Tag Archives: society

Ex-security chief in Turkmenistan dies in jail

JAN. 17 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tirkish Tyrmyev, the former head of Turkmenistan’s National Security Committee, has died in prison, the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. RFE/RL said that Tyrmev had been sent to prison in 2002 for abuse of power. It also said that shortly before he was due to be released in 2012, a court extended his sentence by seven years for apparently attacking a prison guard. Turkmenistan is one of the most secretive country’s in the world and has a poor human rights record.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Uzbekistan’s Denis beats Novak

JAN. 19 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin pulled off one of the biggest upsets in international tennis when he beat world no. 2 Novak Djokovic 3-2 in the second round of the Australian Open. Istomin is ranked at 117 in the world.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Georgians doubt authenticity of UNM split

TBILISI, JAN. 20 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — On the streets of Georgia’s capital city, the UNM’s split was received with scepticism. Georgians are generally weary of the political infighting.

Giorgi, a PhD candidate in Finance, said the split will make the opposition weaker.

“Instead of accepting election results, Saakashvili’s loyalists were planning to declare election results as fraud and fight back from the street,” he said.

“The breakaway section chose the pragmatic way to oppose the ruling party using their parliamentary mandates. However, this move made the opposition weaker.”

Ani, a civil servant, said she doubted the real reason behind the split. “We need to be careful, overall it is still the UNM. Not sure that this is a real split and not a political game again”, she said.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Georgians feel upbeat about future

JAN. 20 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — >> There is a new public opinion poll out in Georgia, produced by the National Democratic Institute (NDI). Is this important?

>> In a word – yes. This is one of the rare and generally reliable snapshots of public opinion that is produced in Georgia. Most other polls are biased towards whoever has commissioned it and their political allies.

>> So what did this one tell us?

>> The data is a result of surveys done in November, shortly after a parliamentary election that the Georgian Dream won easily. These results are reflected in the poll data which showed that for the first time since August 2014, more people felt that Georgia was going in the right direction. It was a close run thing, though, with 36% of respondents saying that Georgia wasn’t changing one way or the other, 32% saying it was moving in a positive direction and 27% saying that things were getting worse. This compares well to March 2016 when 40% of the respondents said that Georgia was heading in the wrong direction and only 20% said it was heading in the right direction.

>> And how did this compare to previous poll results?

>> When the Georgian Dream, the coalition funded, by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, first won power in 2012, the poll results for Georgia moving in a positive option were sky-high at around 60% or the high 50s. Things had slipped though.

>> What else does the poll tell us about Georgia?

>> By far the two most important issues for people polled were jobs and rising inflation – 58% of respondents said that jobs were a major concern and 38% said inflation was a major concern. Territorial integrity (27%) was ranked fairly highly but joining NATO (3%) and joining EU (3%), the things that occupy most of the politicians most of the time were towards the bottom of the list.

>> Have people’s priorities changed? Were they different when Georgia’s economy was doing better?

>> Much like the rest of the region, Georgia’s economy has been under immense pressure recently with a recession in Russia and an overly strong US dollar. Over the past few months, Georgia’s lari has plummeted in value and the government has warned of tough times. But, and this is the point, in good times or bad, NDI says that Georgians top five priorities are the same. These are, in order of preference – jobs, inflation, poverty, territorial integrity and pensions. Clearly other than issues over the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, it’s all about the economy.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Aeroplane crashes into village near Kyrgyz capital, kills 38

BISHKEK, JAN. 16 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A Turkish cargo aeroplane flying from Hong Kong to Istanbul overshot the runway at Manas International Airport outside Bishkek on a refuelling stop, ploughed into a village and killed at least 38 people.

Crash investigators said fog had shrouded the airport but there had been no problems reported from the flight deck.

Airports in Central Asia are competing for lucrative stop-over trade for flights, both passenger and cargo, between East Asia and Europe. Depending on the investigators’ findings, the crash may damage Manas’ credibility.

At the crash site, the village of Dacha-Suu, which took the main impact, had been destroyed. The aeroplane’s torn wing stuck up through a smashed roof. The cockpit lay smashed and broken in a front garden. Part of the undercarriage had ripped through a living room, bringing death and destruction to Kyrgyz domestic tranquility.

Residents of the village who escaped described a loud bang.

“I thought there was an earthquake, but looking out of the window, we saw the fire,” one man told television news.

A Conway Bulletin correspondent said that the military and the police had cordoned off the site.

There has also been criticism of the government’s response with many Kyrgyz saying that President Almazbek Atambayev was too slow to show his grief over what is being treated as a national disaster.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Analysts are positive on Georgian Healthcare in 2017

JAN. 20 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian Healthcare, part-owned by Bank of Georgia, has been drawing plaudits. Since its debut on the London Stock exchange in November 2015, the group’s share price has more than doubled to 350p from 170p.

But now analysts are predicting further growth. Stock market analysts throughout 2016 stuck a buy rating on Georgia Healthcare, a valuation that they have stuck with this year. This rating is helped by positive moves from the company itself, including buying the ABC pharmacy at the start of the year. This is the fourth largest pharmacy group in Georgia.

