JULY 23 2017 (The Bulletin) — Pro-European and far-right marches both protested through Tbilisi, culminating in a face-off that officials had worried could lead to violence. Although eggs and bottles of water were thrown, there were no reports of serious violence.
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(News report from Issue No. 337, published on July 27 2017)
TASHKENT, JUNE 5 2017 (The Bulletin) — An estimated 400 people protested in Tashkent against police inaction over the murder of a 17-year-old student, the largest demonstration in Uzbekistan against the authorities for 12 years.
Under former leader Islam Karimov the authorities in Uzbekistan cracked down hard on public gatherings, essentially banning them. A Bulletin correspondent in Tashkent said this was the largest demonstration in Uzbekistan since the army shot dead several hundred people in the town of Andijan in 2005.
Activists said that the protest in Dostyk Square had been planned after 19,000 people signed an online petition calling on the authorities to investigate the death of Jasurbek Ibraghimov. He was beaten at his university in Tashkent at the start of May and died in hospital on June 1. The police had declined to investigate but after the public outcry changed their mind.
“We came to the park at 10am (0400GMT). There were 15 to 20 of us. The police tried to disperse us but after more and more people started coming they stopped interrupting the protest,” one activist said.
Another explained that the protest represented not just the need to investigate the death of Ibraghimov properly but also the pent up frustration felt by young Uzbeks. Many of the protesters were young, in their 20s, and savvy users of Facebook and other forms of social media.
“The protest was not spontaneous, it had deep roots. The unrest against corruption and injustice had been roaring like an enraged lion in people’s hearts until Jasur’s death,” said Anvar, a civil activist who agreed to be named. “The death of Jasur broke the silence. People took the park both to mourn the teen’s death and to say enough to social injustice and corrupt systems.”
Since taking over as leader in September 2017, Shavkat Mirziyoyev has talked of opening the country to investors and generating more personal freedoms, but commentators were taken by surprise by the spontaneous demonstration and the authorities’, relatively, relaxed attitude towards it. The protest also highlights just how powerful social media is becoming. The security forces monitor the internet but the sheer number of apps and internet variants and their increased user numbers makes it difficult to cover.
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(News report from Issue No. 332, published on June 12 2017)
JUNE 11 2017 (The Bulletin) — Hundreds of people in Batumi and Tbilisi protested against the detention of 21-year-old rapper Giorgi Keburia, also known by his stage name as Kay-G, for carrying ecstasy tablets. His supporters said that the drugs had been planted on the rapper in retaliation for mocking police in a recent music video. The demonstrations highlight the increasingly vocal drug legalisation lobby in Georgia.
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(News report from Issue No. 332, published on June 12 2017)
JUNE 5 2017 (The Bulletin) — The authorities in Bishkek started chopping down several dozen trees in the city centre to ease congestion, despite complaints from local residents. Several residents tried to stop workmen from cutting down the trees by standing in front of them or lying in the road. Police intervened, detaining protesters. The row encapsulates the tension across the region between residents who want to protect trees and parks, and developers and the authorities who often want to demolish green spaces for building projects that they say are necessary.
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(News report from Issue No. 331, published on June 5 2017)
MAY 3 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Employees at Uzbekistan’s state- owned UzGasOil network of petrol stations have not been paid their salaries, the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty website reported. It said that in a rare show of worker defiance in Uzbekistan, the UzGasOil employees had complained directly to the management about their unpaid salaries. RFE/RL quoted one worker saying that he was owed about $125 for two months work. RFE/RL contacted UzGasOil, rebranded from Uzbekneftegaz this year, who denied that there was a problem. In Uzbekistan, protests by workers against company management are virtually unheard of.
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(News report from Issue No. 327, published on May 5 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)
BISHKEK, MARCH 25 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Roughly 500 people protested outside the security services in Bishkek against the arrest of a former MP, the latest and most violent in a series of demonstrations that have punctured the relative peace of the Kyrgyz capital this year.
Sadyr Japarov, a former MP, was arrested at a border checkpoint when he tried to return to Kyrgyzstan after fleeing the country in 2013.
Protesters scrapped and fought with police, in what has been described as the most violent anti- government clashes this year, after the deadline for Mr Japarov’s release from questioning by the security serv- ices came and went without him emerging. Bishkek is increasingly tense with presidential elections scheduled for November expected to be a tightly fought affair.
Police armed with riot gear had to move in to break up the demonstrations. Police said that they detained 68 people.
