Tag Archives: politics

Opposition timidly protests in Kazakhstan

MARCH 1 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Anti-government rallies in Kazakhstan are rare, making a planned demonstration in central Almaty an ideal opportunity to gauge the public’s appetite for protest.

If you blinked, you would have missed it. It felt like that, anyway.

Around two dozen protesters, out-numbered by plainclothed police, gathered under a statue of Abai, Kazakhstan’s national poet, in a square in central Almaty.

Passers-by hurried on with barely a glance at the gathering. The normally ever-present uniformed police hadn’t bothered to monitor the protest.

There was, frankly, a lack of momentum.

One of the protesters shuffled his feet and said that people were afraid to turning up because of the fear of being arrested.

Certainly the authorities in Kazakhstan don’t tolerate dissent, they arrested several bloggers last month after they protested, but, even so, this was a poor turnout.

Yerlan Kaliyev, an opposition activist acting as a figurehead, tried to inject substance into the rally by referencing Abai, the poet.

He said: “His call to be wary of rich people is more than one hundred years old but could be directly applied to the current situation in our country.”

The protesters agreed with Mr Kaliyev.

They mixed political slogans with poetry recitals for about an hour. Then they all went home.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 174, published on March 5 2014)

Uzbekistan prosecutes inner circle of president’s daughter

FEB. 19 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s Prosecutor-General accused three associates of President Islam Karimov’s eldest daughter, Gulnara Karimova, of various financial crimes, including fraud, tax evasion and money laundering. Police arrested Rustam Madumarov, Ms Karimova’s boyfriend, and two friends at her home on Feb. 17.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 173, published on Feb. 26 2014)

Uzbekistan mutes Maidan support

FEB. 26 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Clearly wary of any backlash, Uzbekistan’s state controlled media have avoided all mention of Ukraine’s revolution. Uzbekistan has one of the most tightly controlled media scenes in the world. Exiled opposition websites reported that, as usual, Uzbek media concentrated on reporting President Islam Karimov’s latest proclamations.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 173, published on Feb. 26 2014)

Kyrgyzstan prosecutes former president

FEB. 14 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan said it would prosecute former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev and his two sons in absentia for the attempted murder of a British businessman in 2006. Bakiyev fled Kyrgyzstan after a coup in 2010. He lives in Belarus. Last year a court in Bishkek sentenced him to 24 years in jail for an assassination.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 172, published on Feb. 19 2014)

Turkmen president pardons prisoners

FEB. 14 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan’s president Kurbangkuly Berdymukhamedov gave amnesty to 859 prisoners to mark State Flag Day. Mr Berdymukhamedov has used presidential amnesties to pardon hundreds of prisoners previously. Turkmenistan is considered one of the most repressive countries in the world.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 172, published on Feb. 19 2014)

Georgian ex-PM gets jail sentence

FEB. 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Tbilisi convicted Ivane Merabishvili, a former Georgian PM, of corruption and sentenced him to five years in jail. Merabishvili is the most senior member of Georgia’s former government to be convicted during a series of trials which they have been described as “politically motivated”.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 172, published on Feb. 19 2014)

Uzbek authorities increase pressure on president’s daughter

FEB. 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — It looks as if hostilities between Gulnara Karimova and her enemies have resumed.

The Prosecutor-General in Uzbekistan reported that police detained three associates of Ms Karimova, the eldest daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, for alleged financial crimes linked to Terra Group, Prime Media and Gamma Productions.

Terra Group, Prime Media and Gamma Productions were Ms Karimova’s media companies until they were shut down in 2013.

Pressure has been building on Ms Karimova over the past six months. She has been trying to defend herself from her rivals, mostly in the Uzbek intelligence services, who want to derail any ambition she may harbour of becoming the next president of Uzbekistan.

Mr Karimov has been Uzbekistan’s president since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union and, publicly at least, he hasn’t named a successor. Once one of the most powerful people in Uzbekistan, Ms Karimova has seen police raid her businesses and detain her associates.

One of those detained in police operations was Gayane Avakyan. Ms Avakyan will be well known to Swedish-Finnish telecoms company TeliaSonera. She was the owner of a Gibraltar-registered company that took a multi-million dollar payment in 2007/8 for a 3G licence in Uzbekistan.

Investigators are currently investigating the deal as they suspect it may have been a secret payment forwarded on to Ms Karimova.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 172, published on Feb. 19 2014)

Pressure mounts on Uzbek president’s daughter

FEB. 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Uzbekistan detained three close associates of Gulnara Karimova, eldest daughter of Uzbek president Islam Karimov. Ms Karimova has been under increasing pressure over the last few months from rivals in the Uzbek intelligence service who want to derail her presidential ambitions.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 172, published on Feb. 19 2014)

Azerbaijan’s president attacks opponents

FEB. 6 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Usually Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan’s president, prefers to stand above everyday politics. It’s too dirty, too grubby for the president to become involved with.

Last year he hardly campaigned during a presidential election.

At an economic forum, though, in Baku, Mr Akuyev allowed himself to attack his opponents. The US government funded Radio Free Europe/Radio liberty reported that Mr Aliyev had said that October’s presidential election meant “the end of the opposition, the top of its shame.”

Certainly, the opposition collation performed poorly in the election. Its campaign was disorganised and characterised by a lack of leadership but it’s unclear what exactly would have provoked Mr Aliyev into the outburst.

It’s also unclear what he has to gain from it.

Since the election, the authorities in Azerbaijan have continued to hound Mr Aliyev’s opponents, often arresting them on charges which human rights groups have said have been fabricated.

Mr Aliyev may have been trying to defend the authorities’ actions. He said that “those who receive grants from abroad have no place in Azerbaijani politics.”

The reference is clear. Mr Aliyev was accusing his opponents of being influenced by foreign agents. It looks as if Azerbaijan’s politics is going to get tougher still.

(News report from Issue No. 171, published on Feb. 12 2014)

Kazakhstan may change name

FEB. 11 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan may be set for a rebrand after President Nursultan Nazarbayev said he thought it was time for a name change.

Mr Nazarbayev told a group of businessmen that he thought dropping the -stan suffix would be a good idea because of the stigma attached to the so-called Stans.

To make his point, Mr Nazarbayev cited the example of Mongolia which he said was thriving because it wasn’t a Stan.

There may also be a hint of snobbery in the proposal. Perhaps Mr Nazarbayev simply feels that Kazakhstan is too big and too important to be lumped together with the other four Central Asian Stans, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

In any case, Mr Nazarbayev suggested Kazakh Yeli as an alternative to Kazakhstan. Kazakh Yeli means Nation of the Kazakhs.

Calling Kazakhstan, Kazakh Yeli would, however, be slightly more than just cosmetic. Stan comes from Persian and means land or territory. Kazakhstan, therefore, means Land of the Kazakhs and not Nation of the Kazakhs.

(News report from Issue No. 171, published on Feb. 12 2014)