Tag Archives: protest

Georgian opposition call for more protests

DEC. 17 (The Conway Bulletin) – Defeated Georgian presidential candidate Grigol Vashadze of the United National Movement party (UNM) reiterated his call for supporters to continue to protest daily against what he has described as a “stolen election”. Mr Vashadze, a former foreign minister, lost to Salome Zurabishvili in the second round of a presidential election last month, polling 40% of the vote compared to her 60%. His supporters accuse Georgia’s richest man, Bidzina Ivanishvili, of bribing the electorate to support Ms Zurabishvili, his preferred candidate.

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>>This story was first published in issue 395 of The Conway Bulletin on Dec. 23 2018

Kazakh police detain anti-government protesters

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DEC. 16/17 (The Conway Bulletin) – Police in Kazakhstan detained several opposition activists over two days during events aimed at marking both the shooting dead of several protesters in the oil town of Zhanaozen in 2011 and the anniversary of a crackdown on anti-Soviet demonstrations in Almaty in 1986. The anniversaries have become a traditional day of anti-government protest in Kazakhstan. Anti-government protests in Kazakhstan are rare and generally not tolerated.

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>>This story was first published in issue 395 of The Conway Bulletin on Dec. 23 2018

Kazakh court jails three men in Ablyazov linked case

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DEC. 21 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Almaty sent three men — Kenzhebek Abishev, Oralbek Omirov, and Almat Zhumaghulov — to jail on terrorism-related charges after finding them guilty of promoting banned political movement Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan, set up by exiled opposition leader Mukhtar Ablyazov. Free speech activists have said the trial was politically motivated. Last month, during the trial Zhumaghulov and Omirov had also slashed their forearms in protest.

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>>This story was first published in issue 395 of The Conway Bulletin on Dec. 23 2018

Turkmenistan will cut all utility subsidies from 2019

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SEPT. 26 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov signed into a law a decree that cancels the last of Turkmenistan’s once-generous subsidies system, another admission that the country’s economy is struggling to recover from a 2014-17 downturn.

Analysts immediately said that the rollback in subsidies may trigger protests. Previous subsidy cuts have sparked off small rare anti-government demonstrations in Turkmenistan, regarded as one of the world’s most authoritarian and reclusive countries.

Like other countries in the region, the Turkmen government has cut its Soviet-era subsidy system over the past few years but from the start of next year households will have to pay near-market prices for gas, electricity and water. Previously petrol and food had also been heavily subsidised. Media reported that there has been a vague promise that people will pay “preferential prices”, although it is unclear what exactly this means.

Turkmenistan has been slow to recover from a regional economic downturn. Its main revenue generator is gas which is locked into inflexible long-term export contracts with China.

The Turkmen government is trying to broaden its export base. It has opened a new fertiliser plant and a new power plant, both focused on exports, in the past month but analysts have said that revenues from these projects will take time to trickle down to the population.
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>>This story was first published in issue 387 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 1 2018

Armenian intelligence chiefs questioned

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SEPT. 27 (The Conway Bulletin) – Prosecutors in Armenia have interviewed two senior intelligence chiefs over a leaked phone call that appeared to show them colluding with other government departments over the detention of former President Robert Kocharyan in July, media reported. Mr Kocharyan was detained, and then released, for his role in the shooting dead of anti-government protesters after elections in 2008.
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>>This story was published in issue 387 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 1 2018

Marches confront in Georgia

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JULY 23 2017 (The Bulletin) — Pro-European and far-right marches both protested through Tbilisi, culminating in a face-off that officials had worried could lead to violence. Although eggs and bottles of water were thrown, there were no reports of serious violence.

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(News report from Issue No. 337, published on July 27 2017)

400 people protest in Uzbekistan’s largest demonstration for 12 years

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TASHKENT, JUNE 5 2017 (The Bulletin) — An estimated 400 people protested in Tashkent against police inaction over the murder of a 17-year-old student, the largest demonstration in Uzbekistan against the authorities for 12 years.

Under former leader Islam Karimov the authorities in Uzbekistan cracked down hard on public gatherings, essentially banning them. A Bulletin correspondent in Tashkent said this was the largest demonstration in Uzbekistan since the army shot dead several hundred people in the town of Andijan in 2005.

Activists said that the protest in Dostyk Square had been planned after 19,000 people signed an online petition calling on the authorities to investigate the death of Jasurbek Ibraghimov. He was beaten at his university in Tashkent at the start of May and died in hospital on June 1. The police had declined to investigate but after the public outcry changed their mind.

“We came to the park at 10am (0400GMT). There were 15 to 20 of us. The police tried to disperse us but after more and more people started coming they stopped interrupting the protest,” one activist said.

Another explained that the protest represented not just the need to investigate the death of Ibraghimov properly but also the pent up frustration felt by young Uzbeks. Many of the protesters were young, in their 20s, and savvy users of Facebook and other forms of social media.

“The protest was not spontaneous, it had deep roots. The unrest against corruption and injustice had been roaring like an enraged lion in people’s hearts until Jasur’s death,” said Anvar, a civil activist who agreed to be named. “The death of Jasur broke the silence. People took the park both to mourn the teen’s death and to say enough to social injustice and corrupt systems.”

Since taking over as leader in September 2017, Shavkat Mirziyoyev has talked of opening the country to investors and generating more personal freedoms, but commentators were taken by surprise by the spontaneous demonstration and the authorities’, relatively, relaxed attitude towards it. The protest also highlights just how powerful social media is becoming. The security forces monitor the internet but the sheer number of apps and internet variants and their increased user numbers makes it difficult to cover.

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(News report from Issue No. 332, published on June 12 2017)

Georgians march for rapper arrested with drugs

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JUNE 11 2017 (The Bulletin) — Hundreds of people in Batumi and Tbilisi protested against the detention of 21-year-old rapper Giorgi Keburia, also known by his stage name as Kay-G, for carrying ecstasy tablets. His supporters said that the drugs had been planted on the rapper in retaliation for mocking police in a recent music video. The demonstrations highlight the increasingly vocal drug legalisation lobby in Georgia.

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(News report from Issue No. 332, published on June 12 2017)

Kyrgyz police detain protesters

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JUNE 5 2017 (The Bulletin) — The authorities in Bishkek started chopping down several dozen trees in the city centre to ease congestion, despite complaints from local residents. Several residents tried to stop workmen from cutting down the trees by standing in front of them or lying in the road. Police intervened, detaining protesters. The row encapsulates the tension across the region between residents who want to protect trees and parks, and developers and the authorities who often want to demolish green spaces for building projects that they say are necessary.

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(News report from Issue No. 331, published on June 5 2017)

UzGazOil workers complain about salaries

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MAY 3 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Employees at Uzbekistan’s state- owned UzGasOil network of petrol stations have not been paid their salaries, the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty website reported. It said that in a rare show of worker defiance in Uzbekistan, the UzGasOil employees had complained directly to the management about their unpaid salaries. RFE/RL quoted one worker saying that he was owed about $125 for two months work. RFE/RL contacted UzGasOil, rebranded from Uzbekneftegaz this year, who denied that there was a problem. In Uzbekistan, protests by workers against company management are virtually unheard of.

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(News report from Issue No. 327, published on May 5 2017)