Tag Archives: rights and freedoms

Kazakh women’s rights leaders ambivalent on Dariga as future president

ALMATY, OCT. 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Dariga Nazarbayeva, daughter of Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev, may have been promoted to the Senate in a reshuffle last month, and is now being touted as a presidential successor, but many women appear ambivalent on supporting her candidacy.

The issue of who will succeed president Nursultan Nazarbayev, 76, as next president dominates Kazakh politics but Ms Nazarbayeva, 53, is a divisive figure and she fails to generate mass support among what should be her natural support base — women — as interviews with women’s rights advocates suggested.

Dina Smailova, who heads a group fighting domestic and sexual violence called ‘Don’t be silent’, said that while Ms Nazarbayeva had been supportive of their work, she may not be the right person to lead the country.

“I can view her candidacy as a woman who is educated, a modern woman but why not consider another candidate?” she said.

Women’s rights and domestic abuse moved into the mainstream in Kazakhstan this year after a well- known female TV presenter was badly beaten up by her husband at a petrol station outside Almaty.

According to the UN, 500 women are killed each year in Kazakhstan by their partners.

Aida Alzhanova, chair of Adam Damu charity and a former UN expert for women’s equality said Ms Nazarbayeva had not done enough to promote women’s rights.

“I didn’t know Dariga was promoting women’s rights,” she said. “Here gender inequality in politics and business is gradually moving into the domestic sphere.”

She did say, though, that she would consider supporting Ms Nazarbayeva.

“If she wins in a fair election and if she has a clear gender policy that fits with international norms and standards, then I will vote for her,” she said.

The third women’s rights leader interviewed by The Conway Bulletin said that she would support Dariga Nazarbayeva if she wanted to become president.

“I want to believe that if a woman becomes president there will be pos- itive changes in the country,” said Marianna Gurina, president of the Ulagatty Zhanuya charity, which pro- motes family values and women’s rights.

“Yes, I support her candidacy because I think she, as a woman understands women.”

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(News report from Issue No. 301, published on Oct. 21 2016)

Radicals attack transgender in Georgia

OCT. 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Human rights groups called for the Georgian government to do more to fight hate crimes after a transgender woman was badly stabbed in an apparent attempted murder. Georgia has seen a rise in attacks and marches by rightwing radicals over the past few years. Last month a group of nationalists marched through a street in the old town of Tbilisi taunting foreigners.

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(News report from Issue No. 301, published on Oct. 21 2016)

Azerbaijani court releases Huseynov

OCT. 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Baku released Javid Huseynov, an Azerbaijani international football player jailed at the end of May for links to the killing of a journalist in 2015. Initially sentenced to four years in prison for obstructing justice, Mr Huseynov was freed after an appeal. A group of people linked to Mr Huseynov beat Rasim Aliyev, a journalist, to death after he had criticised Mr Huseynov’s behaviour.

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(News report from Issue No. 300, published on Oct. 14 2016)

Tajik court sentences opposition members

OCT. 7 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A Tajik court sentenced Buzurgmehr Yorov and Nuriddin Makhamov, two lawyers of the banned Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), to 23 and 21 years in prison for fraud and inciting ethnic hatred. Last year, the IRPT was accused of plotting a coup. Human rights lobby groups said the charges against Yorov and Makhamov were trumped up.

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(News report from Issue No. 300, published on Oct. 14 2016)

Kyrgyz police releases wife of Tajik opposition figure

OCT. 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz police released the wife of Sobir Valiev, a Tajik opposition figure, 22 hours after her arrest. Kyrgyzstan’s Security Service said the woman, Zhannat Khamzayeva, was questioned regarding the alleged illegal activities of her husband. Mr Valiyev, a member of the opposition movement Group-24 who currently lives in Poland, is accused of illegal border crossing and forging documents. The Security Service ordered Ms Khamzayeva to remain in the country.

