MAY 17 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Orthodox demonstrators attacked a small gay rights march in Tbilisi, injuring several activists. The attack showed Georgian society’s conservative leanings which can collide with the country’s drive towards the more liberal West. Human rights groups accused police of failing to protect gay rights activists.
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(News report from Issue No. 135, published on May 20 2013)
APRIL 26 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Being pelted with eggs at a press conference was just the latest public humiliation for Serik Abdenov, Kazakhstan’s fresh-faced labour minister.
Mr Abdenov is in charge of explaining why the government intends to raise the retirement age for women to 63 from 58. This is in line with the age that men in Kazakhstan retire and is an entirely plausible concept.
The problem is that Mr Abdenov appears ill-equipped to explain this to a sceptical public.
Earlier this month, at a meeting in Temirtau, an industrial town in central Kazakhstan, Mr Abdenov took to the stage to explain why the reform was necessary. He faced an audience of unimpressed women factory workers.
Sitting at a desk adorned with a portrait of Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev, Mr Adbenov offered this enlightened thinking on why women needed to work longer.
“You have to work, to work,” he said triggering howls of laughter from the audience.
Mr Abdenov tried again. “Because, my dear countrymen, because, because,” he said, before tailing off into an unconvincing description of what it means to be a pensioner.
Less than a week later, Andrei Tsukanov, a protester, hurled two eggs at Mr Abdenov during a press conference to discuss the pension reforms.
One egg hit Mr Abdenov, one missed. Again, though, it was all caught on video, heaping further public humiliation on the apparently hapless minister for labour.
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(News report from Issue No. 133, published on April 29 2013)
APRIL 26 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A man protesting against a proposed increase in the retirement age for women hurled two eggs at the Kazakh minister for labour, Serik Abdenov. The Kazakh government wants to raise the retirement age for women to 63 from 58.
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(News report from Issue No. 133, published on April 29 2013)
YEREVAN/Armenia, APRIL 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The result of Armenia’s presidential election on Feb. 18 was disputed, just like it was five years ago. And, just like in 2008, the opposition staged regular demonstrations.
This year, though, the urbane Raffi Hovhannisyan, leader of the Heritage Party, led the demonstrations against President Serzh Sarksyan. In 2008, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, the firebrand former president led demonstrations.
The two men took a very different approach. Instead of whiping up the crowd in increasingly antagonistic speeches, as Ter-Petrosyan did, a tactic that eventually lead to clashes that killed 10 people, Hovhannisyan has taken a calmer approach.
And has impressed people on the streets of Armenia’s capital.
“What the opposition leader does today is a new style for Armenia, maybe it’s a more Western style campaign,” said Laura Gevorgyan, a young activist who has followed most of the protests.
Hovhannisyan has dubbed his approach a Barevolution after the Armenian word for hello — barev. Despite Hovhannisyan’s efforts, Sarksyan took the presidential oath for his second five-year term on April 9. This disappointed some of Hovhannisyan’s supporters. For many, though, avoiding violence meant that progress has been made.
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(News report from Issue No. 133, published on April 29 2013)
APRIL 19 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili attracted roughly 10,000 people to his first major rally in Tbilisi since his party, the United National Movement (UNM), lost a parliamentary election in October. Mr Saakashvili is locked in an increasingly acrimonious fight with Georgian PM Bidzina Ivanishvili.
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(News report from Issue No. 132, published on April 22 2013)
APRIL 9 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Serzh Sargsyan was sworn in as president of Armenia for a second consecutive five year term. An estimated 12,000 supporters of Mr Sargsyan’s main rival, Raffi Hovannisyan, protested only a few kilometres from the inauguration ceremony. They say the presidential election of Feb. 18 was fixed.
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(News report from Issue No. 131, published on April 12 2013)
MARCH 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Raffi Hovannisian, the runner-up in a presidential election in Armenia in February, said he would end a hunger strike on April 1, media reported. He had started the hunger strike to protest against what he described as a rigged vote. Mr Hovannisian promised to continue street protests.
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(News report from Issue No. 129, published on March 29 2013)
MARCH 10 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenian opposition leader Raffi Hovannisian began a hunger strike to protest against what he claims was a rigged Feb. 18 presidential election. Mr Hovannisian, a former foreign minister, came second in the election with 37% of the vote. Incumbent president Serzh Sarksyan won the election with 59%.
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(News report from Issue No. 127, published on March 15 2013)
MARCH 4 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s main opposition leaders lodged a complaint that the Feb. 18 presidential election won by the incumbent Serzh Sarksyan was rigged. Since the result hundreds of people, lead by Raffi Hovannisian who came second in the election with 37% of the vote, have demonstrated in central Yerevan.
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(News report from Issue No. 126, published on March 8 2013)
FEB. 4 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Azerbaijan arrested two opposition leaders and accused them of orchestrating clashes between protesters and police in a provincial town last month. Human rights groups have said that the Azerbaijani authorities are using the clashes as an excuse to clampdown on their opponents.
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(News report from Issue No. 123, published on Feb. 8 2013)