Tag Archives: politics

Tajik President’s daughter rises

MAY 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Ozoda Rakhmon, daughter of Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon, was elected senator after a local by-election for Tajikistan’s 33-seat upper house of parliament. Ms Rakhmon won all votes cast by the 201 Dushanbe administrators that were eligible to vote, according to official media. In January, Ms Rakhmon, 38, was named head of the Presidential Administration. It is unclear whether Ms Rakhmon will have to relinquish her previous post to serve as senator.

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(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)

Land commission dampens protests in Kazakhstan

ALMATY, JUNE 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Activists in Kazakhstan said President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s move to defer changes to the land code until next year and set up a commission to improve dialogue with ordinary people was a positive step, although frustrations over the economy still lingered.

Proposed changes to the land code, that would have given foreigners more rights to own and lease land, sparked a protest in Atyrau in April. Those protests then spread across Kazakhstan, taking on a more general anti-government flavour although the land reform issue was still a key concern.

In Kazakhstan, analysts have said, it is difficult for ordinary people to protest directly against the government. Police detained hundreds of protesters on May 21 ahead of planned anti-government demonstrations.

Instead it is easier to protest against a single issue, such as land reforms, and use this to channel grievances over a stalling economy, job losses and a currency devaluation.

At press conference in Almaty, Mukhtar Taizhan, a high profile opposition activist who has been appointed to the land reform commission, said that Kazakhstan’s society was still riven through with tension over the economy.

“The work of commission does not eliminate increasing tensions in our economy,” he said. “If we want stability, we need to change our economic politics urgently.”

Other activists interviewed by the Conway Bulletin’s Kazakhstan correspondent agreed. Saken, an activist said: “There will be no mass protests in the near future because the land commission has softened the current situation.”

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(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)

Kazakh President sacks senior officials

JUNE 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Barely two weeks after the Kazakh authorities quashed unsanctioned protests with dozens of arrests around the country, President Nursultan Nazarbayev sacked Yerlik Kenenbayev, the Presidential Administration’s police supervisor/adviser, and Nurmakhanbet Isaev, the deputy prosecutor. Mr Nazarbayev did not explain the sackings, but analysts have said it could be linked to the May 21 protests.

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(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)

Kyrgyzstan’s interior minister resigns

BISHKEK, MAY 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Melis Turganbayev, considered a major power broker in Kyrgyzstan, quit as interior minister saying that he needed a break.

The move, though, surprised observers who said that Mr Turganbayev may already be plotting a return to frontline politics, possibly at next year’s presidential election.

In an interview with the Kremlin- backed Sputnik news after his resignation, Mr Turganbayev said that there were no political reasons for his resignation and backed his nominated successor, Kashkar Junushaliev, previously the Bishkek police chief.

“He is an experienced officer and a good guy, who will continue my work on reforms in interior affairs,” he said.

Mr Turganbayev had been interior minister since October 2014.

Mars Sariyev, a political scientist in Bishkek, said President Atambayev may be manoeuvring his ministers to balance power and it may have suited him to remove Mr Turganbayev who had built up a large powerbase.

“I think that this step has been taken in favour of certain political groups ahead of the presidential elections,” he said.

The interior ministry is one of the most powerful institutions in Kyrgyzstan. It is essentially responsible for stability in the country and controls several of Kyrgyzstan’s armed forces.

On the streets of Bishkek, there was both pleasure at Mr Turganbayev’s resignation and apathy.

Sergei, 47, said that Mr Turganbayev’s resignation was of little consequence.“Unfortunately, new politicians here do not really bring any positive changes,” he said. “It does not really affect our lives.”

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(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)

Pro-government protesters target US consulate in Kazakh city

ALMATY, MAY 31 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Roughly two dozen people protested in front of the US consulate in Almaty against what they said was the influence of foreign governments in demonstrations across Kazakhstan since April.

Most of the people at the protest were the same protagonists who had staged demonstrations against banks earlier in the year. The impression was that a group with close links to the authorities had organised the protest to show support for the government. And in contrast to anti- government protests on May 21, police didn’t intervene.

Zhanna Sadykova, a leader of the so-called Give People Housing movement, said one of the demonstrators’ targets were protests against the Kazakh government in the US last week.

“Those who protested in US cities are not citizens of our country and therefore have no right to interfere with our internal policies,” she said.

The protests that have swept Kazakhstan since April have been unprecedented. What started as an isolated protest against land reforms has morphed into a general gripe against the government and the country’s stagnating economy.

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(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)

Editorial: Georgia’s election

JUNE 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Perhaps with the Council of Europe’s criticism in mind, Georgia’s President Giorgi Margvelashvili sent a bill that would have weakened the Constitu- tional Court’s ability to temper the government back to Parliament.

Mr Margvelashvili has shown both courage and wisdom by sending this bill back. It was political meddling at its worst by the Georgian Dream coalition which had wanted to extend its control over the Constitutional Court, an independent body that is supposed to safeguard the country’s governing principles.

His action also gives another insight into the Georgian Dream coalition, only a few months before what is likely to be a hotly contested parliamentary election. PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili said both that he did not agree with the veto, but also that the Georgian Dream coalition MPs would not exercise their right to override the presidential decision in parliament.

