Tag Archives: international relations

Russian soldiers fly to Syria to help Russian reconstruction effort

YEREVAN/FEB. 8 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenian soldiers flew into Syria to help Russia’s reconstruction effort, the only military from the former Soviet Union to support Russian forces in the region.

Acknowledging the sensitivity of their mission, the Armenian ministry of defence described the 83 soldiers as “specialists” deployed as deminers and medical personnel.

“Armenian specialists will carry out humanitarian activities related to humanitarian demining, mine awareness of the population, provision of medical assistance in Aleppo, exclusively outside the zone of combat operations,” it said in a statement.

Around 100,000 ethnic Armenians lived in Aleppo before the start of the civil war in 2011. Most have now fled, many to Armenia.

Politics, though, appears to be the driving force behind Armenia’s decision to support the Russian reconstruction effort. FSU states ducked out of a Russian request for help, fearing a backlash from the US or Turkey, but Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan was keen to win support from Russian President Vladimir Putin for the revolution that propelled him to power in May 2018.

The Armenian ministry of defence confirmed that Russian transport planes had ferried the soldiers into Syria but it declined to say for how long they would remain in Syria. Russia is allied to Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and helped him defeat US-supported rebels.

A Russian statement thanked Armenia for its military support.

“This, of course, will be a significant contribution to the establishment of a normal life in Syria,” said Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s defence minister.

ENDS

>This story was first published in issue 399 of the weekly Conway Bulletin, an independent newspaper for Central Asia and the South Caucasus.

France declares say of mourning for “Armenian Genocide”

Leave a Reply

FEB. 5 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a victory for Armenia’s campaign to promote awareness of the killing of hundreds of thousands of Armenians in east Turkey towards the end of WWI, French President Emmanuel Macron declared April 24 to be a day of commemoration for the “Armenian Genocide”. To the irritation of Turkey, which contests the killings and says they were the result of the chaotic end of the Ottoman Empire, France in 2001 became one of the first governments to recognise the Armenian genocide.
END

>This story was first published in issue 399 of The Conway Bulletin on Feb. 8 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019

Russia’s Lavrov underlines importance of Tajik military base

Leave a Reply

FEB. 5 (The Conway Bulletin) — On a trip to Dushanbe, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia’s base in Tajikistan was a vital bulwark against the spread north of Islamic extremism and the Taliban. He also promised to strengthen Russian forces at the base. Russia has warned for the past five years that militant Islamic forces intend to move north into Central Asia.
END

>This story was first published in issue 399 of The Conway Bulletin on Feb. 8 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019

US government fund to invest in Georgian port

Leave a Reply

FEB. 6 (The Conway Bulletin) — OPIC, the US-government’s Overseas Private Investment Corporation, will invest $50m into the $120m construction of a new port terminal at Poti on Georgia’s Black Sea coast, media reported. At a press conference, Georgian PM Mamuka Bakhtadze said the new port was vital to Georgia in maintaining its key position as an entry point for goods transiting between Europe and Asia. OPIC’s mission is to help US businesses expand overseas and also to push US foreign policy objectives.
END

>This story was first published in issue 399 of The Conway Bulletin on Feb. 8 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019

US imposes sanctions on Yerevan travel company for working with Iran

Leave a Reply

YEREVAN/Jan. 24 (The Conway Bulletin) — The United States imposed sanctions on an Armenian company for the first time over its dealings with an Iranian airline that Washington said flies units of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards in and out of a civil war in Syria.

In a statement, the US Treasury Department said Yerevan-based Flight Travel was the third company to be sanctioned for working with Iran’s Mahan Air and that any assets linked to it or its executives in the US will be frozen. Last year it also sanctioned a company in Malaysia and another in Thailand.

“The designation of Flight Travel LLC demonstrates the US Government’s commitment to denying foreign support for Mahan Air and other designated Iranian airlines, and reinforces multiple warnings to the aviation community of the sanctions risk for individuals and entities maintaining commercial relationships with these airlines,” it said.

The US Treasury Department said Flight Travel provides ticketing, financial and administrative services to Mahan Air, which flies to Yerevan as well as to other cities in the region, Europe and China.
In Yerevan, Bella Gevorgyan, named as Flight Travel’s director, said that she was frustrated.

“I think it is not right to impose sanctions against Armenian citizens working with its neighbour country,” she told the Aysor.am news website.

