Tag Archives: politics

Kyrgyz directors at Centerra Gold argued against shares

BISHKEK, JAN. 13 2016, (The Conway Bulletin) — In an interview with local media, senior Kyrgyz government officials said they had pushed hard against the issue of an extra 4.6m shares in Centerra Gold, the Canadian mining company in which Kyrgyzstan owns a 32.7% stake.

Centerra Gold owns the Kumtor gold mine, Kyrgyzstan’s most important economic asset. The interview with local media again shows how far apart Kyrgyzstan and Centerra Gold are on their various strategies.

Kylychbek Shakirov, a government-appointed board member at Centerra Gold, told media that he and his two Kyrgyz colleagues voted against issuing the shares, as this measure would dilute the total stake that Kyrgyzstan owns in the company.

“The Board of Directors of the company at the extraordinary session on December 17, 2015, made the decision to issue 4.6m additional shares,” Mr Shakirov said.

“We failed to achieve cancellation of the previous decision because three members of the board voted against issuance of new stocks and 8 members voted for it.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)

Tajikistan cancels pay rise

JAN. 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Tajik government has cancelled a planned pay rise for state workers, media reported. With inflation rising and the value of its somoni currency falling, the Tajik government had planned the pay rise to boost morale, and loyalty, amongst its staff just before an election last year. With the election fading into memory and an economic slowdown taking a stronger and firmer grip, it appears to have been decided that the pay rise was no longer needed.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)

Protesters clash with police in Azerbaijan

JAN. 13 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Protests against rising prices broke out in at least five regional towns in Azerbaijan, the most serious and widespread civil unrest linked to an economic downturn that has shaken Central Asia and the South Caucasus over the past 18 months.

In Siyazan, about an hour’s drive north of Baku, heavily armed riot police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at crowds of young men who pelted them with stones. Later, reports said that at least 50 people had been detained by the police.

Footage shot on mobile phones and released on the opposition Meydan website showed police in full body armour carrying shields backed up by armoured vehicles marching towards groups of young men.

In other protests in regional towns, groups of men argued with officials and complained about losing jobs and a drop in living standards.

The following day, the Azerbaijani authorities released a statement that blamed various opposition parties for organising the protests. Azerbaijan’s opposition, which has seen its ranks thinned by a series of arrests and imprisonments over the past couple of years, said that the protests had been spontaneous.

Hours later the government appeared to back down over one of the protesters’ main demands — to stop prices from rising — by ordering a VAT exemption on flour and wheat.

A sharp fall in oil prices has hit Azerbaijan hard. It devalued its manat currency twice last year, halving its value. The government has also cut welfare and infrastructure projects.

There have been small-scale protests in Azerbaijan and in Georgia and Armenia, but these were the most violent and widespread.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)

Tajik MPs consider constitutional changes

JAN. 13 2016, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan’s parliament is considering changes to the constitution that will, effectively, cement control of the country under President Emomali Rakhmon and his family.

Local media reported that MPs were looking into scrapping term limits for the president and also lowering the minimum age of presidential candidates to 30 from 35.

This second potential amendment would mean that Rakhmon’s son, Rustam, would be eligible to take over as president in 2020 when the next presidential election is due. He will be 33 in 2020.

A Dushanbe-based analyst who asked to remain anonymous said: “Both Rakhmon and his son will be eligible for presidency in 2020. I think, they want to keep both doors open and the decision will be taken only in 2020 according to situation and condition, as well as on how the incumbent president feels.”

Human rights and democracy group have accused Mr Rakhmon, who has been president since the 1990s, of acting as an autocrat,

imprisoning opposition leaders and cracking down on dissent. But governments, both from the West and also Russia and China, have seemingly preferred to see a strong Mr Rakhmon remain in power and act as a bulwark against any northern momentum from the Taliban in Afghanistan.

And most people in Tajikistan appear to support the status quo. “We need stability in the country,” said a man in his 50s walking in Dushanbe. “I don’t care who is the President, I just don’t want any war.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)

Editorial: Kazakhstan’s parliament

JAN. 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – It doesn’t happen often that a parliament asks the president to order its dissolution and call for elections. But in Kazakhstan, MPs feel they have fulfilled their obligations and, with one voice apparently, asked for an early vote.

