Tag Archives: politics

Lithuanian ambassador to be sacked after gaffe in Azerbaijan

AUG. 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A diplomatic scandal centred on the status of the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh is likely to lead to the sacking of Lithuania’s envoy in Baku.

Lithuania’s media is reporting that Dalia Grybauskaite, the Lithuanian President, is likely to fire her envoys to Hungary and Azerbaijan after they were recorded describing Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Armenia.

The diplomatic spat not only embarrasses Lithuania but also acts as a wider reminder of Nagorno-Karabakh’s ultra-sensitive status. Azerbaijan and Armenia are still at war over Nagorno-Karabakh and only a 1994 UN negotiated ceasefire holds a shaky peace.

There are still almost weekly shoot-outs between the opposing armies and Azerbaijan has pledged to re-take the enclave from Armenia-backed forces.

Ms Grybauskaite has, apparently, acted after a recording of a private conversation between Arturas Zurauskas, Lithuania’ ambassador in Baku, and Renatas Juska, Lithuania’s ambassador in Budapest, surfaced on YouTube in July.

In the recording the men agree that Nagorno-Karabakh should be considered Armenian. They also refer to the enclave by its Armenian name, Artsakh. Azerbaijan stakes its own historical claim to the province.

The incident also serves as a reminder of the increased diplomatic clout that Azerbaijan’s burgeoning energy wealth has now given it.

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(News report from Issue No. 150, published on Sept. 2 2013)

Economic slowdown in Georgia

AUG. 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s economy will grow by only 4% this year, a drop from 6.5% in 2012, because of concerns over political instability, media said quoting the IMF. Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgia’s richest man, won a surprise victory in a parliamentary election in 2012. A presidential election is scheduled for Oct. 27.

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(News report from Issue No. 150, published on Sept. 2 2013)

Stalin statue erected in Georgia

SEPT. 1 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Sparking controversy, private donors in the east Georgian town of Telavi unveiled a new statue of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. Stalin, who was Georgian, sent millions of people to their deaths in camps in Siberia. Many Soviet veterans, though, credit Stalin with defeating the Nazis during the Second World War.

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(News report from Issue No. 150, published on Sept. 2 2013)

Opposition switches candidate before election in Azerbaijan

SEPT. 2 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — In the end, Rustam Ibragimbekov’s bid to dislodge Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev from power didn’t even make it to election day on Oct. 9.

The country’s Central Election Committee disqualified the 74-year-old Oscar winning screenwriter on Aug. 27 for holding dual Azerbaijan-Russia citizenship.

Holding dual citizenship is clearly against election rules in Azerbaijan and Mr Ibragimbekov’s disqualification will be an embarrassment for the main secular opposition group.

It had been working hard to build momentum around the popular Mr Ibragimbekov. Now it has to start again.

Mr Ibragimbekov’s replacement is Camil Hasanli, a respected academic who teaches at Baku State University and used to be an independent MP.

Mr Hasanli, 61, may be a respected historian but he doesn’t have the same public persona, inside and outside Azerbaijan, as Mr Ibragimbekov.

What the candidate switch does do, though, is perhaps underline one of the main opposition group’s weaknesses. The impression it gives is of a movement built for the country’s Soviet-era intelligentsia, rather than being a vigorous opposition movement spanning Azerbaijan’s different social strata.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 150, published on Sept. 2 2013)

Election campaign heats up in Azerbaijan

AUG. 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s opposition has picked Camil Hasanli, a prominent Baku history professor, as a reserve candidate to stand in October’s presidential election.

The main opposition group was forced to confer this unusual status on Mr Hasanli, 69, because Rustam Ibragimbekov, the opposition’s preferred candidate and a well-known Oscar winning sceenwriter, is likely to be disqualified later this week from standing in the election.

Mr Ibragimbekov holds joint Azerbaijan-Russia citizenship which, under the election rules, is illegal.

Mr Ibragimbekov appears to have either not realised his dual citizenship could be a problem or not been prepared to relinquish it in time to officially register for the election.

Conspiracy theorists also allege that, as a favour to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Russian officials have slowed up the process to cancel Mr Ibragimbekov’s Russian citizenship.

Either way, it looks bad for Azerbaijan’s opposition.

Making a dent in Mr Aliyev’s grip over Azerbaijan in the election was going to be difficult enough — he is running for his third term after 10 years in power and is almost guaranteed a large victory — but now it will be even harder.

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(News report from Issue No. 149, published on Aug. 26 2013)

Georgian PM’s TV station quits

AUG. 19 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian PM Bidzina Ivanishvili pulled his TV station Channel-9 off the air. Mr Ivanishvili had said he wants to distance himself from media ahead of a presidential election in October. Channel-9 had been strongly critical of Mr Ivanishili’s rival, the incumbent Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.

(News report from Issue No. 149, published on Aug. 26 2013)

Coalition collapses in Kyrgyzstan

AUG. 22 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s four-party governing coalition collapsed, triggering potential long-term political instability. The Ata-Meken and Ar-Namys parties, always tricky partners in the coalition, withdrew their support over corruption allegations against PM Omurbek Babanov and a stalling economy.

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(News report from Issue No. 102, published on Aug. 24 2012)

Turkmen president quits his party

AUG. 18 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Looking to burnish his democratic credentials, Turkmenistan’s President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov resigned as the head of the ruling Democratic Party. Turkmenistan holds a parliamentary election in December and Mr Berdymukhamedov said he didn’t want to influence it. In reality both parties competing in the election are pro-presidential.

(News report from Issue No. 148, published on Aug. 19 2013)

Opposition holds protest in Azerbaijan

AUG. 18 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — An estimated 3,000 supporters of Azerbaijan’s opposition parties held a rare sanctioned rally on the outskirts of Baku. They waved placards and called for a fair presidential election in October. The mayor’s office only sanctioned the rally for the outskirts of Baku.

(News report from Issue No. 148, published on Aug. 19 2013)

Turkmen president’s personality cult builds up

AUG. 14 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — After taking over as Turkmenistan’s president in 2007, Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov dismantled the personality cult established by his predecessor Saparmurat Niyazov. Now, though, he appears to be building his own. Media reported that the authorities in Ashgabat have erected a 5m-high statue of Mr Berdymukhamedov’s father, a former interior ministry official.

(News report from Issue No. 148, published on Aug. 19 2013)