Tag Archives: society

Armenians discuss Ukraine’s revolution

YEREVAN/Armenia, APRIL 16 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — It was a mild Saturday evening in mid-March in a French café in central Yerevan. A group of young friends, well young-ish, had sat down to discuss the biggest news topic of the week — the revolution in Ukraine.

“We should take lessons from the young Ukrainians who are fighting for their independence, for democracy, for human rights,” said Ani Kirakosyan, a 30-year-old human rights defender.

Jazz music floated across the room.

This sort of political conversation in Armenia is important. Last year, at the same time as Ukraine’s former president Viktor Yanukovich chose to side with Russia over the European Union, Armenia’s leadership was doing the same. Since then Armenia, which hosts a large Russian military base, has supported Russia in the UN over its annexation of Crimea. Russia’s other supporters include North Korea and Syria.

“They (Ukrainians) have now chosen the EU,” Kirakosyan continued with a hint of anger in her tone. “At first we were also angry but we did not follow our dream. We stopped at some point.””

Lusine Baghdasaryan, a 32-year-old economist nodded. She said apathy was the problem. “I just don’t believe we can do it. It seems nothing now makes us angry,” she said.

But, said 28-year-old Syrian-Armenian Hayk Ghukasyan, can the US and the West be counted on to help out? “There are no guarantees. Just look at what the US did with Syria,” he said.

Ghukasyan fled from Syria’s civil war and is now struggling to find a job in Armenia.

“We are a small country with the tough and unresolved territorial problem of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh),” he said. “If Azerbaijan smells fear they could resume war.”

People in Armenia are frustrated with their leaders but they also feel that they have few options. Geo-politically Armenia needs friends, and, for most, that means siding with Russia.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

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

HRW criticises Kyrgyzstan

APRIL 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Human Rights Watch accused Kyrgyzstan of backsliding on rights and freedom of speech. It said that in the last few months the Kyrgyz authorities had drafted a bill that would criminalise spreading information about homosexuality and had banned several peaceful protests in central Bishkek.

ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)

Kazakhstan’s unions are afraid of authorities

APRIL 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The spectre of Kazakh police shooting dead oil workers during a strike in 2011 haunts trade union members who are now too afraid of the security forces to launch long-term industrial action.

The issue of workers’ rights in Kazakhstan surged into the public consciousness in December 2011 after police shot dead at least 15 people in the scruffy western oil town of Zhanaozen, bringing to an end a six month strike aimed at increasing oil workers’ salaries.

In an interview with The Conway Bulletin in Almaty, Aleksei Nigai, deputy head of the small Odak union, said that although conditions for workers in general had not improved since 2011, workers avoided long stand offs with the security forces.

“Since then [Zhanaozen], there have been more and more strikes but the scale has been modest because workers fear the government’s reaction,” he said.

“Nobody wants to be shot for a salary increase.”

Mr Nigai was talking just a few days after a four-day strike hit an oil services company in western Kazakhstan.

He also said the government was planning to introduce legislation that would increase the punishment for strikes not authorised and organised by the official government-linked union.

In other words, Mr Nigai said, the Kazakh state wanted a Potemkin union system that it could easily control.

“There will be only one umbrella organisation, the Federation, which is appointed by the President,” he said with a sigh and a shrug.

“Tell me how this is different to, say, Turkmenistan.”

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)

Uzbek couple tries to sell children in Russia

APRIL 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Russia arrested an Uzbek couple for trying to sell their two children, a newborn daughter and an 18-month-old boy, for $28,000, media reported. This is the second time this year Russian police have arrested Uzbeks trying to sell children, underlining the desperation of some people in Uzbekistan.

ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)

Kyrgyzstan wants to raise pension age

APRIL 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Under gentle pressure from the World Bank, a key donor, Kyrgyzstan plans to increase the retirement age for women by two years to 60-years-old.

The idea is to both equalise the retirement age of men and women and generate revenue for the state pension plan.

But reforming Soviet-era pension plans is an emotive issue. In neighbouring Kazakhstan, a similar plan last year triggered protests and the resignation of a government minister.

Kyrgyzstan currently has a young population but with a grey economy worth 40% of GDP, payments into the government’s pension pot and other forms of social assistance are miserly.

This needs to change to support a society where life expectancies are increasing, although people in sight of retirement are unlikely to be thinking fiscally.

Varya Zirilenko, 53, said her hands ached from the repetition of sorting potatoes at the processing plant in the northern city of Tokmok where she works.

“When I come home at night they shake. Is that normal? Must I go on like this for another seven years before I can receive a full pension?” Varya expects her monthly pension to be over 6,500 Kyrgyz soms ($120). Many are even smaller.

