Tag Archives: security

Kazakhstan rams home unity message

OSKEMEN/Kazakhstan, May 14 (The Conway Bulletin) — Yerkimbek Ayazbayev pointed at the billboard sitting on the top of the local government headquarters in this town in north-east Kazakhstan.

He read the slogan, written in both Kazakh and Russian, aloud: “Unity is the guarantee of success.” It had the ring of a Soviet-style mantra.

Under orders from central government, officials in northern Kazakhstan are urgently pressing this message home. They’re nervous because events in Ukraine have shaken up the former Soviet region’s fragile ethnic divisions.

Ayazbayev is a man with a mission. He runs the local branch of the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan, a government-backed body representing the interests of Kazakhstan’s myriad ethnic groups, which numbered over 120 at last count.

It’s the job of Ayazbayev, an ethnic Kazakh, to drive home the mantra of ethnic harmony. He does this, seemingly, with the zeal of a true believer.

“We’re a multi-ethnic state and let’s say so proudly,” he said.

Russians equal around 25% of the population nationwide, but here in Oskemen over two-thirds of people are ethnic Russian. Oskemen is the Kazakh name for the Soviet city of Ust Kamenogorsk.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, 73, is hugely popular with Russians in Oskemen, but they are divided about the community’s prospects in the looming post-Nazarbayev future.

While the older generation is happy to stay in Kazakhstan, many of the younger ethnic Russians see their future over the border.

Student Anna Prokayeva plans to go and study in Russia. “I don’t want to come back to Kazakhstan,” she said. “This is my homeland, and no-one’s discriminating against me but I think I’ll feel more comfortable there.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)

NATO woos Georgia

MAY 1 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Against the backdrop of worsening violence in Ukraine, NATO said it wants to speed up bringing Georgia closer to the Western military
alliance. On a visit to Tbilisi, NATO Special Representative to Georgia, James Appathurai, said: “We are now looking, of course, at next steps, at bringing Georgia even
closer to NATO.”

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 183, published on May 7 2014)

Uzbek al-Qaeda leader killed in Yemen

MAY 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — In Yemen media reported that government soldiers had killed 13 members of an al-Qaeda militant group, including their Uzbek leader. This is significant for Uzbekistan which has been battling militant Islamists for years. There have been a number of credible reports of Uzbeks fighting in Yemen and Afghanistan..

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 183, published on May 7 2014)

Azerbaijani court jails youth activists

MAY 6 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s strong-handed approach to opposition activists may have reached a tipping point after rare scuffles between young anti-government campaigners and police.

The trigger was a judge’s decision to jail eight leaders of the NIDA anti-government youth movement to between six and eight years on charges of hooliganism, possessing drugs and explosives and intent to spread public disorder.

If the charges sound draconian and Soviet that’s because they are, say human rights activists. The authorities say that they are simply doing their job and protecting the state.

Over the past few years, the authorities in Azerbaijan have been steadily ramping up their campaign against anti-government activists.

Barely a month passes without an opposition figure appearing in a court on charges of hooliganism. These court appearances invariably end up with a jail sentence.

Police arrested all eight NIDA activists during demonstrations in Baku in March 2013 against the death of an army conscript in mysterious circumstances.

The verdict, although predictable, triggered scuffles outside the courthouse in Baku and more detentions. The violence was not particularly serious but it is still important. Although street demonstrations in Azerbaijan are sometimes tolerated, there is very little history of violence against the police.

There may, though, be more to come.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 183, published on May 7 2014)

Tension builds in Kyrgyzstan’s second city

MAY 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Gunmen shot a relative of Osh’s popular but controversial former mayor, Melis Myrzakmatov, at his home near the southern capital, sparking fears that a turf war may be brewing.

Jenish Sadiev, 39, to whom the Kyrgyz National Opposition Movement refer to as Mr Myrzakmatov’s nephew, died in hospital on May 2.

Once considered the most powerful politician in the country’s ethnically fragmented South, Mr Myrzakmatov’s whereabouts has been unknown since he failed to win a mayoral election in January.

The former Mayor, accused of stirring ethnic tension in 2010 that triggered violence which killed hundreds, nevertheless retains strong networks in and around the city especially among ethnic Kyrgyz. He is considered a potential opposition figurehead to the central government in Bishkek.

But a mix of politics, organised crime, ethnic division and family loyalties mean that few things are simple in Kyrgyzstan.

Suyin Omurzakov is the chief of police for Osh city. He also happens to be a political rival of Mr Myrzakmatov. He denied that Sadiev, the dead man, was related to the Mr Myrzakmatov and also rejected any government role in the shooting.

Whatever the truth tension is rising in Osh, already a tinderbox of divided loyalties and discontent.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 183, published on May 7 2014)

Tension rises at the Tajik-Kyrgyz border

MAY 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tension between border guards from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan once again closed the border for two days, media reported. Reports said that villages from both countries along their shared southern border blocked the road. Earlier this year a shootout between security forces killed several people.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 183, published on May 7 2014)

Azerbaijani defence officials visit Brazil

APRIL 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — A delegation from Azerbaijan’s ministry of defence started a two-day visit to meet with their counterparts in Brazil, media reported. Azerbaijan has been looking to boost its defence sector, an area that Brazilian industry has been expanding into.

(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)

Uzbekistan rigs media buildings

APRIL 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Uzbekistan have ordered TV and radio stations to rig explosives to their buildings and equipment and to detonate them if they fall into enemy hands, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported. RFE/RL said the order may have been made to protect against Ukraine-style uprising.

(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)

Russian military officials visit Armenia

APRIL 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Officials from Russia’s military arrived in Yerevan for talks with their Armenian counterparts, media reported. According to reports, the talks focused on strategy, military planning and the potential joint use of force. Armenia and Russia have been pulling increasingly close together.

(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)

EU wants closer relations with Georgia

APRIL 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a show of solidarity, the European Union will speed up a deal with Georgia to improve integration of its political and economic links.

The foreign ministers of Germany and France, Frank- Walter Steinmeier and Laurent Fabius, announced the plan on a visit to Tbilisi.

Their main aim was to reassure Georgia that the West does want Georgia in its club.

“I am sure that by the end of June the agreement will have been signed and that it is an important milestone in the history of Georgian and European relations,” Mr Steinmeier said according to media reports.

Since Russia’s de facto annexation of Crimea, the West has sent conflicting messages to Georgia. US President Barack Obama said that neither Georgia nor Ukraine would be part of NATO, although the NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen then said that the Western military alliance wanted closer associations with both countries.

In any case, clearly wary of Georgia’s difficult relations with Russia, Mr Steinmeier and Mr Fabius were eager to underline that the cooperation deal with the EU did not preclude Georgian trade with Russia.

“We don’t see any contradiction between the signing of this agreement and Georgia’s economic relations with other countries, particularly Russia,” Mr Fabius said.

For Georgia, the turmoil in Ukraine has thrown its own thorny relationship with Russia, and NATO, back into the spotlight.

(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)