Tag Archives: rights and freedoms

Georgia accused of helping to kidnap Azerbaijani journalist

TBILISI, MAY 31 2017 (The Bulletin) — NGOs and dissident Azerbaijani journalists accused the Georgian government of helping to kidnap an opposition journalist and handing him over to the authorities in Azerbaijan.

Allegations that Georgia had allowed masked men to bundle investigative journalist Afgan Mukhtarli into a car and drive him to the border with Azerbaijan shocked Azerbaijani dissidents living in Tbilisi. Many have sought refuge in Georgia over the past five or so years as the Azerbaijani government clamped down on journalists it considered troublesome and opposition activists.

Georgian officials denied the allegations and ordered an investigation, but that has not lifted suspicions that its security services were complicit in the kidnapping.

Tural Gurbanli, an Azerbaijani journalist who fled from Baku to Tbilisi said dissidents were worried.

“I chose to take refuge in Georgia,” he told the Bulletin. “Georgia is now cooperating with Azerbaijan to pressurise Azerbaijani journalists and activists living here.”

On Friday, roughly 60 protesters gathered outside the Georgian parliament, criticising the government.

In response, the Georgian government released a terse statement. “The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia launched an investigation under the Article 143 of the Criminal Code of Georgia regarding the case of Azerbaijan journalist Afgan Mukhtarli, which pertains to illegal deprivation of liberty,” it said.

The office of Azerbaijan’s Prosecutor confirmed that Mr Mukhtarli was in its custody. It said that he had been charged with crossing the border illegally.

Last week, a few days after a visit by Turkish PM Binali Yildirim, police detained Emre Cabuk, a manager at a school in Tbilisi linked to the Gulen network, and started procedures to extradite him to Turkey. Turkey is pursuing Gulen networks across the world. It accuses them of links to terrorism and plotting a coup.

Over the last few months, Georgia has boosted its military, diplomatic and trade relations with Azerbaijan and Turkey and commentators suggested this alliance may be influencing its stance on human rights.

Ani Wandaryan, a commentator on the South Caucasus, said in a tweet: “In one week, Georgia has allowed both Azerbaijan and Turkey to take dissidents. A big civil rights surrender for an EU-hopeful country.”

Georgia wants to join both the EU and NATO, which both place an emphasis on improving human rights and free speech.

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

Comment: Georgia needs to prove it cares about human rights

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JUNE 5 2017 (The Bulletin) — The Georgian authorities need to act and act fast if they are going to salvage their reputation from the mystery surrounding the kidnapping of an Azerbaijani journalist. He was kidnapped in Tbilisi on Tuesday evening, driven to the border with Azerbaijan and handed over to the authorities.

Human rights activists are, rightly, outraged at the kidnapping and have accused the Georgian government of being complicit, although it is still unclear who the kidnappers actually were.

Levan Asatiani from Amnesty International said the Georgian government allowed Azerbaijani security forces to kidnap Afgan Mukhtarli.

“Georgia must promptly and impartially investigate what happened and hold accountable all those involved in this gruesome operation,” he said.

Asatiani is not the only one to suggest that the kidnapping of an outspoken Azerbaijani journalist from Tbilisi must have had the backing of the Georgian authorities and the European Union and the United States, two key allies of Georgia, have also lodged strongly worded statements.

The timing is also important here.

A week before Mukhtarli’s disappearance, Georgia detained Emre Cabuk, a manager at a school in Tbilisi known to have links to the Gulen movement. Turkey has been trying to shut down the Gulen movement worldwide, ever since a coup attempt last summer, and this has included schools and universities its members had set up in Central Asia and the South Caucasus in the 1990s.

Azerbaijan, as expected, immediately fell into line with the demands from Turkey, its key ally but Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan ducked them.

Georgia had also been expected to avoid being dragged into the Gulen witch-hunt. Apparently not, though.

Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey from an energy pipeline axis that will be vital to European gas needs, adding to the oil pipeline the triumvirate already host. The gas will be produced in Azerbaijan and pumped through pipelines in Georgia and Turkey into Central Europe.

The dividends are likely to be high, drawing Georgia closer towards Azerbaijan and Turkey.

Both Azerbaijan and Turkey have, to put it mildly, a different perspective on human rights and media freedom to the European ideals that Georgia professes to yearn for. It wants to be part of the EU and NATO. There is no point in just paying lip service.

Georgia has to prove that it is worthy of meeting the high criteria demanded of EU and new NATO members.