Perhaps, though, the retirement age is just one of the issues surrounding Kyrgyzstan’s pension scheme. Another is corruption, endemic throughout the country.

Akhmatbek Keldibekov, an opposition politician from the country’s south is currently on trial for corruption. The charges relate to his time as head of the Social Fund under former president Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)

Azerbaijani weightlifters fined for doping

APRIL 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) fined Azerbaijan $500,000 after nine of its athletes tested positive for doping last year. The fines will embarrass Azerbaijan which hosts the first European Games next year.

ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)

Tajik mullahs worry about young fighters in Syria

APRIL 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Local mullahs in Tajikistan are worried about the increasing number of young men heading off to Syria to join radical Islamist groups fighting against Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad.

Officials in Tajikistan, both government and religious, fear that the young men will return from Syria radicalised and ferment anti-government feelings.

Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon speaks out regularly against the potential drift north of the Taliban once NATO leaves Afghanistan.

Media quoted one mullah in a regional town besmirching anybody who moved to Syria to fight for the rebels.

“Such behaviour is “the way of lost souls and the way of the devil,” said Haidar Sharifzoda, head of the main mosque in the city of Kulyab.

Kulyab is in Khatlon province, Mr Rakhmon’s home region and power-base. It has also previously been considered a bastion of secular thinking. Last month, a 26-year-old man from Kulyab was reported killed in Syria.

The number of Central Asians currently fighting in Syria has been placed at anywhere between several hundred and several thousand. Many are disillusioned migrants working in Russian cities.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)

Chemical ‘marijuana’ fuels legalisation debate in Georgia

TBILISI/Georgia, APRIL 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – – Irakli, a dreadlocked Tbilisi street artist, was in a whiney mood.

“For two years it has been impossible to get real marijuana in Tbilisi,” he said. Marijuana grows naturally across Georgia, and is widely consumed recreationally in the south and northwest. In Tbilisi, however, strict drug laws and stiff sentences make it tough to find.

For Irakli, and many other young Georgians, the solution is something they call ‘bio’, synthetic marijuana sold over the internet. Manufactured in China and the Netherlands, it consists of chemicals in powder form or sprayed over tea and dried herbs so as to be easily smoked. Sold in $20 foil sachets marked ‘Incense’, orders are delivered to a Georgian post office.

Bio has taken over the Tbilisi club and party scene. In recent months, synthetic approximations of cocaine, ecstasy and other drugs have become more widely available, all marketed under the name of ‘bio’.

The craze has not gone unnoticed by the country’s authorities, which amended the drug laws to criminalize the possession and sale of synthetic drugs. But the police have no test for it unlike for real marijuana, said Irakli.

“They can’t test you and they can’t test what you are smoking,” he said. “Nobody knows what is in it.”

Whatever is in it, it can have lethal effects. In February a man died at a central Tbilisi nightspot. He was thought to have consumed a large quantity of synthetic drugs.

“Of course it’s more dangerous, but if the law changes people will stop smoking it,” Irakli said.

That seems unlikely. Pro-legalisation protests in 2013 may have attracted more than a thousand people but the interior ministry is staunchly against any relaxing of the drug laws.

For now at least the clubbers of Tbilisi will keep taking bio, and the associated risks.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)

Activists protest mining in Kyrgyzstan

APRIL 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Highlighting tension in Kyrgyzstan’s mining sector, media reports said that protesters blocking a road in the Talas region of north Kyrgyzstan clashed briefly with police. The protesters were demanding compensation for alleged environmental damage from the mining company.

(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)

Armenian court says pension reform is illegal

APRIL 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia’s Constitutional Court ruled that the government’s flagship pension reforms were illegal, triggering a fresh crisis at the top of the Armenian political spectrum.

The ruling was a major blow to the government which has stubbornly stuck to its pension reform agenda despite increasing levels of public discontent. It also appeared to come as a surprise.

The following day Tigran Sargsyan resign as Armenia’s PM, although he did not link his resignation explicitly with the Court’s ruling. There have been perpetual rumours about his health and other job offers.

Later this month, the government also faces a vote of no confidence in parliament. Opinion polls have shown that its popularity has sunk to fresh lows.

And most of this unpopularity stems from the pension reforms.

Thousands have marched against changes which were introduced at the start of the year. The reforms stated that everybody born after Jan. 1 1974 would have to pay 5% of their salary into a state pension fund. The state has promised to match private contributions to the pension fund up to a maximum of $61 per month.

But now the Constitutional Court has ruled that the pension reforms introduced by the government restrict the rights of its citizens.

The problem for Armenia is, similarly to other countries in the former Soviet Union, it simply has to reform its state pension system to pay for its aging population and to compensate for the large grey economy.

(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)