OCT. 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan over the next three months, the Israeli government said. Mr Netanyahu has visited Azerbaijan previously during a term as PM in 1997. No Israeli PM has ever visited Kazakhstan. Both Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are Israel’s biggest oil suppliers.
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(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)
BISHKEK, OCT. 31 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Delegations from Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan met to agree solutions to 49 long-running border disputes around the Ferghana Valley which, earlier this year, had threatened to tip into conflict.
The agreements mark the next stage in an unprecedented and surprising detente between the two rivals since Uzbek PM Shavkat Mirizyoyev was appointed acting president after the death of Islam Karimov in September.
This was the second of two meetings between the Uzbek and Kyrgyz deputy PMs. A third meeting is scheduled before the end of the year.
Bishkek-based analyst Elmira Nogoybaeva said the change in attitude in Tashkent was welcome but that Kyrgyzstan would need to see whether this was a genuine change of heart or a temporary fad.
“Such meetings are always welcomed by Kyrgyzstan, the question is how long will they last,” she said. “We all look to these meetings with optimism.”
The Ferghana Valley lies at the heart of Central Asia and analysts have previously said that if tension between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan over borders boils over into conflict, and this year there have been reports of Kyrgyz and Uzbek soldiers squaring up to each other, it will pull the whole region into war.
In Bishkek, people were optimistic. Ainagul, 43, said it was a positive but there would be problems ahead.
“Of course, it is good that borders are being delineated, now Kyrgyz people will know to whom territory belongs, and it will prevent conflict between Kyrgyz and Uzbek,” she said. “I still doubt though that conflicts on borders will stop altogether as we still have problems even on the Kyrgyz- Kazakh border which was supposed to have been delineated.”
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(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)
NOV. 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon signed into law a motion passed by parliament at the end of last year that insulting the president would become a criminal office, media reported. The new law underlines the increasingly autocratic nature of the regime that Mr Rakhmon has built up in Tajikistan. Last month, MPs also decreed that he should be given the title of Founder of the Nation.
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(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)
NOV. 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Chinese PM Li Keqiang visited Bishkek for a ministerial meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation members, a first step in an 8-day tour of Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Mr Li will also visit Kazakhstan, his second visit this year, before flying to Latvia and Russia. During his visit to Kyrgyzstan, Mr Li also said that he hopes that the investigation into a car bomb at the Chinese embassy in August can soon be concluded.
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(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)
NOV. 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan sent 84,700 tonnes of oil to Belarus, the country’s first commercial energy exports to Belarus since short-lived swaps in 2010/11. Belneftekhim, the Belarusian buyer, will use Azerbaijani crude at its Mozyr refinery. Belarus is actively seeking alternative suppliers of oil as Russian shipments have failed to meet domestic demand. Azerbaijan’s oil was sent through Georgia’s Supsa port to Odessa in Ukraine and then on to Belarus.
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(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)
BISHKEK, NOV. 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan formed a new coalition government built around the Social Democratic Party, the party of President Almazbek Atmabayev, which kept Sooronbai Jeenbekov as PM.
The relative speed that parliament was able to patch together a government coalition will cheer investors and businesses who were worried about a prolonged period of instability. The previous government fell apart only 10 days ago over rows about an impending referendum.
Retaining Mr Jeenbekov, PM since May, will also boost confidence in Kyrgyzstan’s ability to withstand political stresses.
The new government coalition includes the Bir Bol and Kyrgyzstan parties, two minor parties. The coalition, though, only has a thin parliamentary majority with 68 seats in the 120-seat chamber.
A row over a referendum planned for Dec. 11 split the previous coalition government. The referendum focuses on giving more power to the PM, a shift that opponents of President Atambayev have said has been engineered to allow him to take the empowered PM job once he leaves the presidency next year. He has denied that he has such plans.
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(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)
NOV. 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan-focused Anglo Asian Mining said it had improved cost- efficiency at its gold mining operations in Gedabek, a gold, copper and silver mine in the west of the country. The company has cut per-ounce expenditure to $703 in H1 2016 from $925 in H1 2015.
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(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)
OCT. 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kazakhstan/Russia-led Eurasian Development Bank sent a 4b tenge ($12m) loan to Transtelecom, Kazakhstan’s telecoms network, to improve infrastructure ahead of the upcoming EXPO2017 event in Astana. Earlier in October, Nurali Aliyev, grandson of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, said he had bought 49% of Transtelecom in 2015. State-owned railway company Kazakhstan Temir Zholy owns a 51% stake in Transtelecom.
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(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)
TBILISI, OCT. 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Georgian Dream coalition won 48 of the 50 run-offs in majoritarian seats, securing a large enough majority to change Georgia’s constitution without needing support from other parties.
The run-off seats won by Georgian Dream were added to the 67 seats it won in the first round of voting on Oct. 8, giving it control of 115 seats in the 150-seat parliament, smashing their arch rivals the United National Movement party (UNM).
Georgia’s politics are notoriously fractious and while supporters of the Georgian Dream, led by billionaire and former PM Bidzina Ivanishvili, celebrated, election observers were wary of the powers they now wield over the constitution. Ignacio Sanchez Amor, head of the short- term OSCE observer mission, said a constitutional majority brought responsibility.
“The balance of power must be properly observed and rights of minorities must be at the centre of any discussion if there are constitutional changes,” media quoted him as saying.
Alongside the Georgian Dream, the Industrialists party and an independent candidate both won a seat. The UNM, the party of former President Mikheil Saakashvili, finished with the 27 seats, a disappointing result for the party which had talked up the chances of making a comeback and winning back control of parliament. It lost a 2012 parliamentary election to the Georgian Dream.
Dustin Gilbreath, a policy analyst at the Caucasus Research Resource Centre, said the UNM can still recover as a political power but it would be difficult.
“They can continue as a major opposition party, but they need to rebrand. I think they have the potential to stay in Georgian politics in the long run, but they first need to make things works internally”, he said.
Away from the celebrating Georgian Dream supporters, people in Tbilisi, people were worried about the lack of checks on its powers.
Levani, who runs a small grocery store in the city centre, said: “It’s just a disaster. The political stagnation that we witnessed in the last four years is bound to worsen now that no political actor has the power to compel them to act.”
Another Tbilisi resident, Ketino, agreed even though she had voted for the Georgian Dream. “I voted for them to avoid the return of UNM. Nothing good can come out from having too much power,” she said.
Georgian Dream, considered traditional and close to the Orthodox Church, has already said that it wants to change the constitution to enshrine marriage as a union only between a man and a woman.
The Orthodox Church is staunchly against gay rights and many of the Georgian Dreams’ supporters have been pushing to change Georgia’s constitution to reflect this attitude.
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(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)
NOV. 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia needs to attract high-value added investment to sustain its growth, Arsen Nazaryan an officer at the World Bank’s IFC local office said in an interview. Of crucial importance, foreign investment that can upgrade the domestic economy and increase high-skilled jobs can only be obtained if the country undergoes more reforms, Mr Nazaryan told the banks.am website. A section of its economy that Armena has developed is tech.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)