Tag Archives: politics

Georgian PM attends Pres. speech

FEB. 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgian PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili attended President Giorgi Margvelashvili’s annual state-of-the-nation address to parliament, a sign that relations between the president’s office and the PM’s office are improving. Mr Kvirikashvili’s predecessor, Irakli Garibashvili, had snubbed the speech for the past two years. Mr Kvirikashvili was installed as Georgia’s PM at the end of last year by Bidzina Ivanishvili, the richest and most powerful man in Georgia. Mr Garibashvili had lost popularity and his public rows with Mr Margvelashvili had become a distraction in the build up to what is likely to be a tough fought election at the end of this year.

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(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Armenia’s ex-President receives cancer treatment

JAN. 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s first post-Soviet president, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, had treatment for cancer in a hospital in California, media reported. It had been reported earlier in January that Mr Ter-Petrosyan, 71, had flown to the US for emergency treatment. He had been president from 1991-1998. He was a divisive figure who in 2008, was accused of whipping up anti-government protests that triggered clashes with security forces. At least 16 people died in the clashes when police opened fire on the protesters.

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(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Tajikistan to rename cities

FEB. 1 2016, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rakhmon ordered Parliament to rename a number of cities, regions and a reservoir to give them more of a Tajik flavour.

Since becoming an independent state in 1991, the Tajik government has been keen to build up a back-story for the country. It replaced most of the Russian place names with names mostly derived from the Samanid Empire (819-919), a common tactic in Central Asia which had not been independent countries before 1991.

In 2007 Rakhmon also dropped the Russian suffix ‘ov’ from his name.

His press office said: “The renaming of districts and cities promotes national values and a sense of dignity. It is especially important to educate younger generations about the rich culture of the ancestors of the modern statehood of Tajik people.”

But not everybody thinks it is such a good idea.

Dushanbe taxi driver Odilbek, 38, said it was a waste of money. “These people do not understand what they are doing,” he said. “We have more serious problems and this is a waste of money. People will call the cities by their old names anyway.”

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(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Kazakhstan’s Nur Otan packs celebrities onto election list

JAN. 29 2016, ALMATY (The Conway Bulletin) — Nur Otan, the political party of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, has packed its list of candidates for next month’s parliamentary election with sportsmen, singers and other household names — reflecting both its status as the establishment party and also its drive to boost its popular appeal.

Candidates for the 127-seat lower house of parliament include champion boxer Gennady Golovkin, Olympic weighlifting gold medal winner Ilya Ilin, and pop stars Zhanar Dugalova and Kairat Nurtas as well as Dariga Nazarbayeva, Mr Nazarbayev’s daughter, and the ex- mayor of Almaty Akhmetzhan Yesimov.

Kazakh political analyst, Adil Nurmakov, said that although Nur Otan had used this strategy previously, they were employing it particularly heavily for this election.

“It is an attempt by the ruling party to position itself as a popular force among celebrities truly loved by the people. I see it as a primitive electoral technique. It has been used numerous times in the past,” he said.

Last month, Mr Nazarbayev called a parliamentary election for March 20, a year earlier than it had been scheduled for, officially because the current parliament had fulfilled its remit.

Analysts, though, said it was called early to head off civil strife as the economic climate worsens. On the streets of Almaty, reaction to the celebratory packed party list was mixed.

“Sportsmen are also people. If the Parliament has sportsmen there will be more discipline,” said Maksat, a sales distributor.

Others were less impressed.

“A deputy should be a person with special education not just a regular boxer or a singer,” said Zinaida Trinojenko, a PR specialist. “It is a delusion.”

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(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Turkmenistan reasserts neutrality

FEB. 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukahmedov wants to tinker with Turkmenistan’s constitution to strengthen its commitment to neutrality, official media reported. Last month, in a similar move, Mr Berdymukhamedov approved a new military doctrine which reasserted Turkmenistan’s neutrality. Turkmenistan’s neutrality has been challenged by a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan.

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(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Tajikistan makes constitutional changes

FEB. 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) -Tajikistan’s Constitutional Court approved changes to the country’s constitution that removed a limit on the number of times that a person can be president. The amendments will mean that Pres. Emomali Rakhmon is now eligible to run for president again at the next election in 2020. He has been in power since the mid-1990s. Tajik lawmakers are also looking into changing the constitution to allow people under the age of 35 to run for president. This would allow Mr Rakhmon’s son to stand in 2020. Analysts have said that Mr Rakhmon is hedging his bets before he decides if he wants to run or not.

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(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Editorial: Tajik place names

FEB. 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – National identity for the countries of Central Asia is still a major issue, far more so than for their neighbours in the South Caucasus.

When independence was thrust on the five Central Asian states in 1991, the leaders of these newly created countries had to build a sense of nation- hood from scratch.

And so they turned to their history books. They dug up some famous names from the past and wrote them up as national heroes and icons.

For Tajikistan, the most significant national hero was Ismail Somoni, the founder of the Samanid dynasty. Tajik officials have pinned their national story, the narrative that they use to give people a sense of nationhood, around the Samanid dynasty. A statue of Somoni dominates central Dushanbe and the national airline and currency are all named after him, as are a host of other institutions and buildings.

Branding is important, even for a country, and Pres. Emomali Rakhmon is probably right to pursue it. He has to make sure, though, that branding doesn’t distract from governing.

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(Editorial from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Kazakhstan releases activist

FEB. 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Serikzhan Mambetalin, a Kazakh opposition activist, was freed from prison after issuing an apology for inciting ethnic hatred. Mambetalin and his colleague, Ermek Narymbayev, were jailed at the end of January. Mambetalin’s lawyer told RFE/RL that his appeal process was still ongoing. The Kazakh authorities have clamped down on the country’s beleaguered opposition as the economy has worsened.

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(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

EU sends 15m euro to Kyrgyzstan

JAN. 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Union said it had released the second tranche of a 30m euro loan and grant to Kyrgyzstan designed to support and promote stability and democracy. Of the final 15m euro payment, 5m euro was a grant and 10m euro was a loan. The EU said the payment was “to support the restoration of a sustainable external financial situation for the Kyrgyz Republic.”

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(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)

Tajik President promotes his daughter

JAN. 27 2016, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon appointed his daughter, Ozoda, as head of the Presidential Administration, drawing accusations of nepotism.

Mr Rakhmon has form with appointing family members and friends to important government posts. One of his two sons, Rustam, is head of the government’s anti-corruption agency and had been head of the Tajik football association.

Earlier this month, Tajik MPs also voted to change the country’s constitution and lower the minimum age that a person can stand to be president to 30 from 35. This would allow Rustam, aged 28, to stand for president in 2020.

As for Ozoda, little is known about her. She had previously been a deputy foreign minister and her husband is the deputy head of the Central Bank. She has also studied in the United States.

Mr Rakhmon has been in power in Tajikistan since the end of a civil war in the mid-1990s. He is accused of setting up an authoritarian state. Last year Mr Rakhmon effectively closed down the only legal opposition party, consolidating his grip on power.

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(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)