Tag Archives: politics

Pres. Rakhmon gives his son a top job

MARCH 16 2015 (The Bulletin) – Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rakhmon appointed his 27-year-old son Rustam to head up the Agency for State Financial Control, a government entity in charge of fighting corruption.

This is not the first public post Mr Rakhmon’s eldest son has held. Aside from local administration and nation-wide assignments he heads the country’s Football Federation and for a year was chairman of the Customs Service, a powerful government agency.

Mr Rakhmon is all-powerful having won a parliamentary election earlier this month which eliminated any pretence of a functioning opposition in the country.

Opposition groups have accused him of corruption and blatant nepotism. Other high-ranking officials have been accused of smuggling and drug running.

International observers have become increasingly exasperated with Tajikistan and Mr Rakhmon’s style of rule.

Mr Rakhmon barely acknowledges these accusations but promoting his son to head a senior government agency will hardly improve Tajikistan’s standing in the eyes of foreign investors and governments.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)

Ex-Georgian PM Ivanishvili says will launch TV show

MARCH 14 2015 (The Bulletin) – Former Georgian PM Bidzina Ivanishvili said that he will launch a TV show, media reported. Although he will not host the show, he will be a semi-regular guest on it. His opponents have said that Mr Ivanishvili is trying to influence people through his TV appearances.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)

Azerbaijani court sentences opposition activist to prison

MARCH 17 2015 (The Bulletin) – A court in Azerbaijan sentenced opposition activist Siraj Kerimli to 6 years in prison for drug trafficking. Kerimli’s supporters say the charges have been fabricated as part of a government crackdown on dissidents. The EU and the US have both criticised Azerbaijan for its free speech and human rights’ records.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)

Georgian government sells Batumi Tower

MARCH 18 2015 (The Bulletin) – The Georgian government sold the 35-storey Batumi Tower for $25.4m to a development company, generating much needed cash and ridding itself of one of former President Mikheil Saakashvili’s pet projects.

The blue and white tower with a golden ferris wheel set halfway up one of its sides has always generated wonder and ridicule.

Mr Saaskhvili, who was Georgian president from 2003 until 2013, had wanted the tower to serve as a Georgian-American technical university. His detractors said that it was a wasteful white elephant.

It has been unoccupied since it was finished in 2012.

Lika Glonti, an educational expert based in Tbilisi said: “I do think that this kind of building was not optimal for a university, but this is rather an issue of a taste. Selling Batumi Tower is a consequence of cancelling the idea of Batumi Technological University.”

The building was auctioned a day before the finance and economy ministries announced their plans to tackle the economic crisis. The local currency, the Lari, has fallen sharply against the dollar in the past few months and economists have revised down their economic growth predictions for this year.

A global collapse in oil prices and economic turmoil in Russia have impacted the wider former Soviet region.

On March 12, the economy ministry announced the privatisation of more assets, part of a larger three year plan to see it through the financial crisis that has swamped the region over the past few months.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)

Small scale political fighting breaks out in Tbilisi

MARCH 16 2015 (The Bulletin) – Several people were injured during a fight between activists of the ruling Georgian Dream coalition and activists of the opposition United National Movement party in the city of Zugdidi, media reported. The fight highlights worsening political climate in Georgia. A large opposition march is planned for Tbilisi on March 21.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)

Armenian opposition leader quits

MARCH 5 2015 (The Bulletin) – Gagik Tsarukian, head of the opposition Prosperous Armenia Party, resigned after a month-long row with Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan. Mr Sargsyan had denounced Mr Tsarukian as evil. The row had threatened to bring Armenian politics into disrepute.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 222, published on March 11 2015)

Nazarbayev says to run in presidential election

MARCH 11 2015 (The Bulletin) – Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev declared he would run in a presidential election set for April 25.

His announcement ended speculation generated last week when he appeared to suggest this it was time for change.

Instead, live at a conference held by his Nur Otan party, Mr Nazarbayev declared that he would look to extend his 26-year-long reign over Kazakhstan.

