JAN. 26 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia and Iran introduced a visa-free regime for citizens staying less than 45 days. The visa-free deal was struck in November. Relations have steadily improved between the two countries and last year a twice weekly air service started between Tbilisi and Tehran.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 25, published on Jan. 31 2011)
JAN. 31 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – From presidential palaces across the South Caucasus and Central Asia, the spontaneous uprisings that have dislodged Ben Ali after 23 years running Tunisia and now threaten the 30-year reign of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt are worrying.
Perhaps the ruling elite in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan are most concerned. In Kazakhstan, President Nursultan Nazarbayev has ruled for 20 years and in Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev effectively inherited the presidency from his father who ran the country from 1993.
This year Kazakhstan had planned to extend the 70-year-old Mr Nazarbayev’s rule until 2020 through a national referendum. That plan has now been scrapped.
In Azerbaijan, discontent has been growing against a ban on headscarves and the authorities have detained several senior Islamist leaders. Immolation triggered the revolution in Tunisia and according to news reports, on Jan. 20 in Azerbaijan a farmer frustrated over police corruption also committed immolation. His death may not have sparked the public outrage that it did in Tunisia but the authorities are wary.
In Yerevan, protesters angry about corruption and mismanagement have been gathering for the biggest rallies against Armenia’s government since 2008 when 8 people died in clashes between protesters and soldiers.
The Rose Revolution swept Mikhail Saakashvili to power in Georgia in 2003 and, tellingly, its elite have given Tunisia’s so-called Jasmine Revolution a relative quiet reception. A few years ago Mr Saakashvili may have applauded the Jasmine Revolution but in the last three years he has faced a wave of discontent and now it is viewed as a potentially destabilising factor.
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(News report from Issue No. 25, published on Jan. 31 2011)
JAN. 24 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – At the staged welcome for Uzbek President Islam Karimov at the European Union’s headquarters in Brussels on Jan. 24, EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso looked unusually tense.
Television pictures showed the normally urbane Portuguese striding in slightly ahead of Mr Karimov, rushing a handshake and then shuffling quickly out, having barely cast a glance at his guest.
The EU and NATO want to talk about trade and military matters with Mr Karimov but he is a controversial guest. In May 2005, Uzbek security forces shot dead hundreds of protesters in the town of Andijan in the east of the country. Officially, 189 protesters died after Islam extremists instigated violence but human rights groups say that between 700 and 1,000 people were killed.
The EU imposed sanctions and pushed Uzbekistan to hold an inquiry. It suspended visas for 12 top officials and established an arms embargo. But there was no inquiry and by 2009 the sanctions had been lifted. Human rights groups also allege other systematic abuses in Uzbekistan including torture, the use of child labour and the imprisonment of activists and journalists.
During Mr Karimov’s visit, the EU and NATO have promised to raise human rights questions but they also insist they are being balanced and pragmatic. Uzbekistan has become an important stage post for supplies to NATO forces fighting in Afghanistan and it holds large gas supplies which the EU hopes to tap into one day.
The US-based Human Rights Watch instead described the EU’s attitude towards Uzbekistan as obsequious.Certainly, Mr Barroso looked sheepish.
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(News report from Issue No. 24, published on Jan. 24 2011)
JAN. 24 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbek President Islam Karimov visited Brussels to meet the president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, and NATO Secretary-General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Human rights groups said it was disgraceful to welcome Mr Karimov who is accused of ordering his security forces to shoot dead hundreds of protesters in 2005.
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(News report from Issue No. 24, published on Jan. 24 2011)
JAN. 24 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Sporadic shooting around the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region has killed one Azerbaijani and injured two Armenians in the last week, RFE/RL reported. The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan discussed worsening tension around Nagorno-Karabakh at a meeting in Moscow hosted by the Russian foreign minister.
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(News report from Issue No. 24, published on Jan. 24 2011)
JAN. 12 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan signed a deal to supply Iran with gas for the next five years. A spokesman for SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s state oil company, said that from Feb. 1 it would export 1b cubic metres of gas to neighbouring Iran in 2011. Over the last year, Iran has been steadily improving relations with Azerbaijan.
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(News report from Issue No. 23, published on Jan. 17 2011)
JAN. 13/5 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso visited Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan to try to persuade them to supply gas to Europe through planned routes running from the Caspian Sea across the South Caucasus. EU officials said Azerbaijan had committed to supplying gas and that Turkmenistan had pledged closer cooperation in 2011.
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(News report from Issue No. 23, published on Jan. 17 2011)
JAN. 14 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan’s parliament voted to give China a 1,122 sq km area of uninhabited mountainous land along the border to end a long-running dispute over territory. China had disputed about 28,000 sq km of Tajikistan, an argument dating back to the late 19th century.
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(News report from Issue No. 23, published on Jan. 17 2011)
JAN. 5 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan plans to name a mountain after Russian PM Vladimir Putin. The chosen mountain will be over 4,500m high and located in the Tian Shan range on the border with China near Mount Boris Yeltsin and Mount Lenin. In December 2010, Russia pledged $200m in aid to Kyrgyzstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 22, published on Jan. 11 2011)
JAN. 10 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Iran’s Interior Minister, Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, said he wanted the country to establish itself as an energy transit corridor between Central Asia and the Persian Gulf, media reported. Mr Najjar made the comments during an official trip to Oman.
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(News report from Issue No. 22, published on Jan. 11 2011)