DEC. 30 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia exchanged 13 prisoners with the rebel state of South Ossetia, the largest swap since the end of a war in Aug. 2008. The OSCE and the European Union brokered prisoner swaps are considered an important step in restoring trust. In Feb. 2011, the sides exchanged 11 prisoners each.
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(News report from Issue No. 71, published on Jan. 5 2012)
JAN. 1 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – The United States has started 2012 without a permanent ambassador in Azerbaijan.
US senators have to approve new ambassadors and a pro-Armenia group blocked the permanent appointment of Matthew Bryza, an experienced south Caucasus diplomat, as President Barack Obama’s envoy in Baku.
Mr Bryza was able to serve one year as temporary ambassador in Azerbaijan but he left the country on Jan. 3 2012 after his supporters failed to persuade the pro-Armenia group to drop its objections.
At the heart of the issue is Nagorno-Karabakh, the mountainous slither of land wedged between Azerbaijan and Armenia which the countries fought over after the 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union.
A 1994 ceasefire holds but Azerbaijan and Armenia are still technically at war and although Mr Bryza specialised in the South Caucasus as US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Eurasian Affairs between 2005 and 2010, the pro-Armenia lobby say he and his Turkish wife are too close to Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan’s president, to be unbiased.
The international spotlight falls on Azerbaijan, and inevitably its human rights record, in 2012 when it hosts the Eurovision Song Contest and, with its increasing importance to European energy supplies and NATO logistics in Afghanistan, the US needs to decide on a permanent representative in Baku soon.
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(News report from Issue No. 71, published on Jan. 5 2012)
DEC. 23 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, the Turkmen president, travelled to Moscow to meet Russia’s President, Dmitri Medvedev, and PM, Vladimir Putin. The trip is important because economic ties between the countries have worsened over rows about gas prices and mobile phone licenses in the past three years.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 71, published on Jan. 5 2012)
JAN. 1 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – A blast killed a Georgian soldier in Afghanistan, the 11th to die supporting the US-led war, the government said. Georgia currently has 900 soldiers in Afghanistan, one of the biggest from a non-NATO member. One of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s main ambitions is to join NATO.
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(News report from Issue No. 71, published on Jan. 5 2012)
DEC. 15 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Parliament voted overwhelmingly to reject a deal to reduce tariffs on Uzbek textiles until the UN is given access to investigate reports of child labour. The decision comes at a time when, despite criticism over its human rights, Uzbekistan is being re-integrated into the international community.
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(News report from Issue No. 70, published on Dec. 22 2011)
DEC. 14 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan faces a food shortage unless food rail wagons delayed in Uzbekistan are able to complete their journey, local media quoted the head of the World Food Programme (WFP) in Dushanbe, Alzira Ferreira, as saying. Tajik-Uzbek relations have worsened over the past year. Uzbekistan says a broken bridge has delayed the wagons.
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(News report from Issue No. 70, published on Dec. 22 2011)
DEC. 7 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Underlining his unilateral principles, Uzbek president Islam Karimov used a TV speech to warn against integration in the former Soviet Union. Commentators interpreted the speech as a snub to Russian PM Vladimir Putin’s proposal of a Eurasian Union. Kazakhstan backs the idea of a Eurasian Union.
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(News report from Issue No. 69, published on Dec. 14 2011)
DEC. 13 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – A report by Human Rights Watch accused the US and NATO of virtually ignoring torture by Uzbekistan because it was now an ally in their war in Afghanistan. As relations with Pakistan have worsened, NATO has increased supplies to its forces in Afghanistan along a route through Uzbekistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 69, published on Dec. 14 2011)
DEC. 8 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Britain opened a new embassy in Bishkek, 20 years after Kyrgyzstan’s independence from the Soviet Union. Britain’s foreign ministry is cutting less important postings to find a 10% budget saving but it has also said it wants to boost its presence in strategically important areas such as Kyrgyzstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 69, published on Dec. 14 2011)
DEC. 10 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Political instability from a disputed Nov. 27 presidential election continues to stalk the Georgian breakaway region of South Ossetia.
After 10 days of protests the disqualified winner of the election Alla Dzhioyeva, a former education minister, agreed to call off further demonstrations.
In the deal Eduard Kokoity resigned as president on Dec. 10 and Ms Dzhioyeva will be allowed to challenge the Kremlin-backed candidate Anatoly Bibilov, the emergencies minister, in an election re-run in March. PM Vadim Brotsev will become the interim president.
Ms Dzhioyeva had shocked the Kremlin by winning around 56% of the vote in a second round run-off against Mr Bibilov. Both support close ties with Moscow but Ms Dzhioyeva ran a vigorous campaign against corruption while Mr Bibilov’s campaign appeared lacklustre and complacent.
A few days after the election, though, South Ossetia’s central election commission annulled the vote and banned Ms Dzhioyeva from a re-run for apparently bribing voters. She denied this.
South Ossetia, a mountainous sliver of land of 70,000 people, is awash with weapons and violence is never far below the surface. Since a 2008 war with Georgia, Russia has recognised the independence of South Ossetia and the other Georgian breakaway region of Abkhazia.
Politicians in Georgia have likened the in-fighting to two squabbling mafia groups.
But social and political tension in South Ossetia and Abkhazia matters. It can spread easily and warm up one of the South Caucasus’ so-called frozen conflicts.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 69, published on Dec. 14 2011)