Tag Archives: security

People in Kyrgyz city burn posters

JULY 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — People in Batken, south-western Kyrgyzstan, burned a government poster aimed at countering the growth of radical Islam which showed Kyrgyz women in traditional clothes transitioning into women wearing a full, black burqa. Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev unveiled the poster this month as part of the fight against a recruitment drive in Central Asia by the radical IS group. The poster has proved controversial in Kyrgyzstan because of accusations that it is stigmatising conservative Muslims.

ENDS

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

Two Kazakhs arrested for spreading rumours

ALMATY, JULY 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh police arrested two people for spreading false information of a major terrorist attack in Almaty via Whatsapp after a lone gunman killed five people earlier this month.

The authorities have said they will take a tough attitude against people who spread rumours. Many Kazakhs are signed up to a series of Whatsapp news groups through which they share information.

On July 18, after a gunman killed eight people in Almaty, security forces ordered people to stay inside. A series of Whatsapp messages about the deteriorating scenario filled the news vacuum.

Ruslan, a 23-year-old Almaty resident, explained.

“I received many pictures and voice messages on my chat groups on Whatsapp,” he told The Conway Bulletin. “But in the end most of that information from voice messages turned out to be fake.”

An interior ministry spokesperson said a 20-year old woman was arrested for spreading false information about hostages being taken at a shopping mall and another man was arrested for spreading rumours that hundreds of armed men were marching through an Almaty suburb.

In February 2014, rumours spread about the bankruptcy of three of Kazakhstan’s biggest banks, triggering a run on the banks and a shortage of cash. In response, a new law came into force making the spread of false information punishable by 10 years inprison.

ENDS

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

20 gunmen in Armenian capital surrender

JULY 31 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Twenty gunmen who had captured a police station in Yerevan surrendered, ending a standoff that had lasted two weeks and triggered clashes between anti-government protesters and police.

The surrender ends what had become seen as a major test of the current government’s resolve.

Armenia’s National Security Service said in a statement: “The anti- terrorist operation is over. Twenty terrorists have been taken prisoner.”

It is still not clear why the gunmen, who had been calling for the release of the radical opposition leader Zhirayr Sefilyan from prison, had surrendered. Over the weekend they had appeared determined to continue their stand-off despite a deadline passing, briefly taking a doctor prisoner and being accused of shooting dead a policeman. The gunmen have denied that they killed the policeman.

A policeman also died during the initial assault on the police station two weeks ago.

Television footage of the gunmen surrendering showed burley Armenian security forces wearing balaclavas frisking the tired looking gunmen. The gunmen looked thin and drawn. Many were old men.

Shortly before surrendering Varuzhan Avetisyan, the group’s leader, said that the gunmen had fulfilled their mission of inciting popular protests against the government.

“Popular protest will continue. We feel that our victory is close and call on Armenian people to continue the fight,” he was quoted by local media as saying.

Clashes had erupted throughout the week between Armenian police and demonstrators supporting the armed group outside the police station.

ENDS

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

Briefing: Gulenist links in Central Asia & S.Caucasus

AUG 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — >>So, we know that the Gulen movement was big in Turkey but in Central Asia? Really? How deep is it and what does it do?

>> The movement, created by cleric Fethullah Gulen, is a social and religious group that has said it wants to integrate moderate Islam into the secular Turkish state and to replicate the model in other Muslim countries. The movement counts millions of followers. As it puts great emphasis on education and upward social mobility, the movement established a network of schools around the world, including in Central Asia and the South Caucasus.

>>OK, but who is Gulen? Wasn’t he an ally of Erdogan?

>> Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan found in Gulen a strong ally when he came to power in 2003, a bulwark against a possible military backlash, something that had dogged Turkish leaders for half a century. Gulen and Erdogan, though, fell out in 2013, when a corruption scandal targeting members of Mr Erdogan’s ruling AKP party emerged. Mr Erdogan and others in his party alleged that the Gulenist members of the judiciary had orchestrated the scandal. Since then the government has cracked down on Gulenists in Turkey. Mr Gulen has lived in the United States since 1999 in a self-imposed exile. Now, after a failed coup in Turkey last month blamed on Gulen, Turkey has said it could ask the US government for the extradition of Gulen. Since the coup, Turkish police have detained over 60,000 state employees and dozens of journalists and businessmen allegedly linked to the Gulen movement.

>>Quiete a full-on assault. Will Turkey now force a crackdown on Gulen- linked institutions in Central Asia and South Caucasus?

