APRIL 15 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Scotching concerns over his health, Uzbek President Islam Karimov flew to Moscow for a meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Officially, the two leaders discussed NATO’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. Rumours of Mr Karimov’s declining health circulated last month after he disappeared from public view for a few days.
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(News report from Issue No. 132, published on April 22 2013)
APRIL 8 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Slowly, but steadily, it appears that Kazakhstan genuinely wants to take on a greater leadership role on development issues across the wider region.
Deputy PM Alexei Volkov said that the Kazakh authorities want to turn Almaty into a regional development centre, local media reported.
At the fulcrum of this centre, Mr Volkov said, would be Kaz Aid which would mix development and humanitarian work.
Mr Volkov also said that giving Almaty a similar status to Geneva, Vienna or Bangkok in the aid world would help generate larger, more influential humanitarian and development projects across a region stretching from Afghanistan to the South Caucasus.
Kazakhstan’s foreign partners will be pleased to hear this talk. They have long pressed for Kazakhstan to become more involved in regional affairs.
The need for a more interventionist Kazakhstan has become more acute with NATO planning to exit Afghanistan by 2014.
And there is the geo-political dimension. At the same time the West is reducing its influence in Central Asia and Afghanistan, China is increasing its own reach.
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(News report from Issue No. 131, published on April 12 2013)
APRIL 7 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A second round of negotiations in Almaty between Iran and a US-led group ended without a resolution to the long-running dispute over the Iranian nuclear programme. Participants, though, praised Kazakhstan for the smooth running of the discussions.
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(News report from Issue No. 131, published on April 12 2013)
APRIL 6 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev made one of his regular visits to Beijing to meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. During the visit, Mr Nazarbayev agreed a number of bilateral deals including an extension, media reported, to a pipeline pumping oil from Kazakhstan to China.
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(News report from Issue No. 131, published on April 12 2013)
APRIL 10 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Disagreements between the local authorities in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia and their Russian sponsors do exist, but Russia effectively controls the province through its military presence and financial support, the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank said in a new report. The views of the ICG, which is based in Brussels, are influential.
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(News report from Issue No. 131, published on April 12 2013)
APRIL 12 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Citing the Uzbek authorities’ refusal to allow private access to inmates, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) cancelled all future prison visits in Uzbekistan.
The ICRC released a terse, unequivocal statement from its Geneva headquarters.
“The decision to terminate visits to places of detention is a rare occurrence and is never taken lightly,” it said.
The ICRC, which had suspended trips since October 2012, said prison visits are pointless unless inmates feel they can talk freely and the Uzbeks simply weren’t willing to allow this.
The cramped, Soviet-built prisons in Uzbekistan are considered some of the worst in the world. Allegations of torture and mistreatment litter activists’ accounts of prison life.
ICRC’s decision will embarrass Uzbekistan’s Western military partners.
Rowing back on years of criticism of alleged human rights abuses by the authorities, NATO governments led by the US have been eager to make deals with Uzbekistan to help withdraw their military forces from neighbouring Afghanistan by the end of 2014. Uzbekistan has a useful railway network and is considered more stable than Pakistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 131, published on April 12 2013)
APRIL 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev is likely to sign various bilateral deals with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping when he visits Beijing from April 6 – 8, Kazakhstan’s media reported. The Tengrinews website reported that Kazakhstan has increased crude oil shipments to China by 20% per year since 2006.
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(News report from Issue No. 130, published on April 5 2013)
APRIL 1 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkish Airlines cancelled its first flight to Armenia, a transport link that had been designed to ease tension between the two neighbours. Turkish Airlines had been due to fly twice weekly from Van in eastern Turkey to Yerevan. Azerbaijan, still officially at war with Armenia, persuaded Turkey, its long-term ally, to scrap the flights.
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(News report from Issue No. 130, published on April 5 2013)
MARCH 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — In comments made on a trip to Dushanbe, Kazakh foreign minister Yerlan Idrissov appeared to signal Kazakhstan’s intent to mediate in a long-running dispute between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan over water rights, media reported. With Iran’s help, Tajikistan is building a dam that will effect water flow to Uzbekistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 130, published on April 5 2013)
APRIL 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — For aspiring diplomats, Tbilisi is considered a bit of a back-water. Relations between Kazakhstan and Georgia are stable and uncontroversial. Georgia is important to Kazakhstan mainly because some of its energy makes its way to Europe through the Georgian pipeline or railway network.
What it isn’t is glamorous or high-profile and that’s precisely why the appointment of Yermukhamet Yertysbayev, President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s adviser for the last five years, as Kazakh ambassador to Georgia attracted so much attention.
The feeling was that Mr Yertysbayev had been demoted gently, perhaps he’d made one too many unguarded remarks or perhaps Mr Nazarbayev just wanted to freshen up his team.
Mr Yertysbayev had been Mr Nazarbayev’s adviser since May 2008. As well as advising him behind the scenes, Mr Yertysbayev performed an important role by floating potential policy moves to gauge public reaction.
He aired the potential of Timur Kulibayev, Mr Nazarbayev’s son-in-law, becoming president and also updated the media on former British PM Tony Blair’s operations in Kazakhstan.
The last five year stint as Mr Nazarbayev’s adviser had been Mr Yertysbayev’s third in the role. He may well yet return.
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(News report from Issue No. 130, published on April 5 2013)