And this, clearly, means well for the company in 2017, according to Georgian Healthcare CEO Nikoloz Gamkrelidze.

“This further consolidates GHG’s position as the leading integrated player in the Georgian healthcare ecosystem, and we look forward to delivering on the expected synergies and targeted growth strategy for the enhanced pharma business,” he was quoted as saying after the deal.

Other pharma and healthcare groups in the region have failed to gain much traction but Georgian Healthcare appears set for another decent 2017.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Kazakh-Chinese dating agency receives threats

ALMATY, JAN. 17 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A Kazakh dating agency which finds Kazakh wives for wealthy Chinese men said that it had received threats after a series of protests against it.

The row highlights growing nationalism in Kazakhstan as well as concerns over land rights and the rising influence of China. In 2016, protests over land rights spread across the country, worrying president Nazarbayev. Anti-Chinese sentiment has generally increased over the past few years as the politics of national identity have been played with increasing vigour.

And earlier in January it emerged that protesters have targeted the Gimeney marriage agency.

Carrying banners, protesters gathered outside the agency’s office in Astana and called on women who married foreigners to be stripped of their Kazakh citizenship and for the government to protect land from being stolen by Chinese.

Aidyn Egeubayev, one of the protest leaders, said that Chinese men only wanted to marry Kazakh women so that they could later claim land through their children.

“The law says that if a child has at least one parent who is a Kazakh, then they automatically become a citizen,” she said in media interviews.

“We believe that this provision should be removed because Chinese only want our land.”

Now, the Gimeney agency has said that they have received direct threats against it.

A representative of the business, though, defended its business model. “I hope you understand that this is all absurd, we live in 21st century. It is a real problem that there are eight women for one men, it is no joke,” she said, preferring to remain anonymous.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Suspected arsonists torch Muslim cultural centre in Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge

TBILISI, JAN. 10 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian investigators travelled to Duisi, the largest village in Georgia’s predominantly Muslim Pankisi Gorge, to inspect a suspected arson that damaged a Culture House run by the Kakheti Regional Development Fund (KRDF) earlier this month.

KRDF members said that jerry cans with fuel and oil were found inside the building and that the fire was an arson attempt.

The fire, sources said, highlights increased tension in the Pankisi Gorge between reactionary Islamists and more liberal thinkers. The IS extremist group has successfully recruited men to join their forces in Syria from the Pankisi Gorge.

Iza Bekauri, spokesperson for KRDF said that the centre has previously been threatened.

“There have been threats that we should get out of the Gorge. They said our work here in this place is unacceptable and we should leave,” media quoted her as saying.

The KRDF is a government sponsored programme that aims to help refugees in the Pankisi Gorge integrate. These are mainly ethnic Chechens who escaped from fighting in Russia’s North Caucasus in the early 2000s.

As well as providing legal assistance to Chechen refugees, the the community centre promotes educational and recreational activities for both youths and women.

A KRDF employee who wanted to remain anonymous told The Conway Bulletin that some radical elements in the Pankisi Gorge were against women using the centre.

“They like our educational activities but they don’t like our cultural events, women engagement and Women Council’s work,” he said.

Levani, a local dentist, said that a lack of education was the problem.

“Some young men don’t like the idea of women being more independent. Chechens have been living there for long time and they love Georgia. The problem is Pankisi is a remote and isolated part of our country. The problem is not Islam, the problem is limited education”, he said.

The KRDF has said it will consider suspending its activities if the area is deemed unsafe.

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(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Kazakh registration rules frustrate people

ALMATY, JAN. 7 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kazakh authorities imposed new migration rules which will force people to register with a local unit of the interior ministry every time they switch jobs or travel somewhere, even if it is just for a few days.

The interior ministry has said the new rules are needed to help fight terrorism but the hundreds of people queuing at centres across the country said that the new plans were just adding cost and wasting time.

Centres dealing with the flow of people trying to register under the new rules have had their opening times extended by an hour and are now also open on Sundays.

Saltanat, 25, a small business owner in Almaty said the authorities hadn’t communicated their plan properly.

“This is a very flawed law and I think that those who passed it don’t fully understand it themselves,” she said. “I have to work eight hours a day and I don’t know how am I going to register given huge lines in Public Service Centres.”

The Kazakh authorities want to clampdown on terrorism and some people welcomed the new rules.

“In my mind, authorities are attempting to solve two problems at once. Reduce the crime rate in big cities and control the unstoppable migration of people from rural areas to the cities like Almaty,” said Shaken, 49.

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(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Apartment block collapses in Kazakhstan

JAN. 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — At least nine people died when an apartment building in the town of Shakhan, near Karaganda in central Kazakhstan, collapsed. The emergency services have said that the death toll could rise. The accident shows the often dangerous state of many of the Soviet-era buildings in Kazakhstan.

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(News report from Issue No. 311, published on Jan. 6 2017)