FEB. 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Uzbekistan detained three close associates of Gulnara Karimova, eldest daughter of Uzbek president Islam Karimov. Ms Karimova has been under increasing pressure over the last few months from rivals in the Uzbek intelligence service who want to derail her presidential ambitions.
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(News report from Issue No. 172, published on Feb. 19 2014)
FEB. 6 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Usually Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan’s president, prefers to stand above everyday politics. It’s too dirty, too grubby for the president to become involved with.
Last year he hardly campaigned during a presidential election.
At an economic forum, though, in Baku, Mr Akuyev allowed himself to attack his opponents. The US government funded Radio Free Europe/Radio liberty reported that Mr Aliyev had said that October’s presidential election meant “the end of the opposition, the top of its shame.”
Certainly, the opposition collation performed poorly in the election. Its campaign was disorganised and characterised by a lack of leadership but it’s unclear what exactly would have provoked Mr Aliyev into the outburst.
It’s also unclear what he has to gain from it.
Since the election, the authorities in Azerbaijan have continued to hound Mr Aliyev’s opponents, often arresting them on charges which human rights groups have said have been fabricated.
Mr Aliyev may have been trying to defend the authorities’ actions. He said that “those who receive grants from abroad have no place in Azerbaijani politics.”
The reference is clear. Mr Aliyev was accusing his opponents of being influenced by foreign agents. It looks as if Azerbaijan’s politics is going to get tougher still.
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(News report from Issue No. 171, published on Feb. 12 2014)
FEB. 11 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan may be set for a rebrand after President Nursultan Nazarbayev said he thought it was time for a name change.
Mr Nazarbayev told a group of businessmen that he thought dropping the -stan suffix would be a good idea because of the stigma attached to the so-called Stans.
To make his point, Mr Nazarbayev cited the example of Mongolia which he said was thriving because it wasn’t a Stan.
There may also be a hint of snobbery in the proposal. Perhaps Mr Nazarbayev simply feels that Kazakhstan is too big and too important to be lumped together with the other four Central Asian Stans, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
In any case, Mr Nazarbayev suggested Kazakh Yeli as an alternative to Kazakhstan. Kazakh Yeli means Nation of the Kazakhs.
Calling Kazakhstan, Kazakh Yeli would, however, be slightly more than just cosmetic. Stan comes from Persian and means land or territory. Kazakhstan, therefore, means Land of the Kazakhs and not Nation of the Kazakhs.
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(News report from Issue No. 171, published on Feb. 12 2014)
JAN. 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Moscow arrested a French businessman linked to Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov.
The Frenchman was named as 48-year-old Eric Cokini. Reports said he was arrested at an airport in Moscow.
Mr Cokini had worked in Uzbekistan for several years, the AFP news agency reported. One of his roles included importing perfume for shops run by Ms Karimova but he is thought to have had far wider and deeper links with her businesses.
A photo dated from 2010 on Ms Karimova’s website showed the pair chatting.
The Russian interior ministry said the Uzbek authorities wanted to charge Mr Cokini with a series of financial crimes including money laundering, tax evasion and theft. They have asked the Russian authorities to extradite him to Tashkent.
His potential extradition could trigger an international row. Information on Mr Cokini and his links to Ms Karimova is still patchy but his arrest is more evidence that people and businesses connected to her are coming under increasing pressure.
Once thought of as a potential presidential successor, Ms Karimova is locked in a battle for influence against her detractors in Uzbekistan. These are mainly people linked to the rival Samarkand clan.
And she doesn’t seem to be winning. This is bad news for her allies, including Mr Cokini.
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(News report from Issue No. 170, published on Feb. 5 2014)
FEB. 4 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — It’s been a bad week for senior officials in Tajikistan. Media reported that a court in Dushanbe had sent the daughter-in-law of a senior Tajik diplomat to prison for 12-1/2 years for drug smuggling and that President Emomali Rakhmon had sacked the head of the Tajik railway company after his son was involved in a deadly crash.
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(News report from Issue No. 170, published on Feb. 5 2014)
FEB. 4 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Bidzina Ivanishvili, the richest man in Georgia, has already changed the face of Georgian politics. He achieved what at one time seemed the impossible and defeated former President Mikheil Saakashvili and his party in two consecutive elections.
Now, having forced Mr Saakhashvili — the poster-boy of Georgia’s post-Soviet Western-centric policies — into an early retirement, it seems that Mr Ivanishvili still feels he has work to do in Georgia’s civil society. Last month, Mr Ivanishvili announced that he would set up an NGO called Citizen. Now he’s given a mission statement, of sorts anyway, for Citizen.
He said it will remain small with only half a dozen or so staff, and focus on the media and assessing its bias. This has become a particular problem over the past few years with accusations of one-sidedness being thrown around.
“Through objective and quality information we will improve the level of public debate. We will then be able to act as a check on our government,” media quoted Mr Ivanishvili as saying. One of his gripes against Mr Saakashvili was there had been virtually no checks on his power.
The key issue, though, for people watching Georgia is just what influence will Mr Ivanishvili will bring to bear on both media and politics.
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(News report from Issue No. 170, published on Feb. 5 2014)
JAN. 24 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — So-called religious warriors who travel to Syria from Azerbaijan to fight alongside other radical Islamists are driven by cash and not beliefs, MP Govhar Bakhshaliyeva in an online debate.
The authorities in Azerbaijan have become increasingly worried by the number of radical Islamists who have made the relatively short journey to Syria to fight in the civil war.
They fear that many will return both with extremist views and battle hardened.
Ms Bakhshaliyeva, though, said the salary and not the religious cause was the main motivator for many of the men.
“In Syria, as in any other country where there is war and bloodshed, a lot of the fighting is conducted by mercenaries,” an Azerbaijani-language website quoted her as saying.
“As far as I know, the mercenaries in Syria, and these are also European and not just Muslims, are paid about $5,000 every month. People can solve financial problems, and I think this a major attraction for our people to go to Syria.”
Ms Bakhshaliyeva’s views hold more weight than others. She is also the respected head of the Baku Institute of Oriental Studies.
Estimates on the number of Azerbaijan’s who are fighting in Syria vary, but it is roughly around 200.
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(News report from Issue No. 169, published on Jan. 29 2014)
JAN. 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Azerbaijan detained Omar Mamedov, a 19-year-old opposition activist, for drug possession. Mr Mamedov has become well known in Azerbaijan for blog posts that mock President Ilham Aliyev. Rights campaigners have accused the Azerbaijani authorities of cracking down on opponents of Mr Aliyev.
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(News report from Issue No. 169, published on Jan. 29 2014)
JAN. 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — If you thought his work was done in Kazakhstan, think again. The press office of the Kazakh president released photos of Nursultan Nazarbayev and former PM Tony Blair talking and laughing as they discussed the so-called Kazakhstan- 2050 strategy. Mr Blair started working as an adviser to Mr Nazarbayev in 2011.
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(News report from Issue No. 169, published on Jan. 29 2014)
JAN. 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Former Georgian PM Bidzina Ivanishvili will set up a new NGO called Citizen, media reported. Although Mr Ivanishili stepped down as Georgia’s PM in October 2013, analysts have said that he will still play an active, behind-the-scenes role in Georgian politics. Citizen could become an important political tool.
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(News report from Issue No. 169, published on Jan. 29 2014)
