Tag Archives: protest

Tuleshov paid money to protesters, says Kazakh security committee

JULY 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s National Security Committee said that imprisoned businessman Tokhtar Tuleshov paid around $200 to each of the demonstrators that rallied in several Kazakh cities against proposed amendments to the land code in April and May. The Committee said that Tuleshov, in prison since Jan. 30, had organised the protests in 2015, in an effort to overturn the government.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 289, published on July 15 2016)

Georgians protest against hydro

JULY 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Residents of Chuberi, a small village in Georgia’s north-western province of Svaneti, held rallies against the construction of the Nenskra hydropower plant, saying that it would negatively impact their livelihood. Activists said that the power plant will sit in a dangerously seismic region and its construction on the Svaneti river could trigger landslides. The Nenskra plant will cost $1b to build and will be the second largest hydropower plant in the country when it is completed in 2019.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 288, published on July 8 2016)

Kazakh city government refuses land protest

JULY 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The city government of Shymkent, south Kazakhstan, said it rejected an application filed by civic activists to hold a rally against the land reform on July 6. The local government said that the activists had failed to apply on time. Although it has formally been scrapped from parliamentary debate, the proposed land reform is still a contentious issue in Kazakhstan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 288, published on July 8 2016)

200 people protest against drug law in Georgia

TBILISI, JUNE 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Roughly 200 people protested in front of the former parliament building in central Tbilisi against what they said was an excessively draconian and ineffective zero tolerance policy towards drugs.

The protest was one of several organised this year against the drug law in the run-up to a parliamentary election.

In Georgia, possession of even the smallest amount of drugs is considered a criminal offence that could lead to a jail sentence. The law allows police officers to stop people on the street and test them for drug use.

The Georgian Dream coalition takes a conservative approach to society, pulling in support from Georgia’s traditional Orthodox Christian society, but it risks alienating more liberal-minded voters ahead of the election that analysts have said will be hard fought.

Under the slogan ‘Don’t punish us’, demonstrators demanded the decriminalisation of drugs and the allocation of resources instead to social projects and drug rehabilitation schemes.

David Otiashvili, one of the organisers of the protest, said the current legislation was not effective and that it was being used by the police as a tool to impose control over society.

“The legislation is really strict and harsh and it focuses only on punishing people. Georgia is testing 50,000 to 60,000 people per year and it costs us millions and millions. And we know that this drug test does nothing good, there is zero effect,” he said.

The previous government under President Mikheil Saakashvili imposed the zero tolerance rules.

Tea Kordzadze, one of the protesters, said: “What has this repressive drug policy brought to Georgia? The number of drug users has increased.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 287, published on July 1 2016)

Oilmen strike in western Kazakhstan

JULY 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Around 700 oil workers staged a two-hour strike, protesting against alleged pay cuts and job losses at the Burgylau oil service company in Zhanaozen, western Kazakhstan, the US-funded RFE/RL reported. Burgylau is linked to businessman Yakov Tskhai, who owns a majority stake in its parent company KazPet- roDrilling. In 2011, around 15 people died in Zhanaozen during clashes between striking oilmen and police.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 291, published on Aug. 1 2016)

Kazakh authorities accuse imprisoned businessman of coup attempt

SHYMKENT/Kazakhstan, JUNE 6 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Kazakhstan accused imprisoned Kazakh businessman Tokhtar Tuleshov of stirring protests across the country in April and May in an attempt to overthrow the government.

The protests morphed from a demonstration in Atyrau in the west of the country against proposed land reforms into country-wide demonstrations against the government and the worsening economic scenario.

President Nursultan Nazarbayev has already sacked a couple of ministers over the handling of the land reform issue as well as two senior interior ministry officials but some analysts said that he is still looking to deflect blame for the protests away from his government.

The National Security Committee have now said that Mr Tuleshov, who was arrested in Shymkent in the south of the country, in January on various corruption and gun running charges has been plotting for the past year to overthrow the government.

Quoting a National Security Committee spokesperson, media said that Tuleshov’s “plan included destabilising the situation in the country by creating flash points, organising protests and mass unrest.”

Over the weekend, police also arrested a deputy prosecutor-general and two senior military officers for involvement in the plan.

It’s not clear, though, how Tuleshov would have organised this from prison and other analysts were quick to rubbish the theory.

Rasul Zhumaly, a former Kazakh diplomat and now a political analyst, said that Tuleshov was too well-connected to the establishment to risk attempting a coup.

“He had powerful patrons in Russia and Kazakhstan, even among military representatives, and his activity in pro-Kremlin propaganda,” he said.

“It’s more likely that these official charges are nothing but an attempt to find a fall guy and make him responsible for everything.”

Tuleshov was based in Shymkent near the border with Uzbekistan. He was the representative of a Russia- linked military think tank in Kazakhstan and also the CEO of Shymkentpivo, one of the country’s biggest breweries.

In Shymkent, people said that Tuleshov had been targeted because officials coveted his business.

“Tokhtar had a big profitable busi- ness, his family had everything, so there was no need for him to go against current authorities,” said Galina, 38.