The economic downturn could potentially lead to the formation of organised opposition in Kazakhstan and the calling of snap presidential elections last year and, in a similar fashion, this year would prevent dissent.

Although it was the MPs calling for it, the decision to call for early elections came from the top. The elite wants to consolidate its power within the various political institutions in light of a prospective transition.

President Nurtsultan Nazarbayev has indicated that he is likely to hand over to a successor at the end of his current term as president in 2020. If the transition goes as planned, the successor will be chosen from the political elite that is currently in charge of the major institutional positions.

The name of the new speaker of the Majilis and the percentage of seats that go to the ruling Nur Otan party are the two main things to monitor.

ENDS

(Editorial from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)

Armenia arrests assassination plotters

JAN. 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Security forces in Armenia arrested two more people, including Garnik Markarian, leader of a small, obscure opposition party, for allegedly being part of a group plotting a series of assassinations. In November, security forces in Armenia raided a house in Yerevan and arrested 10 people for allegedly being linked to the assassination plot. In the following weeks, at least 12 more people were arrested.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)

Editorial: Turkmenistan’s final puff

JAN. 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – By all accounts, Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, the president of Turkmenistan, is a very particular man.

He likes to be a winner, making sure that he wins horse races held in Turkmenistan each year. He likes, and appreciates, statues of himself which have started appearing in Ashgabat. He likes, far more than his predecessor, foreign travel.

He doesn’t like poor performing officials and he especially doesn’t like smoking. At least that’s the impression he has given.

Mr Berdymukhamedov has taken it upon himself to eradicate smoking, it appears. According to news reports he has banned smoking in almost all public places and has stopped shops from selling cigarettes.

This is, surely, a shame as lighting up a ciggie at the end of a day is a simple pleasure that had been available in Turkmenistan, a country not known for its personal freedoms.

Still, there may be one upside for smokers in Turkmenistan. The illegal cigarette behind the bike shed may come come back in vogue.

ENDS

(Editorial from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)

Tajikistan sets presidential referendum date

FEB. 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan’s parliament said a referendum on both ditching limits on presidential terms and reducing the minimum age for presidential candidates would be held on May 22, a move widely perceived as allowing Emomali Rakhmon and his family to retain their hold on power.

The 63-year-old Mr Rakhmon has ruled over Tajikistan since a civil war in the mid-1990s. He is generally considered an autocrat who has enriched his family and their supporters and crushed opposition.

Last year the Tajik authorities banned the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan, previously the country’s only official opposition party.

Mr Rakhmon appears to be hedging his bets ahead of a presidential election in 2020.

The constitutional changes, which are likely to be voted through by Tajiks more concerned with the economy than political reforms, will mean that he can either stand for a fourth term as president or that his eldest son, Rustam, can run for president. Rustam will be 33 in 2020. The constitutional amendments will reduce the minimum age for presidential candidates to 30 from 35.

People voting in the referendum will also be asked to decide whether to outlaw political parties linked to religion, a move appeared designed to block any splinter group from the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) gaining any popular backing.

Separately, a court in Dushanbe started the trial of 13 members of the IRPT who are accused of radicalism.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 267, published on Feb. 12 2016)

Kazakh President’s ex- son-in-law dies in prison

DEC. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A judge in Austria ruled that Rakhat Aliyev hanged himself in a prison cell in Feb. 2015 shortly before he was due to appear in court charged with the murder of two bankers outside Almaty nearly 8 years earlier. Some people had suggested that Aliyev, previously a son- in-law and close confident of Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev, had been murdered. The Kazakh authorities had wanted to extradite him.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 262, published on Jan. 8 2016)

Kyrgyzstan-Kumtor talks collapse

DEC. 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz government officials quit 2- year-long talks with Toronto-listed Centerra Gold, the company that owns the Kumtor gold mine, over a new ownership structure deal. Talks had focused on Kyrgyzstan swapping its 32.7% stake in Centerra Gold for a 50% stake in the subsidiary that directly owns the Kumtor mine. Relations between the two sides have been strained.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 262, published on Jan. 8 2016)