APRIL 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s foreign minister Elmar Mammadyarov completed a three day visit to Israel, cementing the two countriesí increasingly close ties. Mr Mammadyarov was the first Azerbaijani foreign minister to visit Israel since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. The trip irritated Iran, Azerbaijan’s neighbour.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 133, published on April 29 2013)
YEREVAN/Armenia, APRIL 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The result of Armenia’s presidential election on Feb. 18 was disputed, just like it was five years ago. And, just like in 2008, the opposition staged regular demonstrations.
This year, though, the urbane Raffi Hovhannisyan, leader of the Heritage Party, led the demonstrations against President Serzh Sarksyan. In 2008, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, the firebrand former president led demonstrations.
The two men took a very different approach. Instead of whiping up the crowd in increasingly antagonistic speeches, as Ter-Petrosyan did, a tactic that eventually lead to clashes that killed 10 people, Hovhannisyan has taken a calmer approach.
And has impressed people on the streets of Armenia’s capital.
“What the opposition leader does today is a new style for Armenia, maybe it’s a more Western style campaign,” said Laura Gevorgyan, a young activist who has followed most of the protests.
Hovhannisyan has dubbed his approach a Barevolution after the Armenian word for hello — barev. Despite Hovhannisyan’s efforts, Sarksyan took the presidential oath for his second five-year term on April 9. This disappointed some of Hovhannisyan’s supporters. For many, though, avoiding violence meant that progress has been made.
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(News report from Issue No. 133, published on April 29 2013)
APRIL 18 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan announced that its foreign minister, Elmar Mammadyarov, would visit Israel on April 22, risking further damage to already strained relations with its neighbour Iran. Mr Mammadyarov will become the first Azerbaijani foreign minister to visit Israel since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
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(News report from Issue No. 132, published on April 22 2013)
APRIL 18 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The European Parliament adopted a resolution criticising Kazakhstan for not respecting political, media and religious freedoms. Its statement called for the authorities to release the leader of the banned opposition Alga! Party, Vladimir Kozlov, from prison. He was convicted last year for inciting unrest.
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(News report from Issue No. 132, published on April 22 2013)
APRIL 19 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili attracted roughly 10,000 people to his first major rally in Tbilisi since his party, the United National Movement (UNM), lost a parliamentary election in October. Mr Saakashvili is locked in an increasingly acrimonious fight with Georgian PM Bidzina Ivanishvili.
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(News report from Issue No. 132, published on April 22 2013)
APRIL 19 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Unknown attackers punched and beat Mahmadali Hayit, head of the Tajik opposition group the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan, outside his home, media quoted his family as saying. Photos from hospital showed a bruised and swollen Mr Hayit lying on his bed. Tajikistan is to hold a presidential election in November.
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(News report from Issue No. 132, published on April 22 2013)
APRIL 15 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Scotching concerns over his health, Uzbek President Islam Karimov flew to Moscow for a meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Officially, the two leaders discussed NATO’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. Rumours of Mr Karimov’s declining health circulated last month after he disappeared from public view for a few days.
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(News report from Issue No. 132, published on April 22 2013)
APRIL 11 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijani police raided the office of the Free Thought University, a prominent pro-democracy group funded by Western organisations, in part of a clamp-down on opposition groups ahead of presidential elections in October. The prosecutor-general’s office said some activists had been arrested but denied that it had closed the group down.
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(News report from Issue No. 131, published on April 12 2013)
APRIL 8 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili broke his shoulder when he fell off a bicycle during a morning workout on a trip to Istanbul, media reported quoting Georgia’s presidential press service. The accident, a day earlier, forced Mr Saakashvili to emergency surgery.
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(News report from Issue No. 131, published on April 12 2013)
APRIL 9 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Serzh Sargsyan was sworn in as president of Armenia for a second consecutive five year term. An estimated 12,000 supporters of Mr Sargsyan’s main rival, Raffi Hovannisyan, protested only a few kilometres from the inauguration ceremony. They say the presidential election of Feb. 18 was fixed.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 131, published on April 12 2013)