Tag Archives: security

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)

Georgia expresses eagerness to join NATO

JUNE 8 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — At a conference in Washington, Georgian defence minister Tinatin Khidasheli said that NATO should be doing more to secure Georgia as a member of the Western military alliance. She said that by approving Georgia’s NATO membership, the group would be sending a message to Russia that it can’t be intimidated. Georgia is desperate to join NATO but some members are wary of upsetting Russia.

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

Uzbek court jails ISIS sympathisers

JUNE 9 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — An Uzbek court in Samarkand jailed six locals who had planned to join the radical group ISIS in Syria and had incited others to practice Sharia law. The court handed out sentences of six to nine years. All the accused, five men and one woman, pleaded guilty. Official reports say that dozens of Central Asians travel to Syria every month to ISIS.

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(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.

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

Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents to meet again

JUNE 9 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia will meet in St. Petersburg later in June for a tripartite negotiation on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, a source in the Russian foreign ministry told local media. Azerbaijan’s Ilham Aliyev and Armenia’s Serzh Sargsyan met in Vienna in May and agreed to maintain the ceasefire over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region where clashes erupted at the beginning of April.

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

Editorial: Attacks in Aktobe

JUNE 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh officials have been quick to blame Islamic militants for a series of attacks in Aktobe, northwest Kazakhstan, that killed at least 25 people.

This, if proved, would be alarming as it would confirm links in west Kazakhstan with Islamic militants in both the North Caucasus and Syria/Iraq. The Islamic militant explanation, though, would also help President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s narrative. He made it clear that if the Kazakh population didn’t support him they would be faced with a dystopian future.

And this version of events, of course, could be accurate, time will tell. But no group has taken responsibility and there is an alternative explanation.

Some analysts have said that the attacks were organised by disgruntled members of the Kazakh elite. Mr Nazarbayev, 75, is looking weak. He hasn’t organised a clear succession and is presiding over a worsening economy. By destabilising the country, a rival would be piling on the pressure.

This is the alternative explanation for the Aktobe attacks that the gov- ernment doesn’t want discussed.

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

Russia defence min visits Turkmenistan

JUNE 9 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Sergei Shiogu, the Russian defence minister, travelled to Turkmenistan for talks with Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, opening the door to improved military cooperation. Turkmenistan has long professed a policy of neutrality and has kept a distance from Russia-led military blocks in the region. Now Turkmenistan could be looking to import military kit from Russia, according to Russian media.

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

Kazakhstan signs military deals with Russia

JUNE 8 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — In three separate deals, Kazakhstan bought a range of military kit. State-owned Russian Helicopters signed an agreement with the ministry of interior to supply helicopters until 2020. Days later, the Russian defence ministry said it would supply Kazakhstan with anti- aircraft missiles for free. In addition, China’s Chengdu Aircraft Industry Company sold two combat and reconnaissance drones to Kazakhstan’s Air Force, the company’s first sale in Central Asia.

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

Gunmen target Kazakhstan

ALMATY, JUNE 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — An estimated two dozen gunmen attacked two arms shops and a police post in Aktobe, northwest Kazakhstan, killing at least six people, attacks that Kazakh officials quickly linked to Islamic militants.

Four gunman were also killed in the initial attacks and another 14 were killed over the next four days as security forces hunted the group.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev called a national day of mourning for June 9 and ordered security forces across the country to mobilise to a high level of alert.

“According to the information that we possess, this terrorist act was organised by supporters of radical pseudo-religious movements. They received their instructions from abroad,” he said in a statement on June 8. Kazakh authorities have previously used this terminology as code for Islamic militants.

These are the worst attacks in Kazakhstan’s 25 years of independence from the Soviet Union. They also come at a highly sensitive time with the economy performing poorly mainly because of low oil prices and unrest growing amongst ordinary Kazakhs. There is also a growing sense of unease that Mr Nazarbayev hasn’t effectively organised a succession, creating a potential leadership vacuum.

There have been no claims of responsibility from any groups for the attacks. Mr Nazarbayev blamed the attacks on people who wanted to destabilise the government.

“In countries where these revolutions succeeded, there is no longer a working state and stability, only rampant poverty and banditry that create conditions for the emergence of extremists and terrorists,” he said.

If confirmed that Islamic militants were behind the attacks, this will be Mr Nazarbayev’s worst nightmare. Security forces have been worried for at least half a decade that Islamic militant recruitment in the west of the country, which has a high proportion of frustrated young men, was rising. Links have developed between the anti-Russia insurgency in the North Caucasus and west Kazakhstan and also between the radical group ISIS in Iraq and Syria and Kazakhstan.

Some analysts have said, though, that the attackers may have been organised from within by disgruntled members of the Kazakh elite who want to destabilise the government.

ENDS

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

S. Ossetian fighters detain Georgian man

JUNE 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Fighters linked to the Georgian breakaway region of South Ossetia detained a Georgian man for illegally crossing the border, said Georgia’s government. Akaki Misireli, 65, was sent to a detention centre in Tskhinvali, the capital of the de facto state that was the focus of a brief war between Russia and Georgia in 2008. South Ossetian forces released Mr Misireli later but the incident highlights just how sensitive the border around the breakaway region is.

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