SEPT. 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s ministry of defence accused Armenian backed forces in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh of killing three Azerbaijani soldiers. The accusation marks another escalation in tension between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Armenia accused Azerbaijan of killing civilians last week.
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(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)
OCT. 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – So the fate of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) appears to have been sealed by the country’s highest court. It is, apparently, a terrorist organisation that helped plan a couple of attacks last month on police checkpoints which killed two dozen people.
A former deputy defence minister has been named as the mastermind of the attacks but the IRPT also played an important role, the court said.
This is the culmination of a ramping up of pressure on the IRPT this year. Its leaders have been forced out of the country, some of its top Dushanbe-based officials have been attacked in the street and various courts have banned it for, firstly not being big enough and secondly for its involvement in the September attacks.
To really prove its case, the Tajik judiciary needs to release more concrete evidence to the international community of the IRPT’s apparent involvement in the attacks. At the moment it just doesn’t stack up.
Instead, as an analyst told the Bulletin’s correspondent in Dushanbe, it feels like a blatant attack on political opponents.
This is dangerous for Tajikistan. What Tajikistan needs is a moderate opposition group that is going to challenge the authorities and President Emomali Rakhmon through the normal channels. What it’ll get instead, with the crushing of opposition groups, is a vacuum that radical Islamists can exploit.
Tajikistan stands at a cross- roads. By banning the IRPT, the authorities are disenfranchising part of its population and taking another step along the wrong path.
By James Kilner, Editor, The Conway Bulletin
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(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)
OCT. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan security forces killed two men they said were linked to former deputy minister Gen. Abdukhalim Nazarzoda. Tajik authorities have accused Nazarzoda of plotting attacks on police checkpoints that killed more than two dozen people in Dushanbe and a nearby town last month. Nazarzoda was killed during a special operation.
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(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)
SEPT. 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The US embassy in Tashkent said that an unidentified man threw two homemade grenades over the wall of the compound.
One of the grenades exploded but didn’t injure anybody, the embassy said in a statement. No group has claimed responsibility. The embassy closed immediately after the attack although it reopened the following day.
“At approximately 7:30 am on Monday, September 28 an unidenti- fied assailant tossed two improvised incendiary devices onto embassy grounds,” the embassy said in a state- ment.
“One of the incendiary devices exploded. Immediately following the explosion the embassy went on lock- down. No one was injured in the blast.”
The attack will be a major concern for the US. Governments in Central Asia have spoken of the increased threat from radical Islam, although some of the evidence has been dis- puted. It’s still unclear if this attack was linked to radical Islam or to something else but it would have been unsettling.
In 2004, car bombs targeted both the US and Israeli embassies. Two security guards were killed outside the Israeli embassy.
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(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)
SEPT. 29 2015, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan’s High Court decreed the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) a terrorist organisation and banned it, wiping the only real opposition party from the country.
The high court statement published by the Khovar state news agency accused the IRPT of committing crimes of terrorist acts and spreading provocative materials.
Pressure on the IRPT has been building.
The General Prosecutor’s Office earlier accused the IRPT leadership of involvement in double attacks on police checkpoints last month that killed two dozen people. It said the mastermind of the attacks had been deputy defence minister Abduhalim Nazarzoda.
Police also detained Buzurgmehr Yorov, an IRPT lawyer, after he started defending 13 top party members arrested for the attacks. Mr Yorov has reportedly been charged with fraud and corruption crimes.
Earlier this year, the Tajik authorities also prosecuted Group 24, another political party that it deemed to be plotting against it.
An analyst who declined to be named said: “It is the sign of zero tolerance of any kind of political opposition, no matter whether they are religious or secular. Tajikistan has now become a one-party state.”
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(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)
SEPT. 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Islamic Jihad Union, an Al- Qaeda splinter group, said that it now controlled part of the border zone with Tajikistan and Afghanistan. This claim could not be independently verified but the media did say that the Islamic Jihad Union had reportedly released photos of armed men around the Amu Darya river on the border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)
SEPT. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The US embassy in Dushanbe donated tactical military equipment worth $260,000 to the Tajik special security forces (OMON) to use against drug traffickers in the south of the country, local media reported. The donation is controversial because Tajikistan has previously used its special forces against government opponents.
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(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)
SEPT. 20 2015, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajik security forces detained 13 leaders from the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) and accused them of being linked to attacks this month that killed two dozen people.
Pressure has been mounting on the IRPT, the only real opposition party in Tajikistan, over the past few months. It’s leader, Muhiddin Kabiri, has fled into exile and the ministry of justice has said that the IRPT has to disband because it lacks members.
Now, the Tajik authorities have allegedly seized documents from IRPT office in Dushanbe that proves it was involved in attacks apparently lead by a disgruntled former deputy defence minister.
The IRPT denied links to attacks on two police stations on Sept. 4.
And on the streets of Dushanbe, this is view shared by some residents.
“I don’t think that IRPT are involved. The government is apparently getting rid of former Civil War opposition members,” a Dushanbe resident called Yahyo said.
A Dushanbe analyst agreed and said that Pre.s Rakhmon had used the attacks to get rid of opponents.
“Rakhmon will further centralise the regime with these lies being his main tool,” he said, anonymously.
The authorities also said they killed Gen. Abduhalim Nazarzoda, the ex-deputy defence minister blamed for organising the attacks (Sept. 19).
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(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)
SEPT. 25 2015, ALMATY (The Conway Bulletin) — Ukraine’s embassy in Astana sent an official protest note to the Kazakh foreign ministry after a school text book published a map of Russia showing the annexed region of Crimea to be firmly within its borders.
The map touched off a row that not only threatens to derail relations between Ukraine and Kazakhstan but also highlights the sensitive diplomatic tightrope that former Soviet states have to walk. Russia is the main economic driver of growth in Central Asia but Kazakhstan, and others, also need to maintain good relations with the West which firmly backs the Ukrainian government against the Kremlin.
“The Ukrainian Embassy has sent a note of protest to Kazakhstan’s foreign ministry because school books issued by the Mektep publishing house say the Autonomous Republic of Crimea is a federal subject of the Russian Federation,” Ukraine’s statement said.
“The distribution of this information contradicts the position of the international community and Kazakhstan that has repeatedly stated its support to Ukraine’s territorial integrity.”
Mektep is one of the biggest publishers of school textbooks in Kazakhstan. Its textbooks are used across the country and are based on the school curriculum.
The map, published in a geography textbook aimed at 16-year-olds earlier this year, showed Crimea as part of Russia.
Crimea quit Ukraine last year after a referendum overwhelmingly supported joining Russia. The referendum, though, has not been recognised by Kiev or its Western allies. Since then a civil war in the east of Ukraine has pushed relations between the West and Russia to a post-Cold War low.
Only a few countries, such as Syria, North Korea and Venezuela recognise Crimea as part of Russia. Kazakhstan, officially, has been careful not to recognise it as part of Russia.
When contacted by a Bulletin correspondent in Kazakhstan, the Mektep publishing house declined to comment. A couple of the book’s authors had previously spoken to RFE/RL, though.
They defended the map by saying that it wasn’t meant to be a political statement but instead to reflect the results of last year’s referendum.
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(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)
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SEPT. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Japan and Kazakhstan will co-chair a conference in New York later this month which will push for a comprehensive ban on nuclear testing, UN official Lassina Zerbo told Japan Times in an interview. Both countries have a vested interested in nuclear issues. The US dropped two atomic bombs on Japan in 1945 towards the end of World War 2. Kazakhstan sees itself as the champion of anti-nuclear issues.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)
