Tag Archives: politics

Ex-Georgian President begins work in Odessa

JUNE 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Mikheil Saakashvili, the former president of Georgia, started work as governor of the Ukrainian region of Odessa.

Media recorded an indifferent reaction to Mr Saakashvil and his new chief of police, Giorgi Lortkipanidze, an ex-Georgian vice interior minister.

But, ever the populist, Mr Saakashvili seized his moment.

“Some people think that they are above the law,” Mr Saakashvili was shown in a video broadcast by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty as telling people on a city tram which had been blocked by black Mercedes.

“That’s why I have appointed a new chief of Odessa police who will restore order so that these things won’t happen here,” Mr Saakashvili said.

Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko appointed Mr Saakashvili as governor in Odessa last month, surprising observers.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)

Electricity price rise in Armenia

JUNE 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s public services regulator approved a 17% increase in electricity prices, the third in two years. The price increase has angered people in Armenia and opposition parties have called for protests.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)

Kazakh police arrested EXPO 2017 chief

JUNE 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Police in Kazakhstan arrested on corruption charges Talgat Yermegiyayev, two days after he had quit as the chairman of the company organising President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s EXPO-217 extravaganza.

The arrest will be a major embarrassment to Mr Nazarbayev who has pledged to crackdown on corruption in Kazakhstan.

Adilbek Dzhaksybekov, the mayor of Astana, was quickly given the job of heading EXPO- 2017.

For Mr Yermegiyayev, a powerful businessmen with links to the top of the Kazakh elite, his arrest marks a very heavy fall from grace.

Alongside him, police also arrested Kazhymurat Usenov on embezzlement charges. Mr Usenov was in charge of much of the construction work for EXPO-2017 in Astana.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)

Tajik opposition leader moves into exile

JUNE 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Muhiddin Kabiri, leader of the Islamic Renaissance Party, is moving into self-imposed exile over fears that he will be targeted and imprisoned in a government clampdown in Tajikistan, he told Eurasinet.org in an interview. The Islamic Renaissance Party is Tajikistan’s main opposition party but has been increasingly marginalised.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)

Georgians rally against harsh marijuana laws

TBILISI/GEORGIA, JUNE 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — To David Gabunia, a well-known Georgian musician, it just doesn’t make sense.

“When you cut down gorgeous big old trees, they let you get away with it,” he said referring to a tree cutting programme by Tbilisi city council. “But when you take a small weed and smoke it, they’ll put you in jail for many years.”

And he’s not alone in pondering this apparent quandary.

Several thousand people across Georgia joined demonstrations and signed online petitions on June 2 calling for the government to reduce harsh laws governing marijuana use.

The largest protest was in Tbilisi, where several hundred people attended a protest in the centre of the city.

Georgia has a zero tolerance drug policy. Drug use is an administrative offence with fines up to 500 lari ($225) for first time offenders and a criminal offence with one year imprisonment for repeat offenders. Carrying small quantities of illegal substances, such as marijuana, can mean prison sentences of between 11 and 20 years, comparable to rape, human trafficking and murder.

Marijuana grows naturally in Georgia, and the Abkhazia version, from the west of the country, is particularly highly thought of. But in the dark days of 1990s post-independent Georgia, society’s view of drugs and their users changed and a zero tolerance policy was introduced.

Since 2013, though, rallies have been organised asking the government to rethink its policies on marijuana. But not everyone is convinced. The powerful Georgian Orthodox Church is staunchly against marijuana and PM Irakli Garibashili also said a couple of days after the rallies that decriminalisation would have disastrous consequences.

“This is an issue of principle, and we are obliged to realise its deplorable consequences. I am personally completely, categorically against it,” he said on his Facebook page.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 235, published on June 11 2015)

Azerbaijanis demonstrated outside the British embassy

JUNE 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Dozens of young Azerbaijanis demonstrated outside the British embassy in Baku against what they described as double standards over criticism from London-based newspaper and human rights organisations of the European Games.

The protesters waved Azerbaijani flags and shouted: “England, avoid double standards!” according to media reports.

The protests appeared to be sanctioned by the authorities, perhaps as a counter demonstration to deflect from criticism generated by Azerbaijan’s crackdown on opposition activists and journalists.

London has become the main centre of criticism of Azerbaijan.

