Tag Archives: politics

Tajik opposition leader killed in Istanbul

MARCH 5 2015 (The Bulletin) – Umarali Kuvatov, leader of the banned Tajik opposition Group 24, was shot dead in Istanbul after leaving a dinner which his family later said had also been poisoned.

Opposition groups immediately accused Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon and his associates of being linked in the murder. He has not commented.

Turkish police later detained three Tajik nationals in connection with the murder.
A successful businessman, Kuvatov had once been an ally of President Rakhmon. He fled Tajikistan in 2012. Last year, the authorities in Tajikistan banned Group 24 from holding an anti-government rally and also accused it of trying to stage a coup. Its activists in Tajikistan have been arrested and jailed.

Facts around Kuvatov’s murder are murky but he is thought to have died from a single gunshot to the head after leaving a dinner at the home of another Tajik. His family said they had also been poisoned at the dinner.

Kuvatov’s murder comes only a few days after the murder of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov in Moscow. Unlike Nemtsov, though, Kuvatov was considered far more of a fringe player in Tajik opposition circles.

Even so, for Tajikistan’s opposition, the murder rids it of a characteristic and wealthy figure to challenge President Rakhmon and his iron-like grip on power.
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(News report from Issue No. 222, published on March 11 2015)

Russia gives top awards to Azerbaijani officials

MARCH 8 2015 (The Bulletin) – Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded the Speaker of the Azerbaijani parliament, Oqtay Asadov, and presidential adviser Ali Hasanov the Friendship Order, one of Russia’s highest civic awards.

Opposition groups in Azerbaijan immediately denounced the award as a crude attempt by Russia to curry favour with Azerbaijan.

Despite rows over energy policy, Azerbaijan has seemingly been shifting its political stance towards Russia over the past few years. The West has accused Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev of cracking down on dissent and free media.

In a comment on Facebook, Natig Jafarli, a senior figure in Azerbaijan’s opposition ReAL movement, said the government was getting closer to Russia.

“Imagine what would have happened if Barack Obama gave an award to opposition leaders. They would have been called betrayers and fifth columnists,” he wrote.
There was no official reaction from Azerbaijan’s government on the awards to Mr Hasanov and Mr Asadov.

The pro-government news website APA reported that they had been “Ogtay Asadov and A. Hasanov is (sic) awarded the order for greatly contributing to the strengthening of friendship and cooperation with the Russia Federation.”
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(News report from Issue No. 222, published on March 11 2015)

Western election monitors say Tajik election was unfair

MARCH 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A parliamentary election in Tajikistan has wiped out all opposition representation, delivering a chamber that 100% supports President Emomali Rakhmon.

Western observers said that the election had neither been free nor fair.

“Some contestants provided political alternatives, yet the March 1 parliamentary elections in Tajikistan took place in a restricted political space and failed to provide a level playing field for candidates,” the OSCE, Europe’s main democracy watchdog, said in a statement.
Some media quoted observers saying they had witnessed blatant ballot stuffing too.

Importantly, this is the first time that the opposition Islamic Revival Party has failed to win any seats in parliament. It failed to pass the 5% threshold needed to hold a seat in the 63-person chamber.

According to local media, Mr Rakhmon’s ruling People’s Democratic Party won 57 seats in the election with the Agrarian Party, the Party of Economic Reforms and the Socialist Party splitting the other six seats. All three of the minor parties are linked to Mr Rakhmon.
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(News report from Issue No. 221, published on March 4 2015)

Georgian opposition plan protest

FEB. 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The opposition United National Movement (UNM) called for a rally in Tbilisi against the government on March 21. The UNM has said Georgia’s economy is on the verge of collapse and blames the government. The demonstration may attract large numbers and is a potential flashpoint.
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(News report from Issue No. 221, published on March 4 2015)

Sedatives found in Aliyev’s body

FEB. 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) -An autopsy found sedatives in the bloodstream of Rakhat Aliyev, former son-in-law of Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev, who was found hanged in his Vienna prison cell last month, Reuters reported quoting an Austrian prosecutor. Austrian officials said Aliyev killed himself. Austria has asked Switzerland for a second autopsy.
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(News report from Issue No. 221, published on March 4 2015)

Date set for early election in Kazakhstan

FEB. 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev called an early presidential election for April 26. Pro-Nazarbayev groups have been asking for an election in order to underline his authority as Kazakhstan deals with a tough economic climate.