“There is no bigger reward or happiness than to have the trust of my nation,” he said. “This inspires and invigorates me, and this is why I look youngish.”

Mr Nazarbayev is 74-years-old and has run Kazakhstan since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

He called an early presidential election this month after his supporters asked him to underline his authority during an increasingly turbulent economic time.

But succession issues are still at the forefront of Kazakhstan-watchers agenda because only last week Mr Nazarbayev appeared to suggest that he may call it a day.

“I have run Kazakhstan for many years already, I stood at the cradle of its independence, so maybe it was time to ‘change stage’, as they say in a theatre,” he said in televised remarks on March 8.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 222, published on March 11 2015)

Tajik opposition leader killed in Istanbul

MARCH 5 2015 (The Bulletin) – Umarali Kuvatov, leader of the banned Tajik opposition Group 24, was shot dead in Istanbul after leaving a dinner which his family later said had also been poisoned.

Opposition groups immediately accused Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon and his associates of being linked in the murder. He has not commented.

Turkish police later detained three Tajik nationals in connection with the murder.
A successful businessman, Kuvatov had once been an ally of President Rakhmon. He fled Tajikistan in 2012. Last year, the authorities in Tajikistan banned Group 24 from holding an anti-government rally and also accused it of trying to stage a coup. Its activists in Tajikistan have been arrested and jailed.

Facts around Kuvatov’s murder are murky but he is thought to have died from a single gunshot to the head after leaving a dinner at the home of another Tajik. His family said they had also been poisoned at the dinner.

Kuvatov’s murder comes only a few days after the murder of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov in Moscow. Unlike Nemtsov, though, Kuvatov was considered far more of a fringe player in Tajik opposition circles.

Even so, for Tajikistan’s opposition, the murder rids it of a characteristic and wealthy figure to challenge President Rakhmon and his iron-like grip on power.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 222, published on March 11 2015)

Russia gives top awards to Azerbaijani officials

MARCH 8 2015 (The Bulletin) – Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded the Speaker of the Azerbaijani parliament, Oqtay Asadov, and presidential adviser Ali Hasanov the Friendship Order, one of Russia’s highest civic awards.

Opposition groups in Azerbaijan immediately denounced the award as a crude attempt by Russia to curry favour with Azerbaijan.

Despite rows over energy policy, Azerbaijan has seemingly been shifting its political stance towards Russia over the past few years. The West has accused Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev of cracking down on dissent and free media.

In a comment on Facebook, Natig Jafarli, a senior figure in Azerbaijan’s opposition ReAL movement, said the government was getting closer to Russia.

“Imagine what would have happened if Barack Obama gave an award to opposition leaders. They would have been called betrayers and fifth columnists,” he wrote.
There was no official reaction from Azerbaijan’s government on the awards to Mr Hasanov and Mr Asadov.

The pro-government news website APA reported that they had been “Ogtay Asadov and A. Hasanov is (sic) awarded the order for greatly contributing to the strengthening of friendship and cooperation with the Russia Federation.”
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 222, published on March 11 2015)

Western election monitors say Tajik election was unfair

MARCH 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A parliamentary election in Tajikistan has wiped out all opposition representation, delivering a chamber that 100% supports President Emomali Rakhmon.

Western observers said that the election had neither been free nor fair.

“Some contestants provided political alternatives, yet the March 1 parliamentary elections in Tajikistan took place in a restricted political space and failed to provide a level playing field for candidates,” the OSCE, Europe’s main democracy watchdog, said in a statement.
Some media quoted observers saying they had witnessed blatant ballot stuffing too.

Importantly, this is the first time that the opposition Islamic Revival Party has failed to win any seats in parliament. It failed to pass the 5% threshold needed to hold a seat in the 63-person chamber.

According to local media, Mr Rakhmon’s ruling People’s Democratic Party won 57 seats in the election with the Agrarian Party, the Party of Economic Reforms and the Socialist Party splitting the other six seats. All three of the minor parties are linked to Mr Rakhmon.
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(News report from Issue No. 221, published on March 4 2015)