>> In short, this bureau and the analysts we contacted all agree that Turkey will not go as far as to sever relations with countries that don’t respond to the request to shut down Gulen-linked schools. Apart from Azerbaijan, all other countries are loosely linked with Turkey. Plus, as shown in our story on page 3, these schools are a relative island of quality and reliability in the South Caucasus and Central Asia’s messy educational system. Both Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan have shrugged off Turkey’s requests to shut down Gulen- linked schools. Georgia appears also to have pretty much ignored Turkey’s request. Only Azerbaijan, Turkey’s super-tight ally, has gone along with Turkey’s request and closed down a TV station that had planned to run an interview with Gulen and brought under government control a university linked to the Gulen movement.

>>OK, but what about the businesses linked to Gulen?

>> The closest business link between Gulenists and the South Caucasus seems to have been uprooted immediately, with the sacking of Sadettin Korkut, chief of Petkim, a petrochemical complex in Izmir, owned by Azerbaijan’s state-owned SOCAR (See the front page of the Business News). It appears that SOCAR was also keeping a list of Gulen-linked people among its ranks. Together with Korkut, who was later arrested, around 200 other employees of SOCAR-linked companies were sacked. This, however, appears to be a one-off act of loyalty from Azerbaijan’s government to Ankara.

ENDS

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

Gunman in Kazakhstan states his motives

JULY 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Ruslan Kulekbayev, who shot and killed six people and injured six others in Almaty in a shooting spree that triggered a major terrorism alert earlier this month, said that there were no religious motives involved in his rampage. The newspaper Vremya published extracts of Kulekbayev’s deposition, where the shooter dismissed any ties with religious organisations. Instead he said that he was protesting against what he said was unfair treatment from the authorities.

ENDS

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

Angolan soldiers get injured in Kazakhstan

JULY 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Ten Angolan soldiers were injured in an explosion during an exercise in Kazakhstan, media reported. The injured soldiers were part of the Angolan team that was scheduled to participate in the International Army Games competition in Kazakhstan next week. It is unclear what caused the explosion.

ENDS

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

Gunman kills 5 people in Kazakh city, sparks terror attack warnings

ALMATY, JULY 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A lone gunman killed five people in Almaty, sparking a rare terror alert in Kazakhstan’s financial centre.

Initially Kazakh officials drew a link between the gunman, Ruslan Kulikbaev, who shot dead four policemen and a passerby and Salafism, a devout Arabic form of Islam blamed for terror attacks, suggesting that he had become radicalised while in prison for an earlier crime.

This triggered a red terrorism alert in Almaty. Shops closed; people stayed inside.

But before the day was out, officials changed their story and reported that Kulikbaev was a lone gunman with criminal rather than religious intentions who had killed a prostitute the day before his Almaty rampage. He was later captured alive.

For analysts critical of the government, officials’ quick use of the terrorism label, underlined their knee-jerk reaction to play the security card to bolster President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s popularity.

Others, though, were more sanguine.

This year Kazakhstan has warned about a growth in attacks linked to the IS radical group which has targeted Central Asia as a prime recruiting ground and Aidos Sarym, an Almaty-based analyst, said Monday’s terror alert would damage the country’s reputation for stability.

“It’s definitely terrorism and it may damage Kazakhstan’s stability and security image prior to EXPO 2017 (in Astana),” he said

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 290, published on July 22 2016)

Kazakh court jails IS activist

JULY 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Petropavlovsk, in northern Kazakhstan, sentenced a man to seven years in prison for joining the IS extremist group. According to the court, the man travelled to Syria in 2012. Warning of a growing IS recruitment drive, Kazakhstan’s security services have said they will intensify their clampdown on Islamic extremism.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 290, published on July 22 2016)

IS threat worsens in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan

JULY 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russian defence minister Sergei Shiogu said that if countries in Central Asia and the South Caucasus ever sink into Syria-like civil war scenarios, Russia will use its military to intervene. Russia has carried out airstrikes in Syria against the IS extremist group. According to official sources, the number of South Caucasus and Central Asian citizens fighting for IS in Syria is rising.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 290, published on July 22 2016)

Tajik court sentences Salafist activist

JULY 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A Tajik court jailed Mukhammadi Rakhmatullo, alleged leader of Salafi, a banned conservative Islamic movement in Tajikistan, for seven years in prison. Rakhmatullo had allegedly returned to Tajikistan after a period working abroad and had continued to run the banned Salafi opposition movement. He was arrested in February during a mass security operation that jailed dozens of Salafists.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 290, published on July 22 2016)