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

Kyrgyzstan drops lawsuit against RFE

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MAY 31 2017 (The Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s Prosecutor officially dropped a libel lawsuit against the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev had asked for the lawsuit to be dropped a fortnight ago, shortly after meeting the RFE/RL president. The original lawsuit had focused on reporting by RFE/RL which the Presidential Administration had said was biased against it. Another lawsuit against the Bishkek independent website zanoza.kg has not been dropped. Free speech activists have said that Kyrgyzstan is turning increasingly authoritarian.

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

Kazakh activists complain

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MAY 30 2017 (The Bulletin) — Kazakh human rights activists said that a law being discussed in parliament is designed to prevent independent candidates from running in presidential elections. The new law, when it is passed, will block “non-serious” candidates from running. Kazakhstan has never held an election considered free or fair by international observers. President Nazarbayev won an election in 2015 with 98% of the vote.

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

Uzbekistan’s senate ratifies cotton deal with the European Union

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TASHKENT, MAY 30 2017 (The Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s Senate ratified a deal with the European Union over textile exports, paving the way for an expected boost in one of the country’s most important revenue earning products.

The senate’s processing of the protocol was routine but it came only a week after an EU delegation visited Uzbekistan to discuss progress it had made on human rights. At the end of last year, the European Parliament voted to renew a 1999 deal to drop tariffs on cotton imports from Uzbekistan.

It had been suspended in 2011 over concerns about Uzbekistan’s use of child labour to pick the cotton.

During its visit the European Parliament’s human rights subcommittee had said that it was impressed with Uzbekistan’s openness.

“Our impression now, after a three-day visit, is of a country where change is in the air, the road to openness and modernisation lies open if the political resolve to choose the path is strong and consistent,” the group said in a statement.

Human rights groups have said that normalising trade deals over Uzbek cotton has come too early but for Uzbekistan it will be a boost.

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

Kazakh human rights defender quits

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ALMATY, MAY 22 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Civil rights activists and opposition journalists in Kazakhstan blamed the authorities for pressuring human rights campaigner Olesya Khalabuzar into quitting an anti- government party she established a few years ago.

Known for her forthright statements, Ms Khalabuzar had been viewed as something of a superstar in Kazakhstan’s small activist scene. She was head of the Justice party that she set up in 2015.

“She’s been pressurised by the authorities,” said one journalist in Almaty who asked to remain anonymous. “The anti-government space is getting smaller and smaller here. This is just another instance of the state pressuring an activist to give up their work.”

Rights campaigners have said that the authorities have taken an increasingly tough line on dissenters, cracking down on people who challenge the authorities.

On May 17, in a surprise announcement, Ms Khalabuzar wrote on Facebook that she had decided to give up politics.

“Probably, people will think that I am giving up because of a criminal case against me this is not the case – these people do not understand my situation,” she wrote. “I am leaving public activity. I want to become an ‘ordinary citizen’ and devote the remaining time to my family. This is the most sacred thing.”

In her post she also said that she regretted some of her actions which she described as “counterproductive” and “short-sighted”.

This year, police have detained Ms Khalabuzar for involvement in what they described as an illegal protest. They have also searched her office and she has been the subject of a civil complaint.

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(News report from Issue No. 330, published on May 28 2017)

Georgia ratifies domestic violence convention

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MAY 20 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia became the first country in the former Soviet Union to ratify the Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention aimed at increasing punishment for domestic violence, media reported. The Convention increases police powers and sets up a series of 24-hour telephone lines to report domestic violence.

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(News report from Issue No. 330, published on May 28 2017)

Amnesty International accuses Tajik government

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MAY 23 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Amnesty International accused the Tajik government of cracking down on civil rights activists and people critical of the government. The accusation came a week after human rights lawyer, Fayzinisso Vohidova, was prevented from leaving the country.

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(News report from Issue No. 330, published on May 28 2017)

Azerbaijan blocks RFE website

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MAY 14 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan blocked access to websites critical of the government, including the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Free Europe and Meidan TV, because they were “a threat to the legitimate interests of the state and society”. Media freedom advocates have described the move as another attack on the press by a government that is considered increasingly autocratic. The authorities in Azerbaijan ejected RFE/RL from Baku in 2015. It has also arrested several of its journalists for various offensives.

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(News report from Issue No. 329, published on May 20 2017)

West demands justice for Kazakh journalist

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MAY 14 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Western media and human rights lobby groups demanded an investigation into the stabbing of a Kazakh journalist who was travelling by train from Almaty to Astana. Ramazan Yesergepov, chairman of Journalists in Danger, a media freedom group that provides legal advice, had been travelling to Almaty to talk to Western embassies about a decline in press freedom in Kazakhstan. Mr Yesergepov was stabbed in the abdomen. He was taken to hospital. His wounds were not life-threatening.

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(News report from Issue No. 329, published on May 20 2017)