Dream ranks. Under Georgia’s election rules, ministers have to resign to run.

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(News report from Issue No. 296, published on Sept. 16 2016)

Georgia’s President appoints new judges

SEPT. 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s President Giorgi Margvelashvili named Irina Imerlishvili, secretary of the National Security Council, and Giorgi Kverenchkhiladze, former parliamentary secretary of the President, as new judges at the Constitutional Court. Soon after the upcoming election, Parliament and the Supreme Court are also due to nominate two new judges, which could significantly change the makeup of the 9- seat Court.

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(News report from Issue No. 296, published on Sept. 16 2016)