Tag Archives: politics

Armenian court grants Kocharyan bail for $4.1m

JUNE 18 (The Bulletin) — A court in Yerevan granted bail to former Armenian president Robert Kocharyan for $4.1m despite attempts from supporters of PM Nikol Pashinyan to block any deal. Mr Kocharyan, who is under pretrial arrest, has been accused of violating the constitutional order around the shooting of anti-government protesters in 2008 when he was president. He denies the accusations and has said they are politically motivated. The $4.1m bail is the largest ever agreed in Armenia. Mr Kocharyan has been arrested and bailed a handful of times since July 2018.

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— This story was first published in issue 451 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, published on June 23 2020

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Kyrgyz Parliament approves new PM

JUNE 17 (The Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s parliament approved the appointment of Kubatbek Boronov as PM after the resignation earlier this month of Mukhammedkalyi Abylgaziev over a corruption investigation in the telecoms sector. Mr Boronov, 55, was formerly a deputy PM and emergencies minister. 

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— This story was first published in issue 451 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, published on June 23 2020

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Armenia reports most cases of the coronavirus

APRIL 5 (The Bulletin) — Armenia has the most reported cases of the coronavirus in any country in the Central Asia and South Caucasus region. It has now said that there are 822 cases in Armenia and that seven people have died.

The Armenia-administered territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, which Azerbaijan also claims sovereignty over, held elections despite the spread of the coronavirus (March 31). Two candidates who back Mr Pashinyan will go into a final round of voting , set for for April 14.

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— This story was first published in issue 441 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Tajik opposition activist beaten up in Vilnius, says Human Rights Watch

MARCH 19 (The Bulletin) — The New York-based Human Rights Watch said that two men beat up an opposition Tajik activist living in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania in what it said was a politically motivated attack. HRW said that the attack on March 16 was part of a wider campaign by Tajikistan’s government to track down and intimidate former members of the now-banned Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan.

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— This story was first published in issue 440 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Police in Bishkek disperse protesters with teargas

MARCH 2 2020 (The Bulletin) — Armed police used teargas to disperse an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 demonstrators in central Bishkek who were protesting against the continued imprisonment of Sadyr Zhaparov, an adviser to ex-president Kurmanbek Bakiyev. He was sent to prison in 2017 for taking a government official hostage. The two sides did not fight but it was a reminder of how unstable street-level politics in Kyrgyzstan can be.
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— This story was first published in issue 438 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Tajikistan holds a one-sided parliamentary election

MARCH 1 2020 (The Bulletin) — Tajikistan held a parliamentary election that generated, as expected, a clear win for the party of President Imomali Rakhmon. Tajik police had arrested hundreds of opposition supporters, mainly pious Muslims, in the run-up to the election. This, opponents of Mr Rakhmon said, was a state-sponsored effort to sideline opposition.
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— This story was first published in issue 438 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Uzbekistan wants to sell stake in giant state-owned gold producer

TASHKENT/Feb. 28 2020 (The Bulletin) —  — Uzbekistan said that it wanted to push through the most ambitious sell-off of state assets in Central Asia within the next five years.

Included in its list of assets for sale are a 10% stake in gold producer Navoi Mining and Metallurgical Plant, a 49% stake in Uzbekistan Airways and a 24% in the Uzbekneftegaz. It will also sell stakes in 1,000 businesses that are fully or part-owned by the government, including all of Uzbekistan’s vegetable oil producers and its alcohol distillers.

Perhaps the most eye-catching of these potential privatisations is the prospect of investors taking a 10% stake in the Navoi Mining and Metallurgical Plant. The Soviet-era plant is the single biggest industrial project in Uzbekistan, accounting for around 10% of Uzbekistan’s GDP. It also sucks up 18% of the government’s revenues and employs 54,000 people, according to Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

“By the volume of raw materials, the Navoi Mining and Metallurgical Plant is the third gold producer in the world. However, the value of its assets is much less than similar companies abroad,” the Uzbek government said in a statement.

“At present, the book value of NMMP is estimated at $1.3b, while the market price of comparable foreign enterprises is $11b.” And it is this perceived undervaluation that the Uzbek government wants to address with a privatisation programme.

The government’s statement said that it wanted to increase output at the plant to 94 tonnes by 2026 by implementing 40 projects worth $4b and the development of a new gold field at a cost of $525m.

Since Mr Mirziyoyev took over from Islam Karimov in 2016, he has pushed to open business to investors.

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— This story was first published in issue 438 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Georgian government and opposition restart election reform talks

FEB. 27 2020 (The Bulletin) — Mediated by the US embassy in Tbilisi, the Georgian Dream coalition government and Georgian opposition parties re-started stalled negotiations on electoral reform. There had been four previous rounds of negotiations from November when the Georgian Dream downgraded efforts to bring in proportional representation ahead of a parliamentary election this year. The opposition walked out of talks at the start of February after the detention of one of its leaders.
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— This story was first published in issue 438 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Top Armenian judge sues Pashinyan for defamation

FEB. 27 2020 (The Bulletin) — One of the most senior judges in Armenia, Hrayr Tovmasyan, who is head of the Constitutional Court, said that he had filed a defamation lawsuit against Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan. The lawsuit is just the latest twist in the fight between the Constitutional Court judges and Mr Pashinyan. He has accused them of undermining reforms that a revolution in 2018 swept in and has ordered them to resign, which they have refused. A referendum in April will potentially give Mr Pashinyan the power to sack the judges.
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— This story was first published in issue 438 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Gulnara Karimova begs for her freedom

FEB. 26 2020 (The Bulletin) — Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of Uzbekistan’s former leader Islam Karimov and once considered to be one of the most powerful people in the country, wrote an open letter to Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev begging to be released from prison. She said that for freedom, which she said she needed on health grounds, she would drop objections to Uzbekistan’s efforts to repatriate $686m of her assets from Switzerland.
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— This story was first published in issue 438 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020