“It seems like his business was very attractive for someone.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 284, published on June 10 2016)

Person in the news: The Kazakh beer king

JUNE 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tokhtar Tuleshov, a man known as the Kazakh Beer King who has a penchant for luxury watches and racehorses, has been accused of masterminding protests that spread across Kazakhstan in April and May. According to the authorities Mr Tuleshov was trying to stoke a coup d’etat.

The well-groomed, Mr Tuleshov, is a kingpin in Shymkent, a sprawling city on Kazakhstan’s south on the border with Uzbekistan. The city has something of a reputation of an ethnic melting pot and is home to a million or so Kazakhs and Uzbeks. It also has a reputation for cross border trade and smuggling and for having an air of the so-called ‘wild south’.

Mr Tuleshov revelled in this environment, building up a power base that may have threatened more established politicians in Astana. In a dramatic raid captured on mobile phone footage on Jan. 30 this year, armed police swooped on a hotel where Mr Tuleshov was hosting a meeting. They arrested him and four of his colleagues for alleged drug smuggling and gun running.

His Shymkentpivo brewery is one of the biggest in Kazakhstan, producing around 200m litres of beer every year, including the Shymentskoe brand, one of the most popular. He also has close links with the Russian parliament and was the official representative in Kazakhstan of the Centre for the Analysis of Terrorist Threats, a Moscow-based group. Kazakh news websites have also reported that Mr Tuleshov has bought a majority stake in Uzbekistan’s biggest juice producer.

Like other wealthy businessmen in Kazakhstan, Mr Tuleshov was careful to support causes favoured by the ruling elite. This involved being a fully paid-up member of President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s Nur Otan party and a benefactor of various boxing associations.

Mr Tuleshov was not afraid of showing off his wealth, often driving around Shymkent in a black Rolls Royce, inevitably followed by a convoy of bodyguards, and making pop videos released on YouTube of his wife and daughter’s extravagant birthdays.

All this is a world away from his prison cell where Mr Tuleshov has been languishing for nearly six months. By being accused of trying to organise a coup d’etat, Mr Tuleshov is effectively being cast as an enemy of the state, making his situation precarious – to say the least.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 284, published on June 10 2016)

Editorial: Kazakh coup charge

JUNE 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — If the Kazakh authorities are to be believed Tokhtar Tuleshov, a millionaire Kazakh who owns a major brewery in Shymkent, organised a series of protests across the country in April and May to try to incite a revolution.

He did this, apparently, while in jail. Mr Tuleshov has been in pre-trial detention since the end of January when he was arrested for alleged drug and gun running offences.

And he apparently picked Atyrau, a town hundreds of kilometres away near the Caspian Sea, to kick-start his coup attempt before organising protests in other cities.

These charges lack credibility. How could Mr Tuleshov have organised these demonstrations from his prison cell? Would Mr Tuleshov even have had the influence to organise a rally in Atyrau in mid-April? He has strong local support in Shymkent but this support is unlikely to spread to Atyrau.

It’s plausible that disgruntled members of the Kazakh elite may have organised the initial protests in Atyrau against land reforms that spread but the government needs to present more evidence to back this up.

ENDS

(Editorial from Issue No. 284, published on June 10 2016)

Land commission dampens protests in Kazakhstan

ALMATY, JUNE 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Activists in Kazakhstan said President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s move to defer changes to the land code until next year and set up a commission to improve dialogue with ordinary people was a positive step, although frustrations over the economy still lingered.

Proposed changes to the land code, that would have given foreigners more rights to own and lease land, sparked a protest in Atyrau in April. Those protests then spread across Kazakhstan, taking on a more general anti-government flavour although the land reform issue was still a key concern.

In Kazakhstan, analysts have said, it is difficult for ordinary people to protest directly against the government. Police detained hundreds of protesters on May 21 ahead of planned anti-government demonstrations.

Instead it is easier to protest against a single issue, such as land reforms, and use this to channel grievances over a stalling economy, job losses and a currency devaluation.

At press conference in Almaty, Mukhtar Taizhan, a high profile opposition activist who has been appointed to the land reform commission, said that Kazakhstan’s society was still riven through with tension over the economy.

“The work of commission does not eliminate increasing tensions in our economy,” he said. “If we want stability, we need to change our economic politics urgently.”

Other activists interviewed by the Conway Bulletin’s Kazakhstan correspondent agreed. Saken, an activist said: “There will be no mass protests in the near future because the land commission has softened the current situation.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)

Pro-government protesters target US consulate in Kazakh city

ALMATY, MAY 31 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Roughly two dozen people protested in front of the US consulate in Almaty against what they said was the influence of foreign governments in demonstrations across Kazakhstan since April.

Most of the people at the protest were the same protagonists who had staged demonstrations against banks earlier in the year. The impression was that a group with close links to the authorities had organised the protest to show support for the government. And in contrast to anti- government protests on May 21, police didn’t intervene.

Zhanna Sadykova, a leader of the so-called Give People Housing movement, said one of the demonstrators’ targets were protests against the Kazakh government in the US last week.

“Those who protested in US cities are not citizens of our country and therefore have no right to interfere with our internal policies,” she said.

The protests that have swept Kazakhstan since April have been unprecedented. What started as an isolated protest against land reforms has morphed into a general gripe against the government and the country’s stagnating economy.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)