There have been several protests already this year in Kyrgyzstan focused on allegations made against the main opposition party Ata Meken, but opinion among experts and locals about this unexpected protest were divided. Some said the arrest, the protest, and quickly-ar- ranged press conference given by the ministry of interior looked suspicious.
“The brave arrival of Sadyr Japarov with the simultaneous organisation of an assertive protest, which would certainly fail, is somewhat strange,” wrote Nurbek Toktakunov, a well- known civil activist and human rights advocate in Bishkek, on Facebook.
A Bishkek lawyer said that the organisational skills shown by the ministry of interior in staging a press conference immediately after the protest were unprecedented.
“The ministry of interior rarely gives press conferences about demonstrations. This is surprising,” he said, asking to remain anonymous.
Other analysts said that the protest may have been organised by the security services to discredit the opposition. Mr Japarov’s return was unexpected as it is unclear what he was returning for, although some said he wanted to drum up support for standing in the presidential election. He had been an MP with the now marginalised Ata Zhurt party, and had largely been forgotten during his self-imposed exile.
The state authorities had accused him in 2012 of trying to overthrow the government. He denied the charges and fled the country.
Some locals praised the police action, though.
“Unregistered protests lead to anarchy. They began to throw stones, plastic bottles and broke through the cordon,” said Daniyar, 27, a resident of Bishkek. “It was a good job our policemen took preventive measures, otherwise it would be chaos.”
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(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)
MARCH 18/19 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in the Kyrgyz capital broke up a series of anti-government protests complaining about what they said was pressure on free speech. Media reported that hundreds of people turned out for the demonstrations after the government said that it was going to sue two media companies for slandering Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev. There have been a number of anti-government protests in Bishkek since the arrest last month of senior members of the opposition Ata Meken party, including leader and presidential candidate Omurbek Tekebayev.
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(News report from Issue No. 321, published on March 20 2017)
TBILISI, MARCH 11/12 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police and rioters clashed in Batumi, Georgia’s second city, allegedly after an argument over a parking ticket escalated into violence.
Rioters burned cars and fought police who resorted to firing tear gas into the protesters in what observers have said was the worst violence for years in Georgia. Local media said that 85 people were detained after the violence.
For the ruling Georgian Dream coalition, the violence is a potential problem as it may show that people are become increasingly tired with the status quo and also of deal with an economic downturn that has started to impact living standards. A Georgian observer said that the main riot was the culmination of a build-up of a bad feeling towards a new police chief in Batumi who was trying to impose heavier fines for small misdemeanours such as littering the street.
There had been two days of protests before the riot.
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(News report from Issue No. 321, published on March 20 2017)
YEREVAN, MARCH 20 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Thousands of demonstrators have marched for four consecutive days through the Armenian capital demanding answers from the government about the death of 49- year old Artur Sargsyan, one of the men arrested and imprisoned last year for capturing a police station.
His death and the subsequent demonstrations have galvanized support for opposition groups only a fortnight before a parliamentary election, the first to be held under a new constitution that shifts power away from the presidential office.
The mainly young protesters have marched arm-in-arm through Yerevan shouting for the government to resign and holding aloft pictures of Sargsyan, known by his nicknamed as ‘The Bread Provider’.
During the two-week-long capture of the police station in July by a group of opposition gunmen, Sargsyan had broken through a police cordon to give them food. He was arrested when they surrendered, and died on March 16 in a hospital 10 days after ending a 25-day hunger strike.
For President Sargsyan and his Republican Party the death and protests, estimated at being 1,000-strong every night, have come at precisely the wrong time. They don’t want voters to see TV footage of police forcibly pulling young protesters off the roads and into their waiting vans.
Richard Giragosian, director of Regional Studies Center based in Yerevan, said that protests have been the defining image of Armenia over the last couple of years and that these latest demonstrations reminds voters of this.
In 2015 there were weeks of protests and clashes with police over a proposed electricity price increase and in 2016 there were more clashes between police and supporters of the gunmen who had captured the police station.
“Although the aftermath of his death may be fairly temporary, and limited to a spontaneous outburst of anger, nevertheless, public anger and deep discontent have also defined this country’s coming election,” said Mr Giragosian said.
The only public opinion poll so far, published on March 6 by Gallup, showed that the party led by millionaire Gagik Tsarukyan, who is broadly sympathetic to the current government, would receive 26.4% of the votes compared to 22.8% for the Republican party.
The poll also showed the other seven political parties and blocs, considered the real opposition forces, failing to pass the threshold to win seats.
The demonstrations may shift that, though, Mr Giragosian said “The government’s arrogance has already undermined both their position and popularity,” he said.
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(News report from Issue No. 321, published on March 20 2017)
