MAY 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – In an interview with Russian TV, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko described how former Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev phoned him from a forest in southern Kyrgyzstan in 2010 after fleeing protesters and begged him for help. Mr Lukashenko gave Mr Bakiyev residence in Belarus.
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(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)
May 19 2014 (The Conway Bulletin)- In 2020, Kazakhstan will probably introduce a new pension scheme that will deduct 5% of an employee’s wages and automatically place it in a government plan, the labour ministry told the Tengrinews website.
Employers will match this employee contribution.
It appears that these planned reforms haven’t been announced more widely and loudly because of a very real fear of upsetting people.
The risk for Kazakhstan is fairly obvious. In Armenia a similar plan triggered widespread demonstrations. The problem is that Kazakhstan and other former Soviet States need to reform and update their pension schemes.
Last year, the Kazakh labour sacked its ministers because of backlash over trying to make women retire at the same age as men.
Persuading Kazakhs to accept the latest plan is also likely to be a serious challenge for the Kazakh government.
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(News report from Issue No. 185, published on May 21 2014)
May 19 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbek President Islam Karimov clearly intends to remain in power for some time to come.
At a conference in Samarkand, Mr Karimov, 76, said that he had no intention of relinquishing power any time soon.
“I am one of those who is criticised for staying too long,” AFP quoted Mr Karimov telling diplomats and scholars gathered for a conference on the Golden Age of Islam.
“I am criticized, but I stay. I am criticised but I want to keep working. What’s wrong with that?”
Mr Karimov’s comments are pertinent for two reasons. Over the past six months or so some doubt has crept in over the strength of the Karimov family’s grip on power. Mr Karimov’s eldest daughter, Gulnara, has disappeared from public life since she was reportedly placed under house arrest earlier this year. Prior to that she had been stripped, very publicly, of power and influence.
As, seemingly, her father’s successor, these attacks on Gulnara were seen as an attack on Mr Karimov himself. His powerful intelligence chief, Rustam Inoyatov is widely thought of to be behind the discrediting of Gulnara Karimova.
Mr Karimov has ruled over Uzbekistan since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Next year, Uzbekistan holds a presidential election. This may only be a Potemkin election but it is still important and it looks as if Mr Karimov will be one of the candidates.
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(News report from Issue No. 185, published on May 21 2014)
MAY 11 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – French president Francois Hollande started his tour of the South Caucasus in Baku. He discussed strengthening business and political ties. Human Rights Watch said Mr Hollande should have pressed Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev hard on rights abuses.
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(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)
MAY 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Rustavi 2, Georgia’s main television station, is under investigation for alleged wire-tapping, media reported. Georgian society and politics is currently riven through with accusations of deceit and wire-tapping. The former government of Mikheil Saakashvili has accused the new government of a witch hunt.
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(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)
MAY 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan officially appointed a new government which analysts said would be better placed to propel the country into the Russia-led Customs Union. The previous government resigned over its unpopular pension plans, a scheme the new government has watered down.
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(News report from Issue No. 183, published on May 7 2014)
MAY 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Gunmen shot a relative of Osh’s popular but controversial former mayor, Melis Myrzakmatov, at his home near the southern capital, sparking fears that a turf war may be brewing.
Jenish Sadiev, 39, to whom the Kyrgyz National Opposition Movement refer to as Mr Myrzakmatov’s nephew, died in hospital on May 2.
Once considered the most powerful politician in the country’s ethnically fragmented South, Mr Myrzakmatov’s whereabouts has been unknown since he failed to win a mayoral election in January.
The former Mayor, accused of stirring ethnic tension in 2010 that triggered violence which killed hundreds, nevertheless retains strong networks in and around the city especially among ethnic Kyrgyz. He is considered a potential opposition figurehead to the central government in Bishkek.
But a mix of politics, organised crime, ethnic division and family loyalties mean that few things are simple in Kyrgyzstan.
Suyin Omurzakov is the chief of police for Osh city. He also happens to be a political rival of Mr Myrzakmatov. He denied that Sadiev, the dead man, was related to the Mr Myrzakmatov and also rejected any government role in the shooting.
Whatever the truth tension is rising in Osh, already a tinderbox of divided loyalties and discontent.
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(News report from Issue No. 183, published on May 7 2014)
MAY 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s parliament passed an anti-discrimination bill it needed to implement for further integration into the EU but the conservative Orthodox Church has said it will protest against it.
Media reported that Georgia’s parliament passed the law unanimously.
The bill, its supporters and its detractors, give a good insight into the division coursing through Georgian society between modernisers and traditionalists.
The EU, which Georgia is desperate to join, has called on legislation that protects the rights of minorities. This has been generally accepted by Georgians, although the conservative Orthodox Church continues to rile against it.
And the Orthodox Church in Georgia is powerful. Patriarch Ilia II is considered a genuine power-broker, politicians cosy up to religious leaders and priests lead demonstrations. Last year, priests led a march against a gay rights parade that triggered violence. Tolerance in modern day Georgia only goes so far.
For the Church, the new laws are virtually heresy and it has promised to protest against it. Their main difficulty with the law is its protection of homosexuality.
Patriarch Ilia II was succinct. “Not a single believer will accept such law,” he said.
For NGOs pushing for the new legislation it has also been a slight disappointment. They were disappointed that the law finally adopted had been watered down from its original state.
Expect more tension between modernisers and traditionalists.
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(News report from Issue No. 183, published on May 7 2014)
APRIL 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — For Western tourists bazaars in Central Asia are often quaint relics of bygone economies but for the local power elite they are strategic objects of political influence and profit.
This month, Tajik media reported efforts by state organs and affiliates of the ruling Rakhmon family to seize two large markets.
The larger of the two bazaars, just outside Dushanbe, was confiscated by a provincial court on April 21 following an investigation by anti-corruption authorities. It belonged to Muhiddin Kabiri, head of Tajikistan’s largest opposition party the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan.
A second bazaar, based in the country’s south-west Shahrtuz region, belonged to a local businessman.
Both bazaars employ over a thousand people. Moreover, Tajikistan’s bazaars are likely to grow in size and importance now the country is a member of the World Trade Organization — making them increasingly important strategic objectives.
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(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)
APRIL 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a speech via a video-link at the opening of a library in Tbilisi, former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili said he was still unable to visit Georgia because he was on a blacklist. Prosecutors in Georgia want to question Mr Saakashvili about alleged crimes carried out by ministers in his government. He says the allegations are politically motivated.
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(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)