Tag Archives: Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyz President talks about Islamic extremism recruitment techniques

JULY 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Basking in the reflected glory of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s first ever trip to Central Asia, Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev seems to have seized his moment to boast of his country’s commitment — and his own personal efforts — in combating Islamic extremism.

During a 30-minute joint press conference with Ms Merkel, Mr Atambayev said he had ordered his office to pay for posters campaigning against Islamic extremism across Bishkek.

With the rise of the extremist group IS, Central Asian leaders have emphasised the role of external pressure on the radicalisation of their citizens and how their security forces respond to it.

These strategies have served the governments’ objectives of cracking down on opposition forces, shifting blame and establishing a constant ‘emergency mode’.

Some governments, like Turkmenistan, and to a lesser extent Uzbekistan, outright deny any radical Islamic presence within their borders. Even those countries that do, tend to blame foreign zealots for wiping up extremist sentiment.

Now, it seems, Mr Atambayev has changed the tone.

His decision to allocate public funds to posters that showed a correlation between the contamination of Kyrgyz traditional folklore and Islamic extremism is a bold one. The posters, plastered across motorways around the capital, showed a group of smiling girls in traditional white Kyrgyz dresses transitioning to a picture of a subjugated group of women wearing black hijabs that are alien to Central Asian cultures.

At the press conference, Mr Atambayev said that he supported the posters and wished there would be more across the city.

“[This] is where it all starts. We start with the adoption of foreign clothing, foreign words, and we end up with people who cut heads off,” Mr Atambayev said.

This is one of the first admissions from a Central Asian leader that radicalisation could be homegrown, albeit fuelled by adopting foreign custom.

It is still unclear whether Mr Atambayev was consciously trying to blaze a new trail in the fight against radical Islam or he was just trying to promote Kyrgyz people as traditionally peaceful.

Regardless, standing next to Ms Merkel he broke new ground in the radical Islam conversation in Central Asia.

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(News report from Issue No. 289, published on July 15 2016)

Merkel makes trip to Bishkek, praises Kyrgyz democracy

BISHKEK, JULY 13/14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Angela Merkel became the first German leader to visit Kyrgyzstan when she landed in Bishkek on her way to a conference in Mongolia, handing Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev a major PR coup and making him the envy of his neighbours.

Standing next to Mr Atambayev inside the Presidential Residence, Ms Merkel, who had never before visited Central Asia in her 11 years as Germany’s Chancellor, praised Kyrgyzstan’s democratic progress.

“I am very pleased that we’ve now met in Kyrgyzstan, you have twice visited Germany,” she said.

“We have great respect for the path chosen by Kyrgyzstan since 2010. Kyrgyzstan has chosen the path of parliamentary democracy, and needs, of course, to be supported.”

Kyrgyzstan shifted power to parliament from the president in 2010 after a revolution and has since held three national elections — two parliamentary and one presidential — that Western election observers praised as reasonably free and fair. No other country in Central Asia has ever held an election praised by Western observers and commentators suggested Ms Merkel’s stop-over in Kyrgyzstan was a reward of sorts.

But as well as praising Kyrgyzstan for its relative democracy, Ms Merkel also warned Kyrgyz officials to respect the rule of law and human rights.

The day before her arrival, Kyrgyzstan’s Supreme Court ordered a retrial of Azimzhan Askarov, a prominent human rights activist jailed in 2010.

Mr Atambayev said that the two leaders had discussed a variety of subjects, including international terrorism and improving relations between Kyrgyzstan and the EU.

Posters welcoming Ms Merkel adorned Bishkek and most residents were excited about her visit.

Tamara, 59, a Bishkek resident said: “It is such an honour for Kyrgyzstan to host Angela Merkel because she is a great woman-politician, who promoted the idea of hosting Muslim refugees in Europe.”

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(News report from Issue No. 289, published on July 15 2016)

Kyrgyz Supreme Court orders retrial for Askarov

BISHKEK, JULY 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s Supreme Court ordered a retrial into the sentencing of human rights activist Azimzhan Askarov in 2010 to life in prison for involvement in a murder and for inciting ethnic hatred.

The announcement disappointed human rights activists who have said that Askarov, an ethnic Uzbek, is a political prisoner who was made into a scapegoat after fighting between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in Osh killed at least 400 people. They wanted the

Supreme Court to bow to pressure from the UN and US to release the 65-year-old Askarov.

Askarov’s case has strained relations between Kyrgyzstan and the US, which last year called him a political prisoner.

Analysts in Bishkek have told The Bulletin that the Supreme Court may give in to pressure to hold a retrial but that it would be, politically, very difficult for a court to come to a different outcome at a new trial.

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(News report from Issue No. 289, published on July 15 2016)

Kyrgyzstan’s GDP falls by 2.3%

JULY 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s GDP fell by 2.3% in the first six months of the year because of lower gold prices. The Statistics Committee said that without accounting for the performance of the Kumtor gold mine, the country’s non-gold GDP grew by 1.2% compared to the same period last year. Higher gold prices since mid-June could now push up the country’s GDP.