The Georgian Dream coalition is internally divided and the President and the PM disagree on fundamental issues. The governing coalition looks to be in a weak state in the run up to the election.

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(Editorial from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)

Tajikistan silences opposition

DUSHANBE, JUNE 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Tajik authorities finally snuffed out the country’s only genuine opposition party, the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), after a court sentenced its top leaders to life in prison for plotting a coup last year.

It’s been a long-winded and very public end for the IRPT which had once laid claim to be an alternative to President Emomali Rakhmon and the Tajik elite.

Eight months after they were arrested, the Tajik Supreme Court imprisoned Saidumar Khusayni and Makhmadali Khait, two deputy leaders of the IRPT, for life for plotting a coup. Another dozen senior IRPT officials received sentences of between 14 and 28 years, including Khikmatullo Sayfullozoda, the editor of the now banned IRPT newspaper.

Zarafo Rakhmoni, the IRPT lawyer, was the only woman sent to prison. She received a two year jail sentence.

A Dushanbe-based analyst, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Conway Bulletin correspondent in Dushanbe that the verdicts were deliberately harsh and designed to send a strong message to other potential dissenters.

“Even those who are ideologically against the IRPT, were not happy with the verdict, because the verdict was fully politically motivated and lacked transparency,” he said.

“The authorities did not care if society or the international community think the verdict is harsh, inhuman, and falsified. It was a very open move to punish the main opposition figures, as well as to show who is the boss in the county.”

The IRPT’s leader, Mukhiddin Kabiri, fled into exile earlier last year. Several pro-government demonstrations were staged this year outside European embassies to try to pressure them to extradite Mr Kabiri.

And Mr Kabiri had a warning for the Tajik authorities. In an interview with Reuters before the verdict was announced he said the charges were trumped up and that banning the party would create more problems.

“What is happening in the country will play into the hands of radicals and more and more youths, having lost all trust in the government, will join the ranks of extremist groups,” he said.

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(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)

Kyrgyz power broker steps down

JUNE 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A political chameleon who has served in government under the last three Kyrgyz presidents, Melis Turganbayev has earned a reputation as one of Kyrgyzstan’s biggest power brokers.

Now though, in a departure from the usual script for Central Asian politics, the 54-year-old Mr Turganbayev has apparently voluntarily stepped down as interior minister, a post he had held since October 2014.

“Everybody has the right to resign,” he told the Kremlin-linked Sputnik news agency in an interview soon after he had quit.

“There are no political motives. I just wanted to relax as I haven’t had a holiday for six years.”

Burn out, then. This could be a first for politics in Central Asia where senior government officials pride themselves on their macho longevity.

And Mr Turganbayev’s explanation hasn’t convinced too many people. Instead, analysts have said that the notoriously ambitious Mr Turganbayev may have jumped ship so that he can distance himself from the government and run in a presidential election set for 2017 as “the saviour of the nation”.

Born in Bishkek, then called Frunze, on Feb. 19 1962, Mr Turganbayev had been a career policeman, rising steadily through the ranks.

In 2008, under President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, he was promoted to be deputy interior minister, a job he kept under President Roza Otunbayeva, who took office after a revolution in April 2010. Current President Almazbek Atambayev shifted him to head the Bishkek police force in November 2012 and then promoted him to be interior minister less than two years later.

Controversy, though, has stalked Mr Turganbayev. In 2008, while deputy minister of interior, he was accused of beating and attempting to rape a 25-year-old woman. The case flickered briefly before dropping out of sight.

In February this year, Turat Akimov, a critic of the government and the editor of the Money and Power weekly newspaper, accused Mr Turganbayev of ordering thugs to beat him up. Mr Turganbayev dismissed the claim as “gibberish”.

For now, though, Mr Turganbayev has elected to drop out of the limelight. Despite his assertions that he has no comeback plans, it’ll surely only be a matter of time before he is back at the centre of Kyrgyz politics.

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(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)

Editorial: Pro-government demonstrations in Kazakhstan

JUNE 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A pro-government protest demonstrating against anti-government protests is not a new practice in Central Asia.

This was the scenario in Kazakhstan this week and even if it might not be a new issue but it is still an insightful one. The authorities are getting increasingly worried that their opponents are gaining in strength.

The main targets of the pro-government protest this week were the US consulate in Almaty and expatriate Kazakhs in San Francisco and New York.

The pro-government protesters, well organised and clearly linked to the authorities, accused the US of stirring anti-government feelings, a standard complaint by former Soviet governments facing popular discontent. They also denounced the protesters in the US as traitors who didn’t understand how loved President Nursultan Nazarbayev was in Kazakhstan.

But rather than criticise the protesters in the US and the US consulate in Almaty, perhaps it would be more effective for the authorities in Kazakhstan to listen to their critics.

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(Editorial from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)

Georgia’s President vetoes bill

MAY 31 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s President Giorgi Margvelashvili vetoed a bill to change procedures in and the composition of the country’s Constitutional Court, sending back to Parliament the controversial draft law. MPs from the ruling Georgian Dream party said they will not seek to override the veto and will amend the bill to accommodate the demands of the opposition. Critics of the amendments to Constitutional Court had complained that the changes were designed to give the government more power. Mr Margvelashvili has previously blocked legislation put forward by the Georgian Dream coalition government, of which he is a member.

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(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)