Tag Archives: politics

Azerbaijani president rails against Western criticism

JULY 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a televised speech to his cabinet, Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev said Western governments and human rights groups had no right to criticise Azerbaijan for a clampdown on civil rights.

In seemingly combative mood, Mr Aliyev took aim at the German parliament, the Bundestag, which had just passed a motion criticising Azerbaijan.

“Is the German Bundestag master of the world, ruler of the world, should everyone obey them?” Mr Aliyev said. “We don’t want anything from them, while they, on the contrary, need our gas, contracts, oil and our activity in this region.”

Mr Aliyev, increasingly vocally, rails against the West for what he has said is unfair criticism of his government.

Baku hosted the inaugural European Games last month, an event that Mr Aliyev had hoped would showcase Azerbaijan. Instead it was used as a lightning rod by critics

Azerbaijan has evicted several Western institutions, including the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the US Peace Corps, a teaching programme for young Americans.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)

Armenia starts constitutional reforms

JULY 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A special commission on constitutional reforms started consultations to shift Armenia’s constitution towards a parliamentary democracy, media reported. Executive power, it is envisaged, would be held by the PM rather than by the president. A referendum is due at the end of 2015.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)

Kyrgyz police detains MP over corruption

JULY 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz police detained MP Hajimurat Korkmazov for extorting a bribe of $100,000 from the brother of Nariman Tuleyev, a jailed MP, the AKIpress agency reported. The case highlights corruption among officials in Kyrgyzstan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)

Turkmen president pardons convicts

JULY 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov signed a decree to pardon over 1,300 prisoners on the eve of a religious holiday. Mr Berdymukhamedov regularly issues presidential amnesties to celebrate official holidays.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)

Parliament votes to weaken interior ministry

JULY 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – TBILISI – Georgia’s parliament voted 78-0 in favour of stripping control of the country’s security and intelligence agencies from the ministry of interior.

Under the reforms the interior ministry will retain control of policing in Georgia and the border guards, although its overall power will be much reduced.

The current interior ministry structure was created by former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili. He pooled counterintelligence operations and border control with other law enforcement units under the interior ministry. Mr Saakashvili argued this system was more efficient. His opponents said accountability was reduced.

Nino Dolidze, a university professor at the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs, explained.

“Together with the ministry of justice, it was the flagship of all Saakashvili’s reforms,” she told The Bulletin. “But it also became the place where his success started to melt and decrease.”

One of the main promises of the Georgian Dream coalition during 2012 parliamentary elections was to break down this concentration of power.

From Aug. 1 a new State Security Service will take over counter-terrorism, counter-intelligence, anti-corruption, surveillance and other special operations responsibilities. The head of the State Security Service will be selected by the government and approved by parliament for a single six-year term.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)

Azerbaijan bans Russian singer from visiting the country

JULY 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan said it had added Russian opera singer Lyubov Kazarnovskaya to the list of people barred from visiting the country because she had recently travelled to the disputed region of Nagorno- Karabakh. Azerbaijan and Armenia are still officially at war over the region.

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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)

Uzbek authorities arrest 500 police

JULY 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Uzbekistan arrested 500 police last year on various charges including corruption, torture and abuse of power, media reported quoting a source in the interior ministry. Rights groups have accused Uzbekistan of being a police state.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)

Kazakh government pressures oil company

JULY 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Max Petroleum, a London-listed oil company operating in Kazakhstan said that it was operating under severe financial stress because of a back-tax bill imposed by the Kazakh government. Earlier this year, Max Petroleum said the drop in oil prices was pressuring its finances.

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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)

Georgian Central Bank challenges budget plans

TBILISI, JULY 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s Central Bank scorned as inadequate the government’s plan to cut spending in the face of a region-wide economic downturn.

The statement will increase tension between the Central Bank and the Georgian Dream Coalition government which have become embroiled in a row about oversight of commercial banks.

Central Bank chief Giorgi Kadagidze, who was appointed by the former government of President Mikheil Saakaashvili, and his allies have said the government’s criticism of him is politically motivated.

“Expenditures should be cut mostly at the expense of current spending,” the Central Bank said in a statement. “If the goal of the Parliament is to ease the loan burden caused by lari depreciation or to offset further downward pressure on lari, appropriate changes should be made in the [budget], which are not envisaged by the proposed draft of the budgetary amendments.” This is rare criticism.

Last month MPs voted to cut spending across different ministries. The lari has lost just over a quarter of its value since November 2014.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)

Rakishev buys another stake in Kazkommertsbank

JULY 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kenes Rakishev bought an additional 2.61% stake in Kazkommertsbank from its founder and former chairman Nurzhan Subkhanberdin, further strengthening the Kazakh elite’s grip on one of the country’s largest banks.

The share purchase gives the 35-year-old Mr Rakishev, who is regarded as a trustee for more powerful members of the Kazakh elite and is best known for helping to buy a house in England from Prince Andrew in 2008, a 25.84% stake in the bank.

Samruk-Kazyna, Kazakhstan’s national welfare fund, owns 10.7% of the bank and an investment company called Alnair, which is also close to the Kazakh elite, owns a 28% stake in it.

The London-based Mr Subkhanberdin still controls around 32% of the bank but he has been gradually pushed out of Kazkommertsbank this year. His stake in the bank has dwindled and in March he was ousted as chairman.

Mr Subkhanberdin’s mistake had been to flirt with supporting Kazakhstan’s opposition.

In 2009 he wrote an open letter to Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev questioning the imprisonment of the former head of the Kazakh uranium company Kazatomprom, Moukhtar Dzhakishev on various corruption charges.

Earlier this year, the Kazakh government, through Mr Rakishev, forced Kazkommertsbank to buy the debt-ridden BTA Bank.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)