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(News report from Issue No. 289, published on July 15 2016)

Kyrgyzstan’s debt hits $4b

JULY 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s ministry of finance said the country’s debt had hit $4b, a level that parliament set in 2014 as the country’s debt ceiling. Foreign debt accounts for $3.7b of this amount. China’s Exim Bank, the World Bank’s International Development Association and the Asian Development Bank are among Kyrgyzstan’s largest creditors. Kyrgyzstan’s debt/GDP ratio has now surpassed 60%, a level that local politicians have said is worrying.

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(News report from Issue No. 288, published on July 8 2016)

Kyrgyzstan focused aims to diverse assets

JULY 6 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Canadian miner Centerra Gold has struck a $1.1b deal with US-based Thompson Creek to buy a majority stake in the company. Centerra’s core asset is the Kumtor gold mine in eastern Kyrgyzstan. The move could be seen as an effort towards diversification as Thompson Creek owns mines in North America. The Kyrgyz government’s representatives on the Centerra board voted against the deal with Thompson Creek.

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(News report from Issue No. 288, published on July 8 2016)

Border police stops Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan bound trucks

JULY 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Russian border police stopped 43 goods trucks travelling from Ukraine to Central Asia at the border with Belarus. The trucks were bound for Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, but were stopped because of new Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) regulation that appears designed as a retaliation forWestern imposed sanctions on Russia. The EEU is a Russia-led economic bloc that includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia and Belarus.

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(News report from Issue No. 288, published on July 8 2016)

Kyrgyz government strips interior ministry of control over powerful units

BISHKEK, JULY 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Looking to subvert its growing influence ahead of a presidential election next year, the Kyrgyz government stripped the ministry of interior of some control over its most powerful units.

The reform reshuffled government units, awarding more independence to departments responsible for combating terrorism, drug trafficking and cracking down on economic crimes. The Prosecutor-General has also been stripped of its power to launch independent investigations.

Pres. Almazbek Atambayev said the reforms will strengthen the law.

“Today’s decision can be called historic. The law enforcement system reform should strengthen law and order, so that ordinary citizens, business, and investments are protected by the law,” media quoted him as saying at a government meeting.

Analysts were more circumspect. Bishkek-based political analyst Mars Sariyev said that changes looked designed to subvert an increasingly difficult-to-control security system.

“The security authorities had tried to undermine the power of some interest groups and their political ambitions,” he said.

And another, anonymous, analyst said the changes were probably linked to the departure last month of Melis Turganbayev as Kyrgyzstan’s interior minister who was considered by government ministers as manoeuvring to position himself as a potential next president.

“There is no doubt that he was a very big political figure and that he was probably forced to leave to help bring the ministry of internal affairs more under the control of the government,” he said.

Kyrgyzstan is due to hold a presidential election in 2017.

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(News report from Issue No. 288, published on July 8 2016)

Kyrgyzstan wants to import electricity from Tajikistan

JULY 6 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan wants to import 1.5-2m kWh of electricity every day from Tajikistan over the summer, Aleksey Borodin, deputy director of National Electric Network, told local media, another sign that its power generating systems are not operating at their expected levels. In 2015, Kyrgyzstan imported 146m kWh from Tajikistan, before they halted trade because of the completion of theDatka-Kemin transmission line in Kyrgyzstan which was supposed to ensure the country’s energy independence.

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(News report from Issue No. 288, published on July 8 2016)

Comment: US foreign policy in C.Asia & the S.Caucasus

JULY 8 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — John Kerry’s visit to Georgia on Wednesday was the first visit by a US Secretary of State to the South Caucasus in four years. And, importantly, the visit was tied not to the region as a whole, but to a NATO summit that Mr Kerry will attend in Poland today, July 8.

Mr Kerry has only visited our patch once, in November 2015, when he toured all five Central Asian states.

This compares to the frequent visits of his predecessor and now presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who visited the Central Asia and South Caucasus region four times, perhaps because of a stronger US interest in Afghanistan and the need to show support to South Caucasus countries over their relationship with Russia and Europe.

President Barack Obama’s second term, which started in 2013, has been marked by a slow disengagement from the region. This included giving up the Manas air base near Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, in mid-2014, once the main jumping off point for forces heading to Afghanistan but not needed once US engagement dropped off. In July 2015, the State Department also awarded jailed Kyrgyzstani human rights defender Azimzhan Askarov a human rights prize, prompting an official complaint from Kyrgyzstan.

The NATO-driven engagement in Georgia also waned, especially after President Mikhail Saakashvili lost power in 2013. Georgia is now possibly the furthest it’s ever been from joining the military alliance.

US diplomatic relations with Azerbaijan have also worsened, after President Ilham Aliyev’s re-election in 2013 and the increasingly harsh crackdown on political opposition and media freedom, including expelling the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty from Baku.

And Mr Kerry’s demeanor has also betrayed lack of interest. Soon after his appointment, in Feb. 2013, he referred to Kyrgyzstan as “Kyrzakhstan” at a press conference. Both the US diplomatic attitude and resource allocation show that it is losing ground in Central Asia and the South Caucasus to Russia, China and Iran, who have proved able to pay for the soft power in cash, investing in infrastructure, financial and energy projects.

Next year the State Department plans to allocate around $240m to the region, around 1/3 more than in 2015. Still, more funding does not necessarily mean more engagement.

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(News report from Issue No. 288, published on July 8 2016)