Tag Archives: society

Georgia-Russia mend ties via the Orthodox Church

NOV. 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The head of the Georgian Orthodox Church Patriarch Ilia II flew to Moscow for a week of meetings with senior members of the Russian Orthodox Church, hooked around the 70th birthday of its leader Patriarch Kirill (Nov. 20).

Visits by Patriarch Ilia to Moscow are important because they act as an unofficial diplomatic channel between Moscow and Tbilisi. At times, such as immediately after a war between the two side in August 2008, this channel has been vital and the only way the two sides were able to communicate.

On his arrival in Moscow, Patriarch Ilia appeared to recognise the importance of these meetings.

“Georgian and the Russian Orthodox Churches have great importance for our countries and people. The relationship between us ought to be better than it is now, and we should do everything to improve the relationship between the political figures of our countries. I think we can do this. We need each other and we should help each other,” he was quoted by media as saying.

He plays an important role in domestic Georgian politics, often intervening to mediate in disputes or set the tone in national debates.

Patriarch Ilia is the highest ranking public figure from Georgia to have travelled to Moscow since the 2008 war. On a trip in 2013, he also met with Russian president Vladimir Putin. It is unclear whether he will meet Mr Putin on this trip, which is dominated by meetings with various Russian Orthodox officials.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 306, published on Nov. 25 2016)

Rumours swirl over Gulnara’s death in Uzbekistan, some people want her to return

TASHKENT, NOV. 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — If there is a shadow hanging over the presidential election in Uzbekistan and the apparent smooth handover of power to Shavkat Mirziyoyev coupled with warmer neighbourly relations, it is the figure of Gulnara Karimova.

Very little has been heard of Uzbekistan’s self-styled diva since she was placed under house arrest in Tashkent in March 2014. She had been the preferred successor of her father, Islam Karimov, but fell from grace after police forces in Europe started investigating her financial affairs. It emerged she had been taking bribes worth hundreds of millions of dollars from foreign telecoms firms.

Unlike her sister and mother, who have been pictured mourning and have set up an institute in Karimov’s name, Ms Karimova has hardly been mentioned in news coverage since her father’s death on Sept. 2.

That is until a Russian language website which specialises on reporting on Central Asia, centre1.com, quoted an unnamed member of the Uzbek security forces as saying that she had been poisoned at the start of November and buried in a shallow grave (Nov. 22).

The centre1.com story was widely sited across the media until her London-based son, also called Islam Karimov, released a statement two days later saying that she was alive and well.

“These are just rumours. She’s alive and still bound to a house arrest sentence ,” he told the BBC.

Even so, Ms Karimova has still not been seen in public.

On a trip to Tashkent last month by the Bulletin, though, it was clear that she still carries a degree of support from ordinary people, despite Western media referring to her as the most hated person in Uzbekistan – a reference based on a 2005 diplomatic cable sent from the US embassy in Tashkent to Washington.

Umida, 22, a Tashkent-based student, said that it would be good if the glamorous Ms Karimova returned to public life.

“Gulnara did lots of useful things in the sphere of culture and education and gave many opportunities to young people,” she said.

Dilmurad, 28, agreed. “I don’t know whether the accusations about her are right or wrong, but I would like to see many of the social projects she organised, the Forum Foundation, Art Week Style, Marathons, Fighting Breast Cancer, being held once again.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 306, published on Nov. 25 2016)

People demonstrate in Azerbaijan over house demolitions

BAKU, NOV. 15 2016, (The Conway Bulletin) — Dozens of people in a suburb of Baku held a rare protest against the authorities over the demolition of 64 houses.

The authorities said that the houses needed to be cleared to build a new station for the city’s metro system extension. The protesters said, though, the compensation that they had been offered was derisory.

Nesibe Musayeva, one of the demonstrators, also said the authorities were deliberately underscoring the size of people’s properties.

“We can buy neither land nor houses with this money. Where can we go in such cold winter?” she said, tears welling up in her eyes. “Where can we go with such an amount of money? We don’t want money. We want just a place to live.”

