Tag Archives: society

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)

Georgians still favour the West

MAY 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a poll for the US-funded National Democratic Institute, Georgians favoured joining the EU and NATO over Russia, although the gap had
narrowed. Of the 4,000 poll respondents, 77% agreed with the government’s aim of joining the EU (85% in November) and 72% agreed with joining NATO (down from 72%).

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

US report says Turkmens are ready to protest

APRIL 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — People in Turkmenistan are increasingly willing in risk imprisonment to complain about the authorities, a report by the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) said. Turkmenistan is one of the most repressive regimes in the world but REF/RL said that, anecdotally at least, people had become less afraid of the authorities.

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

Turkmenistan cuts petrol subsidy

APRIL 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a surprising, and perhaps risky, move, Turkmenistan’s President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov ordered the authorities to scrap a monthly handout of petrol to car owners.

Mr Berdymukhamedov had introduced the subsidy in 2008 to ease a massive increase in the price of fuel. Mr Berdymukhamedov’s eccentric predecessor Saparmurat Niyazov had set the price of petrol at an unrealistic 2 cents per litre. Mr Berdymukhamedov wanted to raise the price to 22 cents.

Reuters quoted Turkmenistan’s state media as saying that the abolition of the fuel allowance was needed to “help sustain the growth of the national economy, achieve the efficient use of oil products and ensure their orderly converting to cash on the domestic market”.

In other words, Mr Berdymukhamedov decided that it was time to wean the population off the free fuel allowance.

Turkmenistan can, after all, afford the petrol giveaway. It has grown rich from energy exports. These exports are mainly gas. It produces roughly 10m tonnes of crude oil a year, most of which it refines into oil products locally.

Salaries are low in Turkmenistan. The sudden cut in fuel subsidies may impact people and increase resentment.

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

Homophobia seethes in Kazakhstan

ALMATY/Kazakhstan, APRIL 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — In Kazakhstan’s former capital, the weekend is for parties but, it appears, not everybody is invited.

Down a side street, just off one of the main streets running through Almaty, a group of five or six young men wearing leather jackets smoked cigarettes and shouted insults at the men queuing to enter a gay bar on the opposite side of the road.

The insults grew louder and stronger. Nobody stepped in to stop the abuse.

Being homosexual in Kazakhstan is far from easy. The Soviet legacy of the punishment of buggery and the revival of the strong traditional values of the country’s macho nomadic heritage both play against homosexuality.

This, though, according to a gay rights activist in Almaty goes against the tradition of the city itself.

“Almaty has a history of more than 100 years of mild tolerance towards homosexuality,” the activist who preferred to stay anonymous said in hushed tones below chatter floating across a central Almaty coffee shop.

“During the Tsarist times, Panfilov Park (then Pushkin Park) was used as a pick-up place by Russian men. This was the most gay-friendly city in the whole of Central Asia.”

But now momentum across the former Soviet Union, led by Moscow, has triggered a raft of legislation against homosexuality. Kazakhstan’s lower house of parliament has been holding an ongoing debate on just how to repress homosexuality in society.

A university professor in Almaty described the impact. “There are several professionals who conceal their sexual orientation in the workplace,” he said. Almaty’s former reputation as a tolerant city appears broken.

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

Kyrgyzstan raises utility tariffs

APRIL 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — July 1 will see costs for electricity, heating and hot water rise for residents of Kyrgyzstan, the ministry of energy said.

The last time the Kyrgyz authorities introduced a major utilities hike was at the start of 2010. A few months later, a violent revolution had overthrown Kurmanbek Bakiyev. Mr Bakiyev’s administration was famous for rolling blackouts and heating shortages as harsh winters and corruption took their toll on the national energy grid.

This time, the government headed by new PM Joomart Ortobayev is proceeding more carefully, staggering prices for energy relative to consumption. Heavy users of electricity will be charged triple the current prices by 2017 but the more economically vulnerable users who use lower levels of electricity will be charged only 22.5% more. Heating and hot water costs are similarly tailored.

