Tag Archives: security

Uzbek cinemas show film based on Andijan killings

MAY 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbek cinemas are showing a slickly made feature-length film which appears designed to project the government’s version of events in the town of Andijan 10 years ago when soldiers killed hundreds of people.

The 2-1/2 hour long film, called Sotqin and made by the government backed UzFilm studios, tells the story of two disenchanted brothers from a provincial town.

With the help of a foreign spy and agitators linked to Western non-governmental organisations they become increasingly religious and are persuaded to launch an attack on government buildings with a group of Islamic extremists.

Human rights groups have accused the Uzbek government of using the film, released in March, as a propaganda tool.

“It [the Uzbek government] wants to provide its own narrative — a quite strident, assertive narrative that Andijan for us is closed and any violence that was committed — or any harm that was done — was done by outsiders, not by us,” Steve Swerdlow, Central Asia programme director at the New York-based Human Rights Watch, told the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Uzbekistan has always disputed the widely-accepted Western version of the Andijan killings of May 13 2005. It has said that 187 people died in Anijan and that most were armed Islamic extremists. Human rights groups said that the death toll was far higher and that those killed were unarmed civilians.

The killings in Andijan triggered an international outcry. Uzbekistan was seen as a pariah state and was shunned by the West. This changed, though, over the past few years because NATO has needed Uzbekistan to help it withdraw its military kit from Afghanistan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 231, published on May 13 2015)

Georgian President visits Brussels

MAY 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Ahead of a EU summit in Riga later this month, Georgian president Georgy Margvelashvili travelled to Brussels to meet the EU President Donald Tusk, NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg. Georgia sees the Riga summit a chance to press its pro-EU agenda.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 231, published on May 13 2015)

Tajikistan will not punish IS fighters

MAY 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan’s interior ministry said that it would not prose- cute men who have fought for the extremist IS group in Syria or Iraq if they repent and want to return home. Tajikistan is increasingly concerned about the number of young men who have moved to Syria to fight for IS.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 231, published on May 13 2015)

Azerbaijan joins military drills with Turkey

MAY 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan and Turkey began joint military exercises, underling their close alliance and highlighting just how isolated Armenia is. Media reported that the drills would continue until May 16. Azerbaijan and Turkey share an animosity for Armenia.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 231, published on May 13 2015)

Armenia to send officer to Mali

MAY 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia agreed to send a military officer as a token member of a United Nations peace-keeping force in Mali, west Africa.

Although from a practical point-of-view sending a solitary officer is a purely symbolic gesture, it still resonates with Armenia’s sense of self-esteem.

Media quoted defence minister Seyran Ohanian who was emphatic on the motives behind supporting the UN peace-keeping mission to Mali.

“Armenia’s involvement in international peacekeeping operations is aimed not only at increasing the international prestige of our country and helping build a pro-Armenian position in the world, but also at prevention and mitigation of possible threats (to Armenia) outside the country,” he said.

The emphasis should, just possibly, lie on ambitions to increase Armenia’s international prestige. Nobody has suggested that Mali’s security is a major concern in Yerevan.

It’s also worth remembering that Mali, and its collapse into a near failed state, was French foreign adventure and Armenia views France as one of its key international supporters.

Armenia has been involved with UN peace-keeping missions since 2004. Its main involvement has been in Lebanon, where an estimated 100,000 Armenians live, although it has also sent its forces to Afghanistan and Kosovo.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 231, published on May 13 2015)

US-Georgia began military exercises

MAY 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – US and Georgian forces began two weeks of military exercises, war games which are likely to irritate neighbouring Russia. The exercises are an annual arrangement designed to increase understanding and cooperation between the two armies. Georgia wants to join NATO.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 231, published on May 13 2015)

Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia move towards defence deal

MAY 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – At a meeting of Azerbaijani, Turkish and Georgian defence officials, the three countries said they were moving towards a trilateral defence agreement. The countries have held a series of meetings this year to try and work out the protocol for a deal. Any deal would isolate Armenia further.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 230, published on May 6 2015)

Armenia extends nuclear site

MAY 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s parliament approved a Russian plan to extend the life-span of the Metsamor nuclear plant by 11 years to 2026, media reported.

Metsamor, built in the 1970s, provides 40% of Armenia’s power but it is controversial. There are concerns over its safety record and its position in an area known for earthquakes.

Russia’s nuclear agency Rosatom will carry out maintenance at the nuclear site, media reported, a project also funded by Russian cash. In February, Russia agreed to lend Armenia $230m to pay for the maintenance and also to give a $30m grant.

Whatever Armenia professes about its various pro-West policies, it is in Russia’s pocket. Russia owns the gas pipeline monopoly, maintains a large military base in Armenia and has pulled Yerevan into its economic union.

This nuclear deal at Metsamor, which has been a few years in the making, just confirms its grip over Armenia.

The Metsamor nuclear plant, which sits near Yerevan near the border with Turkey, is no stranger to controversy. In 2011, the National Geographic magazine published a story with the headline: “Is Armenia’s Nuclear Plant the World’s Most Dangerous?”

The EU and the US appear to think so. The EU offered Armenia nearly $300m to fund the closure of the nuclear plant, an offer Armenia rejected.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 230, published on May 6 2015)

Georgia-Armenia relations sour over S.Ossetian visit

MAY 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Relations between Georgia and Armenia threatened to sour after the speaker of the Armenian parliament, Galust Sahakyan, met a delegation from the Georgian breakaway region of South Ossetia in Nagorno- Karabakh.

Initially, Mr Sahakyan’s meeting with South Ossetian official Anatoly Bibilov, who was in Nagrono-Karabakh to monitor local elections, appeared to suggest some degree of official Armenian support for the rebel government. Tbilisi was incensed.

Georgia and Russia fought a brief war in 2008 over South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Russia and a handful of crony states which want to curry support from the Kremlin — think Pacific Island states looking for aid handouts — have recognised their independence although Georgia still says it wants to reclaim the regions.

Georgia’s government called in Armenia’s ambassador to Tbilisi to explain Mr Sahakyan’s actions and later Georgian PM Irakli Garibashvili spoke to Armenian PM Hovik Abrahamyan to avoid a diplomatic incident.

An Armenian government spokesman later said: “The meeting between Galust Sahakyan and Anatoly Bibilov was purely of private nature. No official issues were discussed whatsoever. A meeting between private individuals has nothing to do with political positions.”

The statement concluded by confirming Armenia’s support for Georgia’s claim over South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 230, published on May 6 2015)

US gives military kit to Uzbekistan

APRIL 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The United States will give Uzbekistan boats and vehicles to counter the drugs trade, media reported quoting its embassy in Tashkent.

The extra military kit, worth $6.2m, will irritate human rights campaigners. They say that Uzbekistan is one of the world’s worst human rights abusers. The US says it has to deal with Uzbekistan because Realpolitik demands it.

The US is withdrawing its military kit from Afghanistan mainly through Uzbekistan.

It has already said that it will leave behind surplus kit that it deems non-lethal. These are vehicles, trucks, body armour and night vision goggles.

“The goal of this Project is to assist law enforcement agencies of the Republic of Uzbekistan to develop investigative leads for disrupting and dismantling major drug trafficking organisations involved in illicit trade of drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors,” the US embassy in Tashkent said on its website.

As well as hitting the drugs trade, the US may also be planning to quietly help Uzbekistan bolster its border defences against incursions from the Taliban.

Central Asian states have said that they are worried about the spread north of the Taliban once NATO quits Afghanistan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 230, published on May 6 2015)