In the run up to both the 2015 European Games and the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest, human rights groups accused Azerbaijan of abuse by beating residents who protested against house demolitions in the suburbs.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)

Kazakhstan plans finger print database

NOV. 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan intends to build a database holding fingerprints for all its citizens by 2021, media reported quoting the interior ministry. Deputy interior minister Rashid Zhakupov said that the project will cost 36.8b tenge ($107 million) and is designed to speed up border controls. The initiative should also tighten security across the country.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)

Kazakhstan pays cash for informants

NOV. 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s parliament has approved a new law that will pay out cash rewards to people who give information to the security services which prevents attacks by Islamic extremists, media reported. Kazakhstan has been increasingly worried about the rise in attacks that it attributes to Islamic extremists.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)

EU wants to relax visa, says Armenia

NOV. 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenian media reported that following an EU meeting backing a visa liberalisation deal with Georgia and Ukraine, the EU also wanted to start talks with Armenia on scrapping, or relaxing, its visa system. Specifically, Armenpress said that EU officials were waiting for “an opportunity to start negotiations on visa issues with Armenia in a timely period.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)

Tajikistan holds first President’s Day

NOV. 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan celebrated its first President’s Day, the latest in a series of awards designed to virtually deify President Emomali Rakhmon.

According to press reports, school children read poems they had written about Mr Rakhmon, libraries displayed various books that Mr Rakhmon has written and military units paraded under the slogan “Our president, our leader”.

Officially, the new holiday was designed to celebrate 25 years of independence but critics of Mr Rakhmon have said that this is just the latest step in an increasingly aggressive move to create a dominating personality cult. They say that this is a knee-jerk reaction to worsening economic conditions, the growing threat of the Taliban in Afghanistan and, simply, old age and an accelerating sense of his own mortality.

Mr Rakhmon has accrued a number of titles over the years including Leader of the Nation, and Founder of the Peace and Accord.

Earlier this year, too, he introduced a national flag day and the Eurasianet website reported that Tajikistan had introduced a Diplomat Day on Sept. 29, the 23rd anniversary of his first speech to the United Nations General Assembly.

Over the past few years, Mr Rakhmon has rounded on his opponents – tracking down and imprisoning alleged Islamists, outlawing his nearest rivals, the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan – and promoted his son and daughter into increasingly powerful positions.

In power since the mid-1990s, Mr Rakhmon, who is 64-years-old, has also changed the constitution to, seemingly, allow his son to take over as president from him.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)

ADB gives loan for water to Uzbekistan

NOV. 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Asian Development Bank agreed to give a $120m loan to Uzbekistan to improve water supply in the peripheral districts of the Tashkent region. The districts of Kibray and Zangiota, outside of Tashkent, have been identified as potential industrial hubs and the government plans to establish a special economic zone in Zangiota. Clean water supply and water management have been chronically overlooked in peripheral regions in Central Asia.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)

EXPO bridge collapses in Kazakhstan

NOV. 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A decorative bridge linking two pavilions in Kazakhstan’s headline EXPO-2017 project collapsed, only a few months before the exhibition is scheduled to open. Media reported that nobody was injured, unlike Kazakh pride. President Nursultan Nazarbayev has set much store in using EXPO-2017 to promote the country.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)

With one eye on EU regulations, Georgia reintroduces tests for cars

TBILISI, NOV. 15 2016, (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian economy minister Dimitry Kumsishvili said compulsory vehicle maintenance and emissions inspections will resume from Jan. 1 2018, after a gap of 14 years, a move aimed at improving the safety of Georgian roads and meeting EU standards.

Mandatory vehicle inspection was abolished in 2004 due to its ineffectiveness and vulnerability to corruption, a reflection, perhaps, of Georgia’s chaotic business and social scene in the years after the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union.

Mr Kumsishvili said he wanted to attract foreign companies with experience to take on the challenge of running and monitoring an annual vehicle safety scheme and has invited companies with at least 15 years experience in Europe to apply by Dec. 8 to run the scheme.

Mikheil Khmaladze, the director of the Land Transport Agency, which sits within the economy ministry, told The Conway Bulletin that Georgia needed a company with experience if it was going to make a success of the project.

“We might know how to do this in theory but we lack the practical experience. The international company will be a consultant and will advise us on what to do. There is a lot of risk of corruption in this field,” he said in an interview.

The winner of the tender will be given a two-year contract starting on Jan. 1 2017.

Inspections will be conducted throughout the country by local businesses. A maximum price per inspection will be set and a national database, where all the data regarding will be entered, raked over and inspected for transparency.

The reintroduction of a vehicle inspection scheme was a requirement stipulated by the Georgia-EU

Association Agreement requirement. Georgia wants to join the EU.

Environmentalists have also said that the scheme is needed to cut pollutants.

Nino Shavgulidze, Chief of Party of Caucasus Environmental NGO Network (CENN), said that cars were the biggest pollutants in Tbilisi.

“Statistics shows that of the more than 1m cars running in Georgia, a majority are more than 10 years old. Most of these vehicles do not have catalytic converters, are very poorly maintained, and emit pollutants that are dangerous for human health,” she said.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)