APRIL 13 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — In an interview with the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Tajik interior ministry spokesman said that interior minister, Ramazon Rahminzoda, had ordered policemen to go to the theatre at least once a month. He said that the theatre could inspire, challenge and educate policemen. Tajik police have a reputation for being corrupt.
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(News report from Issue No. 324, published on April 13 2017)
APRIL 10 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon officially signed a decree appointing his 29-year-old son, Rustam Emomali, as the mayor of Dushanbe. Mr Emomali had been acting mayor of Dushanbe since January when the previous long- serving incumbent was suddenly fired. He had to wait until he had been elected to the city assembly before he could take up the position on a full-time basis. He was elected to the assembly at the end of last month. Some analysts have said that Mr Emomali’s promotion is part of the grooming he is undergoing ahead of taking over from his father as president.
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(News report from Issue No. 324, published on April 13 2017)
APRIL 13 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbek president Shavkat Mirziyoyev has signed a law on setting up a government unit specifically to attract foreign investment, media reported. The State Committee for Investments will also be tasked with ensuring that the foreign investment is directed properly. President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, in power since September last year, has said that he wants to attract more foreign investors.
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(News report from Issue No. 324, published on April 13 2017)
TBILISI, APRIL 7 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — In his annual address to Parliament, Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili accused the ruling Georgian Dream party of hampering the democratic development of the country, reflecting the growing rift between the head of state and his former parliamentary colleagues.
Mr Margvelashvili main frustrations were the concentration of power in the hands of the ruling party, the lack of dialogue with the opposition and constitutional reforms which will turn the presidency into a token position.
Last year the Georgian Dream crushed its main rival, the United National Movement party of former president Mikheil Saakashvili in a parliamentary election. It won an outright majority but Mr Margvelashvili said that it had failed to achieve any lasting good despite its dominance.
“Last November, I addressed the newly elected parliament and said the formation of a constitutional majority raised the threat of concentration of power, but at the same time raised the prospect of bold reforms and initiatives,” he said. “What do we actually have five months later? The potential threat has become a serious problem, and the dynamics of reforms are not impressive.”
Mr Margvelashvili was elected president in 2013 as Georgian Dream’s candidate. However, his relationship with the ruling party has collapsed.
Ghia Nodia, professor of politics and director of the International School of Caucasus Studies in Ilia Chavchavadze State University in Tbilisi, said that the row between Mr Margvelashvili and Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgia’s richest man and the power behind the Georgian Dream, had become a personal matter.
“The President is considered to be a traitor,” he said. “I don’t think the President wanted a conflict but to be loyal to Ivanishvili is a condition of the Georgian Dream coalition but Margvelashvili decided to be independent and to be a protector of the constitution.”
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(News report from Issue No. 324, published on April 13 2017)
APRIL 13 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Archpriest Giorgi Mamaladze, the priest waiting for his trial on charges of attempting to poison a senior member of Patriach Ilia II’s inner circle, has said that he is going to apply to the European Court for Human Rights against what he has said is an unfair process. Archpriest Mamaladze was arrested this year trying to board a flight to Germany with cyanide, a case that has captivated the Georgian public.
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(News report from Issue No. 324, published on April 13 2017)
YEREVAN, APRIL 8 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Republican Party of President Serzh Sargsyan was confirmed as the winner of a parliamentary election in Armenia on April 2.
Armenia’s Central Election Commission said the Republican party had won just under 50% of the vote (55 seats), the generally pro-government Tsarukyan Alliance won 27% of the vote (30 seats), the opposition Way Out Alliance nearly 8% (9 seats) and the pro-government Armenian Revolutionary Federation 6.6% (7 seats).
No other political bloc passed the 7% threshold to win seats or the 5% threshold needed to be breached by an individual political party in an election that was marked by alleged vote buying. There were no reports of the protests that had been expected.
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(News report from Issue No. 324, published on April 13 2017)
MARCH 29 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s Supreme Court upheld the detention of opposition leader Omurbek Tekebaev who was arrested when he tried to enter the country in February. The authorities have accused Mr Tekebaev, who is a leader in the Ata Meken party, of bribe-taking and fraud. His detention sparked off anti-government street demonstrations in Bishkek and in the south of the country. Also in Kyrgyzstan, the security services confirmed that it had charged another senior member of the Ata Meken party, acting chairman Almambet Shykmamatov, with fraud while he was an auditor at the State Accounting Chamber in 2011.
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(News report from Issue No. 323, published on April 6 2017)
APRIL 2 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The son of Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon, Rustam Emomali, was officially voted in as a deputy in Dushanbe’s city assembly. The vote allows Mr Emomali to take over as mayor of Dushanbe, a move that marks yet another shift rise for a man analysts have said is being groomed to take over the top job from his father. In January, Mr Rakhmon appointed his son to be the acting mayor of Dushanbe, but he could only become the permanent mayor after he had been elected to the city’s assembly. He had previously been head of the government’s anti-corruption unit and head of Tajikistan’s football federation.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 323, published on April 6 2017)
APRIL 6 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — >> Armenia has just held a parliamentary election that many observers have said is its most important since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Why?
>> The parliamentary election on April 2 was the first since a referendum in December 2015 that changed the constitution and shifted the balance of power away from the President to the PM and parliament. The constitutional changes don’t actually come into effect until President Serzh Sargysan finishes his second and final term in office next year, but the point is that the parliament elected this month will have more power than any other in Armenia’s independence.
>> What are the main changes in the constitution?
>> Whereas neighbouring Georgia shifted some power to parliament in constitutional changes in 2010, Armenia went the whole hog and will move from a presidential system to a parliamentary one. The president is to become a figurehead with no decision-making powers. Direct elections for the president will also be scrapped, parliament will instead pick him or her. Instead, the PM will be the head of the military, will appoint ministers and will set the various policies. Previously, the President had controlled all the major decisions, including appointing the PM.
>> So why were the changes controversial?
>> There the suspicion that Sargsyan and his allies were trying to tie up power for themselves. Sargsyan is obliged to stand down as President at the end of his second term. The opposition said that he would then try to become PM to retain all his power. We’ll have to wait and see on this. It was certainly convenient for Sargsyan that only his allies and appointees sat on the commission to draft the new constitution and also that it doesn’t come into force until the end of his second term.
>> How has Parliament changed with the new constitution?
>> The number of deputies is being cut to 101 directly elected, down from 131, with four seats being given to ethnic minorities. The 101 seats will also be elected wholly through a system of proportional representation. A second round vote has also been introduced to ensure that the winning party has a parliamentary majority. Opposition members have criticised the reforms as undemocratic but the Venice Commission, the Council of Europe’s constitutional watchdog, gave the changes a qualified thumbs up.
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(News report from Issue No. 323, published on April 6 2017)
APRIL 2 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyz opposition leaders demanded an investigation into wounds found on Sadyr Japarov, a former MP who was detained last month after he arrived back in Kyrgyzstan after four years of self- imposed exile. Mr Japarov, who has been detained on suspicion of involvement in various financial crimes, was found with cuts to his neck which the authorities have said were self-inflicted during a suicide attempt. In March hundreds of Mr Japarov’s supporters had clashed with police in Bishkek. Mr Japarov is one of several opposition leaders who have been arrested.
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(News report from Issue No. 323, published on April 6 2017)
