Tag Archives: government

Turkmen President is no dictator, says official

SEPT. 21-23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Even at a European human rights meeting, it seems, calling President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov a dictator is just not acceptable.

This was the irate response, at least, of a deputy minister of foreign affairs when he slapped down a Turkmen dissident at an OSCE arranged human rights meeting in Warsaw.

Responding to a series of criticisms raised during the meeting, deputy foreign minister Vepa Khadzhiyev listed President Berdymukahmedov’s achievements in bringing “cheaper and more objective information to our citizens.” He also dismissed criticism from human rights groups of a decision to remove thousands of satellite dishes from homes in Ashgabat in April. Human rights campaigners had said this was the behaviour of a dictator.

Opposing Mr Khadzhiyev was the former member of Turkmenistan’s parliament now living in exile in Norway Pirimguly Tangrikuliyev, who openly criticised Western countries for cosying up to Mr Berdymukhamedov.

“They court the dictator because they need access to Turkmenistan’s energy resources,” he said.

This irritated Mr Khadzhiyev who asked rights groups not to use the term “dictator” for Mr Berdymukhamedov.

“A dictator does not provide free electricity, gas and water to his population. Our country increases salaries yearly by 10% and provides free education and healthcare,” he said.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)

Comment: This election is a poor advert for democracy in Kyrgyzstan

SEPT. 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Fourteen parties will appear on the ballot for voters in Kyrgyzstan to elect from on Oct. 4, yet from social media to taxi chatter, the complaint is of a lack of genuine choice. The menu contains the familiar set of several dozen politicians, from several parties that sound all too similar.

What the complainers ask for may be too much, one might say. The uninspiring choice may actually be the only thing that contemporary democracy can offer. Politicians seek reelection, parties try to cater to as wide a spectrum of voters as possible, and none of them accept the risks involved in running on sharply defined and innovative policy platforms.

But wait. Even by the modest standards of latter-day democracy, Kyrgyzstan may be scoring too low.

That 75% of sitting deputies are seeking reelection may be normal, but it cannot be normal when an enormous number of them are on tickets of new parties, often very different from their original parties.

There is a tendency in Kyrgyz politics for the protagonists to swap parties regularly and for new parties to emerge, confusing the electorate and cementing the feeling that the election is more about personalities than policies and issues.

None of the parties has seriously criticised President Almazbek Atambayev. No party is anything close to pro-Western or critical of Kyrgyzstan’s over-reliance on Russia. All are happy about the Eurasian Economic Union.

All are anti-corruption, pro- government-efficiency, pro- national-unity and a list of other goods, with no detail on how to attain them.

In an election which, thus, seems to be all about personalities, all the main parties are parading decidedly mixed lists of candidates. Popular politicians next to infamous ex- officials; progressives next to conservatives; wealthy business owners next to underpaid teachers; law enforcement leaders next to those with criminal past; young candidates next to old.

Thus, the voters are facing a long ballot with little variety and more than a bit of confusion.

Lacking genuine choice, they are left to vote either for the President’s Social Democratic party, to keep things the same, or for a party linked to their clan or family.

These growing pains – if this is what they can be called – are not good signals for a more democratic Kyrgyzstan.

By Emil Dzhuraev, Lecturer in politics at the American University of Central Asia, Bishkek

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)

Georgian PM and CBank meet despite row

SEPT. 22 2015, TBILISI (The Conway Bulletin) — Pushing their personal differences aside, Georgia’s Central Bank chief Giorgi Kadagidze and the PM Irakli Garibashvili held a rare head-to-head meeting to discuss the increasingly poor state of the Georgian economy.

A collapse in global energy prices and a sharp fall in the performance of Russia have pressured regional economies this year but a breakdown in relations between the Central Bank and the PM’s office has also been a feature of the year in Georgia.

The Central Bank’s press office declined to confirm if this was the first time Mr Garibashvili, the PM, had visited Mr Kadagidze in 2015 but analysts said it was a rare occasion.

“It was significant, as they discussed the currency,” said Tamar Jugheli, research director at the Policy and Management Consulting Research Center. She said a management change in one of the main departments at the Central Bank had improved relations. Mr Garibashvili has criticised Mr Kadagidze over monetary policy. He also stripped the Central Bank of its power to oversee commercial banks.

Like many issues in Georgia, politics is at the heart. Mr Kadagidze was appointed by the previous government of former president Mikheil Saakashvili, irritating the current government.

Still with Georgia’s currency dropping to an all-time low and with inflation rising fast, Mr Kadagidze and Mr Garibashvili had to act. After the meeting the Bank bought $40m worth of lari and then, the following day, it increased interest rates.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)

HRW warns on rights in Tajikistan

SEPT. 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Tajik government has presided over an “steady, unmistakable decline of freedom of expression”, Human Rights Watch said in a statement referring to the clampdown on the opposition Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT).

