Tag Archives: international relations

Georgia closes second school linked to Gulen

TBILISI, AUG. 360 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Georgia closed a second school linked to Turkey’s Gulen movement, nearly four months after they detained one of its senior staff members and accused him of being linked to terrorism.
Turkey has pressured its neighbours into arresting and deporting people it has linked to a failed coup last year that it blames on so-called Gulenists. Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan have, so far, refused to bend to the pressure but Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and, increasingly, Georgia have acquiesced.
In an interview with the Georgia-based Open Caucasus Media, Gia Murghulia, deputy head of the education ministry’s Council of Authorisation of Secondary Schools said that it had revoked a licence for the private Demirel College in Tbilisi.
He insisted, though, that the school had been closed for teaching failures and not for any political reasons.
“We are not interested in political aspects,” he was quoted as saying.
Others were sceptical and said that the closure was political.
In May, Mustafa Cabuk, a Turkish manager at the school was detained for his alleged links to the Gulen movement. He has since been fighting extradition attempts, saying that he would be tortured if he was sent back to Turkey.
Georgia has also revoked the licence of a school in Batumi linked to the Gulen network and detained a Turkish businessman.
In the early 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Gulenists, followers of the exiled of the exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen, headed out from Turkey and set up a series of schools and universities across Central Asia and the South Caucasus.
Georgia has been fostering increasingly close ties with Turkey. It jointly hosts a gas pipeline running from the Caspian Sea to Europe, is developing commercial interests and hosts joint military exercises.

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(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

THE BRIEFING: Kazakhstan opens nuclear fuel bank

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SEPT. 7 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — >> Kazakh President Nazarbayev opened a nuclear fuel bank this week. What is this and what does it mean?

>> A nuclear fuel bank is a secure building that holds low-enriched uranium that can be used to make power. The nuclear fuel bank that has just been opened by Nazarbayev is run by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). This means that it is different from others around the world as it is supposedly run by a neutral agency and not by single country.

>> Okay. But why is this important?

>> Nuclear power is a highly politicised form of energy. Nation states have their own agendas and the IAEA-controlled nuclear fuel bank is an attempt to reassure smaller nations that there is an independent supply of low–enriched uranium that they can access if they need to. The IAEA wants to promote nuclear power but it also wants to limit the number of countries that have the capability to enrich uranium. Low-enriched uranium can be used to produce electricity but high-enriched uranium can be used to produce weapons.

>> So what has Kazakhstan got to do with all this?

>> Nazarbayev wants to place Kazakhstan at the vanguard of a drive to make nuclear power around the world safer. He gave up an arsenal of nuclear weapons left over by the Soviet Union when it collapsed in 1991. Since then he has also encouraged Kazakhstan to become the world’s biggest producer of raw uranium. Offering Kazakhstan as a location for an IAEA-controlled nuclear fuel bank was a logical step for him. The fuel bank is located in the east of the country near to the USSR’s former nuclear test site.

>> Who paid for this and should we expect a queue of countries looking to access the low-enriched uranium held in the IAEA’s fuel bank?

>> US billionaire Warren Buffett put in $50 million, the US put up nearly $50 million, the EU around $29 million, Kuwait and the UAE $10m and Norway $5m. Kazakhstan paid in $400,000. It’ll take a year to fill with low-enriched uranium, there is nothing in it at the moment, but even when it is operating don’t expect a queue of countries looking to access it. It is considered a reserve of last resort if a country can’t buy low-enriched uranium on the market. It still has to pass various safety protocols, though. Other nuclear fuel banks, including one next door in Russia that opened in 2010 with IAEA backing, have never been used.
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(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

Kazakhstan says next Syria peace talks scheduled for mid-Sept

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SEPT. 3 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh officials said that a new round of peace talks in Astana aimed at ending violence in Syria was now scheduled for Sept 14/15. The talks, which feature Russia, Iran, Turkey, the Syrian government and Syrian rebels, had been due to begin in mid-August but were delayed. This is the sixth episode of the talks this year.

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(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

Armenia scraps visas for Japanese

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AUG. 31 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia lifted visa requirements for Japanese citizens, two years after Japan opened an embassy in Yerevan. Armenia has had an embassy in Tokyo since 2010. Previously, like EU citizens, Japanese citizens had to apply for a visa on arrival at an Armenian border.

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(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

Nazarbayev opens nuclear fuel bank

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ALMATY, AUG. 29 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev opened the first nuclear fuel bank owned and managed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The low-enriched uranium fuel bank based at the Ulba Metallurgical Plant in Oskemen will be the first independently-managed supply of fuel for nuclear power stations. It will take a year to stock the plant with low-enriched uranium.

For Mr Nazarbayev the opening of the IAEA’s nuclear fuel bank has important inferences, including cementing Kazakhstan’s self-made image as a centre for peaceful nuclear energy.

At the opening ceremony in Astana, Mr Nazarbayev said that the nuclear fuel bank should reduce the risk of nuclear war.

“We are the largest producer of uranium and are ready to play an important role in the world energy,” he was quoted by a government press release as saying.

Over the past 25 years, Mr Nazarbayev has carefully crafted an image for himself as a pioneer of nuclear safety. He voluntarily surrendered an arsenal of nuclear weapons, left over by the Soviet Union after its collapse in 1991, and has pushed Kazakhstan to become the biggest producer of raw uranium in the world. It now has a market share of around 40%.

Some have even suggested that Mr Nazarbayev views the nuclear route as a way of securing a Nobel Peace Prize.

The low-enriched uranium nuclear fuel bank is seen as a resource of last resort for countries that need to secure supplies for nuclear power stations.

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(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

Kazakhstan agrees prison officer training deal with UK

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AUG. 31 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — On a trip to Kazakhstan aimed at persuading Kazakh companies to list their stocks on the London Stock Exchange, Alan Duncan, the British minister for Europe and the Americas said that he had agreed a deal to help train up Kazakh prison officers. Prison reform is high on the list of changes demanded by human rights activists of Kazakhstan. The country has spent millions on improving conditions but lobby groups say that it still has a long way to go.

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(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

US military war games held in Georgia

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SEPT. 3 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — US forces started joint annual exercises with forces from Georgia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Latvia, Romania and Ukraine. This is the seventh year running that Georgia has hosted the multilateral war games. The US has said that its main ambition from the exercises is to give Georgian forces a boost.

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(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

Two Canadian MPs banned from Azerbaijan

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SEPT. 4 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry issued an official complaint to the Canadian foreign ministry after two Canadian MPs visited Nagorno-Karabakh as guests of Armenia. Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper said that Tony Clement and Rachael Harder had also been banned from travelling to Azerbaijan. They said that they had accepted an invitation to help make a documentary about the disputed region by a Toronto-based group called One Free World International.

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(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

Uzbekistan frees former UN staff member jailed in 2006

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AUG. 22 (The Conway Bulletin) — The United Nations said that Erkin Musaev, a former staff member who had been running a joint programme with the European Union in 2006 in Tashkent when he was arrested trying to leave Uzbekistan, has been freed. Musaev was imprisoned for various crimes, including embezzlement and espionage. The UN has always said that the crimes have been fabricated. Under Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Uzbekistan has released several political prisoners.

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(News report from Issue No. 341, published on Aug. 27 2017)

Uzbekistan joins IRENA

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TASHKENT, AUG. 24 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan joined the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), an intergovernmental organisation set up to help member countries strengthen their sources of green power. IRENA has 152 members. Uzbekistan has previously shied away from joining international organisations. Under the presidency of Shavkat Mirziyoyev, though, it has become open to international cooperation.

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(News report from Issue No. 341, published on Aug. 27 2017)