Kyrgyz energy utilities remain among the cheapest in the world, but in the context of a struggling economy, some are feeling squeezed and the increases are a risk for Mr Ortobayev who has been Kyrgyzstan’s PM for only a few weeks.

Elena Jdanova, a Bishkek pet store owner, thought that small businesses and the middle class are picking up the tab for poor energy policies.

“Every year the government accuses [citizens] of overconsumption, when we know energy is still being stolen by officials. I have over 130 animals that need constant light and heat. These increases will ruin me,” she said.

Kyrgyzstan’s opposition is likely to use the utilities price increase to whip up support but, long-term, the government had little alternative to reducing the subsidies.

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

Georgia celebrates Easter

APRIL 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Easter Service at Tbilisi’s’ Sameba Cathedral has been the one place where implacable political foes in staunchly Orthodox Georgia can come together. This year, though, was different.

On Easter Sunday, April 20, only Georgian PM Irakli Garibashvili and his associates attended Sameba Cathedral. At the service Patriach Ilia II delivered an epistle warning of the dangers of pseudo-liberals, an ongoing debate in Georgia.

The opposition United National Movement, instead, visited services at Orthodox, Catholic and Baptist churches and congratulated Armenian Christians on the holiday. With a local election on June 15, commentators saw this as a move to woo minorities. Many are worried about a perceived increase in Georgian nationalism under the present government.

Also missing from Sameba Cathedral was President Giorgi Margvelashvili. He has had a public falling out with his patron, billionaire former PM Bidzina Ivanishvili, and reportedly refuses to be seen with members of the government. He attended church in his small hometown.

Mr Ivanishvili, the government’s main backer, made no public appearance, fuelling widespread speculation he has left the country. A fractious Easter, in an increasingly fractious Georgia.

(News report from Issue No. 181, published on April 23 2014)

Uzbek mosques warn faithful against complaining

APRIL 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Controlled by the state and with Ukraine’s revolution still fresh in the mind, media reported that mosques in Uzbekistan have been preaching about the joys of refraining from discontent and remaining humble.

Information leaking out of Uzbekistan points to a fairly crude attempt to control the masses through the mosques.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, funded by the US government, quoted one resident of the town of Andijan in the east of Uzbekistan who had listened to the Friday sermon at his local mosque.

“Complaining and criticising is testamount to betrayal,” the unnamed man quoted the imam as saying.

Unsurprisingly, Uzbekistan was opposed to the revolution in Ukraine, mainly because it didn’t want it to set a precedent.

Uzbekistan is also wary of religion. It blames radical Islamists for a series of attacks against government targets in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

(News report from Issue No. 180, published on April 16 2014)

Hundreds protest in Kyrgyzstan

APRIL 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Hundreds of Kyrgyz protested against the government in Bishkek and in Osh, marking the start of the now traditional spring demonstration season in Kyrgyzstan. Media reported that police detained a dozen protesters who wanted various concessions from the government. By Kyrgyz standards the protests were relatively light.

(News report from Issue No. 180, published on April 16 2014)

Eurasian Union opponents meet in Kazakhstan

APRIL 12 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — It was overcrowded and barely organised but a meeting in Almaty that opposed Kazakhstan’s move towards a Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union was important.

Around 250 people, with an uneasy mix of different agendas from ultra-nationalists to human rights protesters, attended the meeting in a scruffy hotel.

The main complaints were a lack of transparency in the move and that Kazakhstan may lose its identity.

Speaking at the meeting, political commentator Dastan Kadyrzhanov said: “The Eurasian Economic Union is our Rubicon, a civilisational choice. If we pass it, there will be no way back.”

Opposition groups in Kazakhstan have a tough time. They have been hounded, detained, pushed off the streets. So for this meeting to pass off without protesters being detained was eye-catching.

(News report from Issue No. 180, published on April 16 2014)