For Armenia’s instinctively Western-orientated government, the US sanctions on Iran, imposed last year, are a headache. Surrounded on two sides by its arch-enemies Turkey and Azerbaijan, Armenia is drawn into dealing with Iran, its far larger southern neighbour.
And over the past few years, Armenia and Iran have deepened ties. Iranians, tourists and businessmen, have also become far more conspicuous in Yerevan.

In October, when John Bolton, US President Donald Trump’s security adviser, travelled to Yerevan, Baku and Tbilisi to explain the impact of sanctions, Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan told him that his country would continue to deal with Iran and with Iranian companies.

END

>This story was first published in issue 398 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 31 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019

Woman charged over anti-China demonstrations

Leave a Reply

JAN. 23 (The Conway Bulletin) — A Kyrgyz woman has become the first person to be charged with a crime linked to anti-Chinese demonstrations that have grown in size in Bishkek over the past month. Radio Free Europe reported that Guljamila Saparalieva had been charged with inciting racial hatred. She was one of a dozen protesters who had gathered in Bishkek on Jan. 17 to protest against the growing number of Chinese migrants working in the country and also about China’s anti-Muslim policies in its northwest region. China is a key economic partner for Kyrgyzstan.
END

>This story was first published in issue 398 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 31 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019

Germany punishes MP for taking Azerbaijani money

Leave a Reply

JAN. 29 (The Conway Bulletin) — Karin Strenz, a German MP from the ruling Christian Democratic Party, has become the first parliamentarian to be punished by his/her home country for taking cash and gifts from Azerbaijan between 2012-14, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.

HRW said that on Jan. 18 Germany’s Bundestag had ruled that Ms Strenz had broken parliamentary rules in a “cash-for-lobbying” scandal that has been dubbed by anti-corruption campaigners as the “Azerbaijani Laundromat”. Ms Strenz faces a fine of up to $68,000. She has also faced calls from within the Christian Democratic Party to resign.

But, critically for HRW, Ms Strenz is the only one of 16 members of the Parliamentary Assembly for the Council of Europe (PACE) to be punished by their national parliaments since being thrown out of PACE for taking the gifts and cash in exchange for defending Azerbaijan’s human rights record.

In a statement, Hugh Williamson, HRW’s director for Europe and Central Asia, said: “This is the most shocking aspect…Let’s hope politicians in Spain, Belgium, and other parliaments hit by the scandal will quickly follow the Bundestag’s lead. It’s about standing up for human rights in Azerbaijan, and in Europe as a whole.”

Last year, PACE published a report that described a patronage and influence network set up by Azerbaijan to help it steer debates in the Assembly where people were openly criticising Baku’s human rights record.

Over the past decade, Azerbaijan has jailed dozens of opposition activists and journalists for financial crimes and drug smuggling, charges that many have said have been fabricated.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is sensitive to criticism from Europe, particularly because, at the time, he had been trying to secure a major gas supply deal.

The PACE report in 2018 said that Italian Luca Volonte was at the centre of the 2.4m euro corruption scandal to buy support in the Assembly for Azerbaijan.

He is being investigated in Italy for corruption, although a court in Milan cleared him of money laundering February 2018.

END

>This story was first published in issue 398 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 31 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019

Kazakhstan to focus foreign policy on developing trade opportunities

Leave a Reply

JAN. 29 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan wants to focus its foreign policy more closely on generating business opportunities, a departure from its previously stated aim of promoting world peace. The new strategy was unveiled by deputy foreign minister Roman Vassilenko, who said that the country’s foreign policy was going to be galvanized around generating more trade opportunities, and investment and development minister Zhenis Kassymbek, who said Kazakhstan wanted to open up 10 more trade missions in Russia, Central Asia and China this year (Jan. 22/29).
END

>This story was first published in issue 398 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 31 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019

EU helps Uzbekistan join WTO

Leave a Reply

JAN. 29 (The Conway Bulletin) — The European Union has pledged 5m euros to help Uzbekistan join the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Uzbek media reported. The pledge is more evidence of the EU’s support for reforms in Uzbekistan that have opened up the country. After 25 years of isolation under Islam Karimov, Uzbekistan is trying to open itself up to international trade.
END

>This story was first published in issue 398 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 31 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019

Police in Bishkek disperse anti-China rally

Leave a Reply

JAN. 17 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Bishkek detained around a dozen people after an anti-Chinese rally in the centre of the city that attracted hundreds of demonstrators. The demonstration was the largest so far in a series of protests against growing Chinese influence over Kyrgyzstan. Demonstrators want Kyrgyz-Chinese marriages to be outlawed and work visas for Chinese to be restricted.
END

>>This story was first published in issue 397 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 20 2019