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 248, published on Sept. 18 2015)

Georgia passes prosecutor bill

SEPT. 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Parliament passed by 69-12 the second reading of a bill that will see the prosecutor-general’s position shift to a 6-year post elected by a 15-person body. Currently, the PM appoints the prosecutor-general on the advice of the minister of justice. Detractors of the bill say it is over-complicating the appointment process.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 248, published on Sept. 18 2015)

Kyrgyzstan accuses PM

SEPT. 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s First Deputy PM Tayirbek Sarpashev accused some political parties of hampering the Oct. 4 parliamentary election by trying to illegally collect voters’ biometric data. Mr Sarpashev did not name the parties.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 248, published on Sept. 18 2015)

Political row envelops Georgia’s city statue to lovers

TBILISI/Georgia, SEPT. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — A row has erupted in the Georgian Black Sea town of Batumi over damage to a statue of the South Caucasus’ most famous lovers — Ali and Nino. The opposition UNM party, the political machine of former president Mikheil Saakashvili, has accused the ruling Georgian Dream coalition of deliberating damaging the statue it erected in 2010.

Batumi has become a political battleground since 2012, when the Georgian Dream won a parliamentary election. Mr Saakashvili had treated Batumi as a pet project, lavishing cash, ornate buildings and grand designs on the city.

Now, though, the UNM accuses the Georgian Dream of pulling down many of these projects to undermine Saakashvili’s legacy in the city.

In a Facebook post, Mr Saakashvili, who is now the governor of Odessa in Ukraine, said that under the guise of moving the statue, the Georgian Dream had irreparably damaged it.

“Today, with the support of Russian oligarch Ivanishvili, the moving statue Ali and Nino was destroyed.” he said. The Georgian Dream has dismissed the allegations. The statues of Ali and Nino had been sited at the entrance to Batumi’s harbour, a prominent position in the city.

Ali and Nino was first published in 1937. It detailed a love affair between the Muslim Azeri Ali and Christian Georgian Nino, and is supposed to symbolise eternal love and understanding between nations.

The statue was designed by Georgian artist Tamara Kvesitadze.

Lincoln Mitchell, a Tbilisi-based political scientist, explained just why Batumi attracted so much attention from the Georgian Dream.

“The UNM government spearheaded a dramatic modernisation of Batumi, a city that 15 years ago was a sleepy coastal town led by a nasty warlord.” he said.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 248, published on Sept. 18 2015)

Mixed messages air over Kazakh President’s daughter promotion

SEPT. 14 2015, ALMATY (The Conway Bulletin) — Dariga Nazarbayeva, eldest daughter of Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev, officially quit as a member of parliament to begin her new job as a deputy PM.

Analysts have said that her promotion to government on Sept. 11 may have been the first stage in her journey to take over from her 75-year- old father when retires.

Certainly in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city and its financial centre, people interpreted her promotion as the start of dynastic succession.

David Smirnov the owner of a small trading business, said that he thought Ms Nazarbayeva would be a good fit for the top job.

“How could such a man have a bad daughter?” he asked, reflecting the popular support for President Nazarbayev. “So much money has been invested into her. She will be better than any other corrupt official, for sure.”

There has no official commentary from the Presidential Palace regarding Ms Nazarbayeva’s promotion.

Nessibeli Kozhakhmetova, a student, held a similar point of view to Mr Smirnov, the business owner.

“She knows from childhood how her father have worked,” she said. “She is better than someone whom we are not familiar with. She is trustworthy and the most reliable of the options.”

But, importantly, while most people told a Bulletin correspondent that they supported Ms Nazarbayeva’s promotion, there were some divergent opinions.

Aleksey, an advertising manager, was walking down a main street. He stopped and said quietly: “She might be a President but there is no trust in either the Presidency or Dariga.”

And KIMEP economics student Kamila Mukushova said Kazakhstan needed a break from the past and the Nazarbayev family’s grip on power.

“If she will be the President, then everything remains the same in the country,” she said. “We will still be dependent on Russia. We need a more open-minded leader.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 248, published on Sept. 18 2015)

Kazakh state company director resigns

SEPT. 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Abat Nurseitov resigned as general director of KMG EP, the London-listed unit of Kazakhstan’s state oil and gas company. Mr Nurseitov had been general director since January 2013. Dastan Abdulgafarov, the CFO, was appointed interim CEO.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)

Georgia approves Tbilisi electricity price rise

SEPT. 3 2015, TBILISI (The Conway Bulletin) — Following earlier electricity price rises in Georgia’s regions, the state regulators approved a similar price increase in the capital.

For the Georgian Dream, the ruling coalition, the price rise means they have barely been able to fulfil one of their promises from the 2012 parliamentary election – to cut the price of electricity and to keep it low.

But, as Akaki Tsomaia, economics professor at the University of Georgia explained, the plunging value of the lari had forced the regulators to agree to the price rise.

“Georgia is experiencing a 45% depreciation of its currency against the US dollar. Electricity and gas providers in Georgia have no other way than to increase the price of these services. Otherwise we will definitely have a major electricity shortage,” he told the Bulletin.

Still, this assessment, which is widely shared, didn’t stop the opposition UNM party blaming the coalition.

“The absence of professionalism led us to this point,” UNM’s deputy chairperson Nika Melia told TV broadcaster Rustavi-2.

Electricity prices have triggered protests in the region, most notably in Armenia where thousands protested earlier this year and forced the government to waive price rises.

In Georgia which is known for its street level politics, however, the population seems to have accepted the rise more quietly although some people did expect protests shortly.

Vladimir, an IT specialist walking along Tbilisi’s central promenade said: “People will probably start next month once they get bills.”

Irakli, 37, who was waiting at a bus stop, agreed but he said that politics, was the key driver of social unrest.

“We’ve taken to the streets so much in the recent two decades, but for other reasons,” he said. “But it all accumulates and only needs one non- social spark to explode.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)