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(News report from Issue No. 221, published on March 4 2015)

Georgia’s Ivanishvili criticises CBank chief

FEB. 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgia’s former PM and its richest and arguably most powerful man, accused Central Bank chief Giorgi Kadagidze of not doing enough to protect the country from the economic downturn enveloping the region.

Inflation is rising in Georgia, the lari currency is falling in value and businesses are worried. This has all heaped pressure on the 34-year-old Mr Kadagidze, who has been in the top job at the Central Bank since 2009.

Mr Ivanishvili’s intervention will pile on more pressure.

“The Governor of the NBG (National Bank of Georgia), Giorgi Kadagidze, who was appointed by the previous government, led us with his inactivity and incorrect actions to the lari crisis,” he said in a statement released through an NGO he has set up.

A fall in oil prices and economic turmoil in Russia have triggered inflation across Central Asia and the South Caucasus.

Some economic experts argue that Georgia’s Central Bank could have done more to dampen the inflation; others have said the government is merely looking for a scapegoat and that Mr Ivanishvili’s intervention is destabilising.

Vakhtang Charaia, director of the Center for Analysis and Forecast at Tbilisi State University, said: “Ivanishvili’s statement could lead to political instability, which in turn would negatively affect Georgia’s investment climate.”
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(News report from Issue No. 221, published on March 4 2015)

Support increases for early election in Kazakhstan

FEB. 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Various political organisations in Kazakhstan threw their support behind the prospect of an early presidential election, virtually ensuring the vote goes ahead in the next couple of months. Kazakh officials floated the idea earlier this month. They want President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s authority underlined.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 220, published on Feb. 25 2015)

Nazarbayev opponent dies in jail

>>Former son-in-law alleged to have committed suicide>>

FEB. 24 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Rakhat Aliyev, an opponent and former son-in-law of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, died in prison days before the end of a pre-trial hearing linked to the 2007 murders of two Kazakh bankers.

He was found hanged in the toilet, the only corner of his solitary cell without constant surveillance. The prison administration described his death as a suicide but Aliyev’s lawyer, Klaus Ainedter, cast immediate doubt on this explanation.

“I have significant doubts about this without wanting to blame anyone. I visited him yesterday. There could be no talk whatsoever of danger of suicide,” Mr Ainedter told the local press.

Aliyev had at one time been viewed as a potential successor to Mr Nazarbayev but he fell from grace in 2007 and was forced to flee Kazakhstan before the authorities could arrest him for the murder of the two bankers.

In exile, Aliyev, who had been married to Mr Nazarbayev’s eldest daughter, set himself up as a vocal opponent of his former father-in-law from his bases in Malta and Vienna. He always denied any link to the bankers’ murders.

Last year, Aliyev turned himself in to the authorities in Vienna days before police planned to arrest him. The Austrian authorities had declined to deport Aliyev back to Kazakhstan but they had agreed to try him in Vienna for the murders.

Aliyev’s death rids Mr Nazarbayev of another major opponent. In 2013, French police arrested Mukhtar Ablyazov, a former Kazakh banker and minister, who was also a high profile opponent of Mr Nazarbayev.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 220, published on Feb. 25 2015)

Pressure builds on Tajik opposition

FEB. 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The opposition Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan accused the government of cracking down on its activities in the build-up to a parliamentary election on March 1. The party’s chairman, Muhiddin Kabiri, told the AFP news agency that the party was facing “total pressure”.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 220, published on Feb. 25 2015)