MARCH 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Armenia-backed government of the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh said that Azerbaijani forces had killed three of its soldiers, one of the worst breeches of a ceasefire in recent months. Azerbaijan said Armenian forces had initiated an attack which it repelled.
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(News report from Issue No. 224, published on March 25 2015)
MARCH 15 2015 (The Bulletin) – Hundreds of people demonstrated in Baku against the devaluation by 33% of the manat currency last month. The size of the march was contested with its organisers saying 10,000 people attended and police saying there were a few hundred.
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(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)
MARCH 16 2015 (The Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan has admitted that it is on the brink of losing control of a measles outbreak with up to 250 suspected cases of the disease reported every day, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said.
Responding to the outbreak, which has been becoming increasingly aggressive over the past year, Kyrgzstan announced that it would vaccinate 2m people under the age of 20.
WHO laced its statement with thinly disguised criticism of Kyrgyzstan’s late response to the epidemic.
“The outbreak, which began in early 2014, has caused over 11,300 suspected cases to date and continues to increase by 120–to 250 suspected cases every day,” WHO said.
“The country’s decision to initiate the mass immunization campaign comes in the wake of a call on 25 February 2015 by WHO Regional Director for Europe Zsuzsanna Jakab for policy-makers, health-care workers and parents to immediately step up vaccination against measles across age groups at risk to stop the outbreaks.”
The measles epidemic and the apparent slow response of the Kyrgyz authorities to deal with it has done damage to Kyrgyzstan’s already tarnished international image.
Bishkek needs its vaccination programme to work.
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(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)
MARCH 12 2015 (The Bulletin) – Starting on June 1, Turkmen citizens, organisations, and parties will be allowed to organise public demonstrations, a law signed by president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov stated.
This unexpected relaxation of oppressive laws governing demonstrations, took observers by surprise. It may be linked to worsening economic conditions across the country. It may be a ruse to appear more relaxed while changing very little.Turkmenistan is, after all, interested in pulling in the EU as a client for its gas.
Demonstrations in Turkmenistan are extremely rare with only a couple of small protests linked to housing in the past few years.
And the law has caveats. Any party or organisation which has been banned by the government will not be allowed to set up public action. The law also appears to be subjective stating that “individuals declared incompetent or of limited competence by a court or those who are facing legal charges” are not eligible to organise others.
All public rallies must take place at a distance from government buildings and should be aimed at the “peaceful gathering” of Turkmen citizens.
Importantly, demonstrations funded by foreign subjects will not be allowed. This echoes the country’s attitude towards NGO activities, which are strictly regulated to contain international influence.
The new demonstrations will likely be organised by pro-presidential organisations to burnish Mr Berdymukhamedov’s image at home and abroad.
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(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)
TBILISI, March 14 2015 (The Bulletin) – “We love rugby. We love Lelos!” a crowd of almost 30,000 roared when Georgia scored yet another try in the final minutes of this Georgia-Russia rugby match.
The final score against Russia was a crushing 33-0 win. Georgia’s Lelos — named after lelo, a Georgian folk sport similar to rugby — haven’t lost to Russia’s Bears since 1993, a run of wins that their fans will gleefully tell you about.
Georgia has a strong rugby team and will play against New Zealand, Argentina, Tonga and Namibia in this year’s World Cup in England.
Although the head coach of the Lelos, New Zealander Milton Haig, has said there is no difference who the opponent is, it is clear for the crowd that it matters. They want to see Georgia beat, smash even, the Russian team.
For the match against Russia, Tbilisi’s Mikheil Meskhi stadium was packed with Georgian fans, waiting for Georgia to crush Russia in front of their eyes. People also waved Ukrainian blue and yellow flags, underlining the anti-Russian feeling in the crowd.
On the rugby pitch, at least, Georgia and Ukraine can get their own back at Russia.
Last year Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine and has been sponsoring rebels in the east of the country in an ongoing civil war. In 2008, Russia defeated Georgia in a small war which concreted its control over the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
“It’s solidarity,” explained a young Georgian fan, before joining the crowd shouting “Putin khuylo!” and “Abkhazia is ours!”. The Kremlin has tighten its grip over parts of Georgia this year but Georgian rugby fans can still relish in their superiority over Russia.
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(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)
MARCH 16 2015 (The Bulletin) – Several people were injured during a fight between activists of the ruling Georgian Dream coalition and activists of the opposition United National Movement party in the city of Zugdidi, media reported. The fight highlights worsening political climate in Georgia. A large opposition march is planned for Tbilisi on March 21.
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(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)
MARCH 10 2015 (The Bulletin) – Armenia has lined up Hollywood superstar George Clooney to present the inaugural Aurora Prize in Yerevan on the 100th anniversary of the alleged genocide by Ottoman Turks of Armenians in eastern Turkey, media reported. Turkey denies genocide (March 10). Armenia is using the anniversary to bolster support for its cause worldwide.
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(News report from Issue No. 222, published on March 11 2015)
GHARMEN/Tajikistan, March 11 2015 (The Bulletin) – Mubinjon Asimov and his two sons are among the few remaining survivors of the Yaghnobi people in Tajikistan.
“We lost not only our homes, our fields and our mountains. Our whole culture was annihilated,” said Asimov, an elderly herder still living in Gharmen, a small settlement of just over a dozen inhabitants in the Yaghnobi valley in southern Tajikistan.
He was talking about repression by the Soviet Union in the 1950s.
“We couldn’t use our native language in public and by the time we were allowed to come back to this valley only a few of us were still able to speak Yaghnobi,” he said.
The Yaghnobis are believed to be the heirs of Sogdia, a civilisation that stood against Alexander the Great during one of his last campaigns in the 4th century BC.
To the eyes of the casual visitor life here appears to follow the same old rhythms of a timeless past. Behind this romantic façade of mountainous bucolic isolation hides, however, a dramatic history of ethnic cleansing, persecutions and forced emigration.
The first wave of repressions came during Soviet leader Josef Stalin’s Great Purge of the 1930s and led to many Yaghnobis being exiled, but it was only in the late 1950s that a systematic mass displacement of the whole Yaghnobi population was forcibly carried out.
Under the pretext of danger from landslides, the Soviet authorities evacuated the population from the valley to the hot plains of northern Tajikistan.
Sociologists have warned the Yagnobi people, culture and languages may die out.
Asimov agreed but now he said that the state wasn’t doing enough. “Now the state is all but nonexistent and not a single kopek has been invested in this valley,” he said. “Our recent past has been a dark one, but our future looks even bleaker.”
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(News report from Issue No. 222, published on March 11 2015)
MARCH 11 2015 (The Bulletin) – Religious leaders in Kyrgyzstan issued a statement saying that it was not un-Islamic to vaccinate children against the measles virus, the Eurasianet website reported. This is important because health experts have blamed fears vaccinations were anti-Islamic for a surge in measles in Kyrgyzstan
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(News report from Issue No. 222, published on March 11 2015)
FEB. 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The opposition United National Movement (UNM) called for a rally in Tbilisi against the government on March 21. The UNM has said Georgia’s economy is on the verge of collapse and blames the government. The demonstration may attract large numbers and is a potential flashpoint.
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(News report from Issue No. 221, published on March 4 2015)
