SEPT. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The New York-based Human Rights Watch criticised Kazakhstan’s commitment to free speech after it ordered the independent-minded ADAM magazine to be suspended for three months for failing to publish copies in both Russian and Kazakh. The authorities closed down its predecessor ADAM Bol in 2014.
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(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)
SEPT. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – From Sept.1 government salaries and pensions in Uzbekistan increased by 10%, media reported, another indication that inflation is accelerating across the region.
Uzbek president Islam Karimov ordered 26, ostentatiously to improve the quality of life for ordinary people but in reality to keep up with price inflation in basic foodstuffs, utilities and petrol.
Like the rest of the region, Uzbekistan’s currency has fallen sharply in value and remittance from Russia have roughly halved.
The Uzbek government usually increases salaries and pensions once or twice a year. The previous salary increase of 12% came in December 2014.
As well as boosting salaries, the government is also increasing import duties on major staples ranging from meat and poultry, to dairy and fruits by around 30%. University tuition fees have risen by 15%. Part of the thinking behind the increase in duties is to ring-fence agricultural production in Uzbekistan during the economic downturn.
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(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)
SEPT. 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Around 100 protesters scuffled with police in Yerevan over electricity price rises for businesses. Activists said they believe President Serzh Sargsyan has reneged on his promise to protesters in June to subsidise planned electricity price rises by omitting businesses from the deal.
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(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)
SEPT. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s parliament voted to overrule a veto by President Giorgi Margvelashvili that would have blocked the adoption of a controversial bill that stripped the Central Bank of its supervisory powers over the commercial banking sector. International organisations have criticised the bill as politically-motivated. The Central Bank has argued with the government over economic policy.
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(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)
AUG. 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a speech to mark the 20th anniversary of the Kazakh constitution, President Nursultan Nazarbayev defended his democratic record and said Kazakhstan’s particularly diverse ethnic make-up made full democracy difficult to achieve.
Mr Nazarbayev, who won a presidential election in April with 98% of the vote, said that it was unfair to accuse him of being an autocrat.
“I know that we are sometimes accused of autocracy,” media quoted him as saying.
“How can we talk about autocracy when every four to five years the people vote in free elections to choose a president and elect a parliament?”
Western vote monitors have never judged an election in Kazakhstan to be either free or fair and Mr Nazarbayev’s opponents have previously accused him of being an autocrat, an accusation that clearly irks him.
Mr Nazarbayev who is 75-years- old and has yet to name a successor, has ruled over Kazakhstan since 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed and the Central Asian states became independent countries for the first time.
He has often defended his record and said that Western-style democracy takes time to build.
“We need to consider that we are an Asian society, we have different traditions from the West,” Mr Nazarbayev said in his speech.
“We have other religious and cultural views, therefore we need to move carefully.”
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)
SEPT. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan has disgraced itself, yet again, in the eyes of the West by locking up for 7-1⁄2 years, journalist Khadija Ismayilova.
Perhaps it is about of paranoia triggered by the Arab Spring of 2011 or perhaps it’s the whispering from Russia to clamp down on dissenters, but over the last few years the authorities in Azerbaijan have developed an unfortunate habit of jailing dissidents on various financial and drug-running charges.
Although Ismayilova and other dissenters may now sit in jail, it is the authorities in Azerbaijan who look foolish.
It’s impossible to take seriously all the charges thrown at the dissenters over the past few years. There have been too many of them, from similar backgrounds, facing similar charges.
Instead, the intrigue is just what has spooked President Ilham Aliyev and the authorities in Azerbaijan? Why does the country feel so insecure?
And there is also the worrying precedent that has been set. Last month a sports journalist was attacked and killed after criticising an international Azerbaijani footballer on Facebook. Journalists in Azerbaijan, it seems, who challenge the establishment are in great peril.
This is important for investors looking at Azerbaijan from a business viewpoint. There comes a tipping point when it becomes just too negative for a company or persons to invest in a country. The reputational damage outweighs any potential profit.
If it hasn’t done so already, Azerbaijan may fast be approaching this point.
By James Kilner, Editor, The Conway Bulletin
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(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)
AUG. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – At a government meeting, Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov ordered his ministers to investigate how they could pursue a more aggressive import substitution policy. This is a policy that Turkmenistan’s neighbours have also talked of introducing.
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(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)
SEPT. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The OSCE, Europe’s democracy and civil rights watchdog, said it was going to send 30 long-term and 350 short-term observers to monitor Azerbaijan’s parliamentary election set for Nov. 1. Relations between Europe and Azerbaijan are at a low. Europe has accused Azerbaijan of cracking down on human rights; Azerbaijan has accused the West of trying to organise a coup.
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(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)
SEPT. 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s parliament cancelled plenary sessions until after an election which is set for Oct. 4. Cancelling plenary sessions effectively marks the start of campaigning for the parliamentary election.
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(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)
AUG. 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kazakh government has drawn up a draft bill which is says will do more to protect workers’ right although trade unions have said that it will reduce overtime pay and strain worker-company relations further.
The oil workers trade unions in western Kazakhstan have written to the government to ask it to change the draft labour law, setting up a stand-off between workers and the government.
Birjan Nurymbetov, the deputy minister for health and social development, told media that the new labour code was good for workers because it defended their rights and increased the criteria that an employer needs to test before he can sack an employee to 25 from 20.
“The new Labour Code fully protects the rights of employees against unfair dismissal,” he said.
The trade unions had a different view.
“The current project rate for overtime, holidays and weekends, is no less than 1-/12 to two times. This will be reduced to 1-1/4,” said Berdy Otebay, deputy head of the Aktau-based trade union Karazhanb- asmunaigas.
Relations between companies and workers have been strained since a protest in 2011 in the western oil town of Zhanaozen ended in clashes that killed at least 15 people. Companies have become increasingly wary of unions who have started to orgsanise workers more effectively, often securing pay rises.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)
