Tag Archives: politics

Armenia’s CBank shifts research unit to spa town

DILIJAN/Armenia, JUNE 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Once best known as a spa resort in the north-eastern mountains of Armenia, for the past couple of years Dilijan has also been a base for the Central Bank.

As part of a government plan to redistribute wealth around the country, the Central Bank moved 100 employees in the Central Bank’s research department and their families to this quiet, gentle mountain town of around 20,000 people.

“Central Bank’s move to Dilijan has had multiple effects,” the Armenian Central Bank chairman, Artur Javadyan, told the Bulletin on a trip to Dilijan.

“Our staff’s first concern was whether their children would have appropriate education and other facilities for permanent residence. This encouraged the Central Bank to create new and high quality infrastructures.”

It’s an ambitious project for the Central Bank to tackle. It had to build new infrastructure for its employees, such as schools, sports centres and apartment blocks, investments which have had positive drip-down effects on the local population, their shops and businesses.

And it appears to be paying off. The Central Bank employees who have moved to Dilijan, which lies in a national park, said they were enjoying the experience.

“It is great in here,” one said as birdsong floated across the air. “After a hard working day we go to play football, have some beer and rest.”

Nearby, a supermarket has experienced a boost in demand for products generated by the workers.

And Armenia’s newest financial hub — even if it is a small, embryonic one — is also a magnet for tourists interested in nature. Surrounded by forested mountains, Dilijan is famous for its natural springs which have attracted tourists from around the world.

“We’re so happy to see our city developing, where you can see the contrast of old and new,” said a Dilijan resident.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)

Georgia’s President opposes new banking law

MAY 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s President Giorgi Margvelashvili said that he opposed stripping the Central Bank of its supervisory duties over the country’s commercial banks. As reported in last week’s Bulletin, reformers suggested that these powers should be given to an independent body.

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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)

Georgia’s ministry building put on sale

MAY 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s government has put a building in the centre of Tbilisi which houses the economy ministry up for sale, the first lot in a batch of state property earmarked for privatisation. Media reported that the government expected to sell the building as a potential hotel for $6m.

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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)

Turkmen President wants age limit scrapped

MAY 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan’s parliament said that it had started considering whether to scrap a law that bans people over the age of 70 from being president. This may sound arcane and fringe even, but it is also vitally important.

Repealing this law would allow current president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov to remain in power for as long as he wanted.

There are already very few checks and balances on his powers. And, according to Eurasianet, the man chairing the commission looking into the idea of scrapping the law is Mr Berdymukhamedov himself. At 57-years-old, Mr Berymukhamedov may be thinking about his future.

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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)

Turkem President statue unveiled in Ashgabat

MAY 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – To rapturous applause from watching Turkmens, officials in Turkmenistan unveiled a golden statue of President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov riding a horse on a 21m high white marble plinth.

When Mr Berdymukhamedov came to power in 2007 he set out deriding his predecessor’s personality cult and opening the country up to the world. Over the past few years, though, his own brand of cult has mushroomed.

According to media reports hundreds of people sang and chanted as they watched the statue being unveiled in a central square in Ashgabat.

Britain’s Independent newspa- per quoted a man saying: “Arkadag works for the glory of our people from dawn to dusk.”

Arkadag means protector and is the people’s nickname for Mr Berdymukhamedov. Reports over the past few years, from winning horse races against obviously planted opponents to shouting at officials on TV, have painted Mr Berdymukhamedov as an increasingly autocratic and eccentric leader.

Europe, China and countries in the Middle East are trying to woo Turkmenistan and persuade it to sign various gas supply deals. Turkmenistan holds the world’s fourth largest gas reserves.

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(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)

Georgia’s Court questions election process

MAY 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s Constitutional Court ruled that the country’s parliamentary election process is unfair.

In particular, the Court said discrepancies in the size of the constituencies used for the first-past-the-post system diminished the election’s fairness.

In Georgia’s parliamentary elections, 150 MPs are voted into parliament. The first- past-the-post system is used to elect 73 MPs and proportional representation for the remain- ing 77 seats. The problem,advocates for change have said, is that the first-past-the-post constituencies vary in size from 6,000 voters to over 150,000 voters.

The landmark ruling strengthens the case for change.

“It’s up to the Georgian Parliament to decide on proportional and majoritarian models of the electoral system provided that constitutional rights and freedoms of citizens will be protected in this process,” Georgian media quoted the Constitutional Court as saying.

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(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)

Four Georgian UNM MPs quit

MAY 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Four Georgian MPs quit the main opposition group the United National Movement (UNM), including the party’s executive secretary Zurab Japaridze. The UNM is former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili’s party. About a dozen UNM MPs have quit but Mr Japaridze is the most high profile.

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(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)

Georgia splits interior ministry

MAY 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s government approved a plan to split the country’s much-loathed interior ministry in two.

The idea is to spin off the security and intelligence responsibilities of the interior ministry and unravel a merger created by former president Mikheil Saakashvili. He joined the two ministries together in the early part of his 2004-13 administration under the premise of cutting costs. Since then, though, its unpopularity has grown and opposition parties have pledged to break it up.

The most eye-catching part of the reform is placing the new State Security Service under parliamentary control to increase surveillance over it. The head of the State Security Service will be elected for one six year term only.

These reforms will, probably, prove popular with ordinary Georgians. They are also important at a former Soviet Union level too as they once again show Georgia’s ambitions.

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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)

Azerbaijani President ditches plans to travel to EU summit

MAY 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Seemingly in a fit of pique, Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev said he will not attend an EU summit in Riga later this month designed to bring countries that ring Europe closer to the group.

APA news agency, which is linked to the Azerbaijani authorities, quoted the deputy head of the presidential admitstration, Novruz Mammadov, as saying that Mr Aliyev blamed the EU and the US for mounting an anti-Azerbaijan campaign in the media.

“The expansion of the black PR campaign against Azerbaijan, in close collaboration with some western powers which claim to be interested to develop strategic partnership ties with Azerbaijan, on the eve of the first European Games has triggered a reasonable uproar,” APA reported.

The West has criticised Azerbaijan for what it has said are retarded steps on civil rights. Courts in Azerbaijan have imprisoned journalists lawyers, opposition leaders and activists who have been critical of the government.

For Azerbaijan, this is a particularly sensitive time. Next month it hosts the inaugural European Games and it desperately wants to both put on a good show and also to present itself in a good light.

By ditching plans to visit the EU summit in Riga, Mr Aliyev is aligning himself more closely with Russia and away from Europe.

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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)

Turkmenistan cracking down on media

MAY 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The New York-based Human Rights Watch accused the Turkmen government of using new rules which ban satellite dishes from apartment blocks because they are an eyesore as a pretext for cracking down on independent information sources.

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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)