A group called Platform London published a book earlier this week titled: “All that Glitters Sport, BP and Repression in Azerbaijan”. BP is a major foriegn investor in Azerbaijan and is sponsoring the Games.

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(News report from Issue No. 235, published on June 11 2015)

Electricity price protests occur in Armenia

JUNE 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Armenian government’s proposed increase of electricity tariffs has angered people in Armenia and triggered small-scale protests.

This is the third price rise in two years by the Russia-owned electricity company and activists said they planned a series of protests against it.

A Bulletin correspondent said around 50 people demonstrated in front of Armenia’s energy ministry in Yerevan.

Susan, 33, was one of the protesters.

“Because of their bad management and inappropriate work, they want us to struggle and pay high prices,” she said.

Hundreds had demonstrated in May through Yerevan against the proposed electricity price rises and a group calling themselves Against Robbery threatened more aggressive action.

“We are going to implement radical actions using all our rights stated by the laws,” the statement said.

The Armenia’s Public Services Regulatory Commission it had received an application from the monopoly electricity company Electric Networks of Armenia to increase the cost of electricity by 40%.

The Commission said it was likely to agree the price rise by June 17, although it did not say whether it would approve the full 40% increase. It said electricity imports have become more expensive because of the falling value of the Armenian dram. Hydroelectric power generation has also dropped because of dry weather.

The parliament plans to debate the price rises on June 12 and the government has said it will subsidise the increase for the poorest families.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 235, published on June 11 2015)

Majoritarians to stay in Georgian parliament

JUNE 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s ruling Georgian Dream coalition said it won’t scrap the MPs elected via a first- past-the-post system for the 2016 parliamentary election. Last month the Constitutional Court said it backed reforming the voting system to make it fairer.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 235, published on June 11 2015)

New labour laws anger Kazakh workers’ unions

JUNE 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kazakh government presented new rules for workers which reduces their rights and forces unions to re-register with a government institution, a move which could damage relations between labour groups and companies.

Tamara Duysenova, the minister for health and social development, presented the bill at the National Congress of Trade Unions in Astana.

“The new provisions are in line with the spirit of the Law On Trade Unions approved last year,” she said.

The Unions disagree. Lyudmila Ekzarkhova, an official at the Confederation of Free Trade Unions, said: “These measures would put independent unions under the thumb of a government- appointed body.”

Opposition groups have criticised the measures which free employers from paying overtime work and cut benefits for injured workers.

The new law will also force independent trade unions to re-register under the state- controlled Federation of Trade Unions. Strikes called by unregistered trade unions will be illegal.

Relations between big companies and workers in Kazakhstan are already delicate.

Ever since oil workers went on strike in the town of Zhanaozen in the west of the country in 2011, a strike which triggered a riot and then a street battle with police that killed at least 15 people, workers’ rights in Kazakhstan have been strained.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 235, published on June 11 2015)

Azerbaijan orders OSCE to close office in Baku

JUNE 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Azerbaijan ordered the OSCE to close its office in Baku and barred Amnesty from visiting the city, triggering fresh criticism of its civil rights record shortly before President Ilham Aliyev opens the inaugural European Games.

Azerbaijan and the West have been locked in an acrimonious row over civil rights which has threatened to damage their fragile relationship.

Now the OSCE, as the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe is more commonly known, said that the Azerbaijani authorities had ordered it to close its Baku office.

“The government of Azerbaijan has notified the OSCE of its intention to close the organisation’s office in Baku,” AFP quoted the spokesman for the OSCE Baku office, Rashad Huseynov, as saying.

This takes relations between Europe and Azerbaijan to a new low. Among other roles, the OSCE is Europe’s democracy watchdog. It evaluates elections against European democratic standards.

Azerbaijan already has form, though. At the end of last year it raided and closed the office of the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

London-based Amnesty also said it had cancelled a trip to Baku after the Azerbaijani authorities said that its delegation was not welcome to visit until after the European Games.

It’s a delicate relationship between Europe and Azerbaijan. While it may not like Azerbaijan’s attitude towards dissenters, Europe wants to buy its gas.

For Mr Aliyev, these are frustrating times.

He wants to increase the profile of Azerbaijan through sport and had hoped that the European Games, set to open on June 12, would act as the perfect launch.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 235, published on June 11 2015)