Tag Archives: Kyrgyzstan

A nationalist leader emerges in Kyrgyzstan

JAN. 15 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Melis Myrzakmatov, a popular nationalist former mayor of Osh in southern Kyrgyzstan, vowed to fight on after losing a mayoral vote among city lawmakers, creating a headache for the Kyrgyz government.

His ability to whip up popular support was demonstrated immediately after lawmakers had voted 25 to 19 against him in favour of installing the pro-presidential Aitmamat Kadyrbayev as Osh’s mayor.

A crowd of several thousand of Mr Myrzakmatov’s supporters had gathered in central Osh. They were spoiling for a fight and threatened to storm a government building. Reports said several police officers were injured as they held the crowd back.

It was only when Mr Myrzakmatov personally addressed the crowd and asked them to disperse that the tension seeped away. But he did leave a message that might chill the relief felt in Bishkek. Mr Myrzakmatov promised to return to protests once winter had cleared.

Mr Myrzakmatov, who is closely connected to Kyrgyzstan’s former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, was mayor of Osh from 2009 until December 2013 when he was sacked for attending anti-government rallies.

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(News report from Issue No. 168, published on Jan. 22 2014)

Tension at Kyrgyz-Tajik border remains high

JAN. 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Reports from the Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan border said tension remained high between the two sides following a shootout that injured several soldiers earlier this month. Radio Free Europe also reported that Kyrgyzstan had called up reservists living in the area for a three day military exercise.

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(News report from Issue No. 168, published on Jan. 22 2014)

Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan engage in border skirmish

JAN. 11 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Border guards from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan fired at each other in a relatively rare skirmish. Several soldiers from both sides were injured in the firefight, media reported, and Kyrgyzstan later recalled its ambassador from Dushanbe. Tension has been escalating along the Kyrgyz-Tajik border for months.

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(News report from Issue No. 167, published on Jan. 15 2014)

Kyrgyz mufti resigns after scandal

JAN. 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — A secretly filmed sex video involving Kyrgyz Grand Mufti Rakhmatulla-Hajji Egemberdiev has rocked Kyrgyzstan’s establishment.

The video of Mr Egemberdiev having sex with a younger woman appeared on the internet on New Year’s Eve. His opponents accused him of adultery and organised street demonstrations, common in Kyrgyzstan, to force him to resign.

After a week of resistance, Mr Egemberdiev handed in his resignation. He blamed his opponents for setting up a trap and called on the government to intervene.

The whole tawdry episode means that Kyrgyzstan now has to look for its seventh religious leader in four years — a destabilising effect that even a more secure country would have problems dealing with. Mr Egemberdiev’s predecessor was sacked a year ago because of tax evasion issues.

It also throws up the issue of polygamy in Kyrgyzstan. This is technically banned but is still relatively commonplace in Kyrgyzstan and is accepted in the Sufi form of Islam.

Mr Egemberdiev’s defence was that the woman in the video was one of his additional wives.

The destabilising effect of losing another religious leader, the political in-fighting and open debate about polygamy means it’s been a messy start to the year for Kyrgyzstan.

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(News report from Issue No. 166, published on Jan. 8 2014)

Kyrgyzstan and Centerra discuss gold mine

JAN. 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s government was set to discuss a tentative deal with Toronto-listed Centerra Gold over joint ownership of the Kumtor gold mine. The discussion may resolve the long-running ownership dispute. Kyrgyzstan could potentially swap its 32.7% stake in Centerra Gold for a 50% stake directly in Kumtor.

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(News report from Issue No. 166, published on Jan. 8 2014)

Gazprom buys Kyrgyzstan’s gas system

DEC. 11 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s parliament agreed to sell the debt-ridden Kyrgyzgaz to Russian gas monopoly Gazprom for a symbolic $1. The deal increases the Kremlin’s leverage over Kyrgyzstan. Gazprom has pledged to spend about $610m modernising Kyrgyzgaz and has guaranteed gas supplies to Kyrgyzstan for a year.

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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)

Kyrgyz poem enters UNESCO list

DEC. 4 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — UNESCO agreed to include Manas, the epic Kyrgyz national poem, on its cultural heritage list. The decision is a victory for Kyrgyzstan which sees the poem as a bedrock of its national identity. Streets are named after Manas which tells the story of 13 Kyrgyz tribes uniting to form one nation.

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(News report from Issue No. 164, published on Dec. 11 2013)

Kyrgyz government sacks mayor

DEC. 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kyrgyz authorities sacked the powerful mayor of Osh, Melis Myrzakmatov, a few days after he attended a major anti-government rally.

It’s a bold, but also risky, move by the government.

The 44-year-old Mr Myrzakmatov is a firebrand nationalist, known for ignoring the central government in Bishkek. He’d held power in Osh since January 2009 and has been a headache for the national government ever since the ouster of former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev in 2010.

Since then the southern power groups have jostled for influence with their northern adversaries. In June 2010 this came to a head with inter-ethnic fighting between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks. Some analysts blamed local regional chiefs, including Mr Myrzakmatov, for stirring the trouble.

On Dec. 3, a few days after clashes with police, a reported 3,000 demonstrators gathered in Osh to call for the release of popular southern politician, Akhmatbek Keldibekov. Police had arrested Mr Keldibekov, a former Speaker of the parliament, in November on corruption charges.

By deposing Mr Myrzakmatov, who attended the rally, the government probably hopes to cut a major agitator out of the equation and take the momentum out of the protests. Mr Myrzakmatov, though, is a wily opponent and has already said that he will return to front-line politics.

(News report from Issue No. 164, published on Dec. 11 2013)

Kyrgyzstan files a lawsuit against Centerra

DEC. 6 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan filed a $304m claim for environmental damage against Toronto-listed Centerra Gold’s operation at the Kumtor gold mine in the east of the country. The claim is probably designed to pile pressure on Centerra Gold to relinquish a larger stake in the Kumtor mine to the Kyrygz state.

(News report from Issue No. 164, published on Dec. 11 2013)

Protesters rally in Kyrgyzstan

DEC. 3 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Hundreds of protesters clashed with police in Osh, in the worst violence in the south of Kyrgyzstan since fighting between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in 2010. The protesters were angry at the arrest of a southern Kyrgyz MP for alleged corruption. Reports said the protesters briefly captured a government building.

(News report from Issue No. 163, published on Dec. 4 2013)