APRIL 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev attended a summit for the heads of state of the Customs Union (CU) in Minsk. The summit acted as a show of support for Russia which is facing sanctions on officials after the Kremlin’s annexation of Crimea last month. Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan are CU members.
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(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)
APRIL 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmen state-controlled media has declined to broadcast news about the turmoil in Ukraine, the eurasianet.org website reported. Turkmenistan is one of the most repressive regimes in the world. The authorities want to avoid arousing anti-government sentiment in Turkmenistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)
APRIL 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — International human rights groups, the EU and the United States have all criticised Azerbaijan for its clampdown on opposition journalists and activists.
The Azerbaijani authorities appear to be intensifying their purge of anti-government activists.
On April 28, security personnel at Baku airport stopped prominent human rights activist Leyla Yunus and her husband Arif Yunus from flying to Doha. Media reported that they had been told they were not allowed to leave the country and held them for several hours.
This followed the extradition from Turkey and arrest at Baku airport of Rafiq Mirqadirov, a well-known writer, on allegations that he spied for arch-enemy Armenia.
In Washington a US State Department spokesperson said that she was disturbed by Mr Mirqadirov’s arrest. The European Commissioner for Human Rights, Nils Miusnieks, had a similar message for Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
The authorities in Azerbaijani have been on a determined drive to purge the country of their enemies. Other than paranoia, it’s unclear, though, what is driving this purge. The opposition in Azerbaijan is disorganised, under-funded and under-supported. They don’t really hold much threat to the status quo.
One consequence of the crackdown has been to anger Azerbaijan’s Western allies. The crackdown tallies more with Russia’s mindset then with the West. The problem for Azerbaijan is that it has re-aligned its foreign policy away from Russia towards the West.
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(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)
APRIL 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Greece arrested Data Akhalaia, the former head of Georgia’s intelligence agency, when he tried to cross the border into Italy on a fake passport one month ago, media reported. Mr Akhalaia is wanted in Georgia for involvement in a murder in 2006.
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(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)
APRIL 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — It may not have been the full admission of guilt that many people in Armenia want, but Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s statement on the death of thousands of Armenians in 1915 broke new ground.
Turkey’s leaders have always denied accusations of genocide against Armenians living in the east of the country when the Ottoman Empire started to break up.
But on this occasion, Mr Erdogan’s comments were seen as unusually conciliatory.
“Having experienced events which had inhumane consequences, such as relocation, during the First World War, should not prevent Turks and Armenians from establishing compassion and mutually humane attitudes towards one another,” media quoted Mr Erdogan as saying.
His reference to relocation was to the forced deportation of millions of Armenians from their homeland around Van.
Although some pressure groups in Armenia dismissed Mr Erdogan’s statement as politicking others were more accepting. The importance for Armenia cannot be understated.
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(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)
APRIL 19 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — An Italian court granted refugee status to the wife and daughter of Mukhtar Ablyazov, a Kazakh former banker-turned-opposition leader currently in French custody awaiting the result of an extradition request from Kazakhstan. The ruling is a blow to Kazakhstan which had been looking to force their return.
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(News report from Issue No. 181, published on April 23 2014)
APRIL 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Azerbaijan deported eight Turkish nationals with links to the US-based opposition leader Fethullah Gulen back to Turkey, media reported. Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Mr Gulen of trying to undermine the Turkish state.
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(News report from Issue No. 181, published on April 23 2014)
APRIL 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia signed a deal with Russia that will ease Armenian migrant workers’ permits in Russian cities, media reported. The deal is another sign of the economic benefits that Armenia is in line to receive after agreeing to join the Russia-led Customs Union. Remittances from Russia are an important part of Armenia’s economy.
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(News report from Issue No. 180, published on April 16 2014)
APRIL 15 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia’s intervention in Ukraine has made Georgia feel more vulnerable, Georgian president Georgi Margvelashvili told Reuters in an interview. Mr Margvelashvili also said that the West should work with Russia rather than isolate it. “It should be restrained by engagement,” he said.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 180, published on April 16 2014)
APRIL 15 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev flew to Tehran to meet with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani, cementing a détente between the two neighbours.
At their meeting the two leaders signed four different agreements aimed at boosting cross-border cooperation. On energy matters, Azerbaijan and Iran agreed to work together to build a pair of hydropower stations
Photos of the two men showed them shaking hands and generally looking at ease with each other.
This is good news for the South Caucasus region which had been looking increasingly unstable during the worsening of Azerbaijan-Iran relations.
Since Mr Rouhani came to power in 2013 ties have improved.
But re-working relations with Iran is also clever regional politics by Mr Aliyev. He aims to build as much support as possible for Azerbaijan’s cause against Armenia over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Mr Aliyev also met with Iran’s top Islamic cleric, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, who made reference to Azerbaijan’s close relations with Israel.
“Of course, the Zionist regime (Israel), among some others, is not pleased with the strong ties between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan, and constantly disrupts this process,” he said according to the Iranian news agency Tasnim.
“But, with seriousness and political will, obstructionism can be overcome.”
Ties between Iran and Azerbaijan are still finely balanced.
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(News report from Issue No. 180, published on April 16 2014)