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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)

Turkmen cashpoints experience shortages

OCT. 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen workers have been unable to access their salaries due to cash shortages at cashpoints across the Dashoguz province in northern Turkmenistan, the local service of RFE/RL reported. Teachers and other state workers who had not received salaries for months were notified that their back salaries had been paid into their bank accounts. Cash shortages, however, made funds inaccessible. News has been leaking out of Turkmenistan for months about cash shortages.

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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)f

Georgia’s Orthodox Church

OCT. 7 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – >> I read earlier in the Bulletin that the Pope flew over to Tbilisi but wasn’t warmly received. This surprised me as I thought the Pope was generally greeted by massive grounds wherever he went.

>> You’re right. Georgians gave Pope Francis a luke- warm welcome. Staff at the Vatican had probably been expecting a far more friendly touch down but then Georgia has a complicated relationship with the Catholic Church.

>> So what actually happened in Georgia?

>> Essentially, although the head of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Ilia II, greeted Pope Francis, he was made to feel unwelcome. Many Orthodox priests told their congregations to stay away from his Papal mass on the Saturday and a hardcore group of Orthodox believers followed him around shouting various slogans against the Catholic Church.

>> Right, the sound fairly active? Outside the Pope’s visit, is the Orthodox Church influential in Georgia?

>> Yes, very. Around 80% of Georgians identify themselves as Orthodox. The Patriarch, Ilia II, is one of the most powerful men in the country and is often turned to in times of crisis. He has brokered deals between rival political leaders. Presidents and prime ministers are careful to be seen attending church and meeting with the Patriarch. He is also a staunch conservative, holding views that represent those of many in Georgia.

The Georgian Orthodox is anti-gay rights and same sex marriage, for example. There are often Orthodox priests leading anti-gay rights marches.

And the Georgian Orthodox Church an incredibly influential body. Public opinion surveys consistently rank it as the most trusted public body in Georgia.

>> I see. But is the Orthodox Church involved any way in Georgia’s foreign policy?

>> Not officially. Georgia’s constitution states that the Orthodox Church is fully independent of the state. That said it has played a major role on occasion. After Georgia and Russia fought a brief war in 2008 over the disputed region of South Ossetia, it was the Patriarch who was able to reach out to the Russian side and begin to mend relations. He was in Moscow towards the end of 2008 to see the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Alexey II, for the last time. While he was there he also met up with Dmitri Medvedev, then Russia’s president. This was considered a vital first step towards pulling Georgia and Russia together.

>> So, Ilia II is definitely a bit of an all-rounded then. He seems to play a major role in domestic affairs, influencing public opinion, and also happy to deal in high level diplomacy in international affairs.

>> He’s certainly a major factor in modern Georgia. Watch out for his reaction to any issues before or after the parliamentary election in Georgia on Oct. 8.

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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)

Kazakh government defuses worker unrest

ALMATY, OCT. 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Betraying its nervousness over labour disputes, the Kazakh government stepped in to end a strike by 2,000 workers at an oil company near Zhanaozen in the west of the country.

To end the strike, the government promised the company employing the workers a major contract boost which will allow it to increase salaries — meeting the strikers’ demands.

The strike over pay had been building, sporadically, for weeks but had only been supported by a few dozen people, some of them on hunger strikes. It was only on Sept. 30, when 2,000 strikers rallied for the first time demanding higher salaries from Burgylau, a local subcontractor for the state-owned Ozenmunaigas, that the government sent senior offi- cials to defuse what to them had become an intolerable scenario.

Zhanaozen, a scruffy town built in Soviet times to house labourers working on nearby oil fields, is seared into the Kazakh national conscience.

In 2011 clashes between protesters and police killed at least 15 people and plunged the government into perhaps its most serious post-Soviet crisis. Hundreds of riot police poured into the region and emergency powers were imposed. Eventually, the government was forced to guarantee jobs and wages in the region.

Importantly the clashes in Zhanaozen in 2011 have defined Kazakh labour disputes. Since then big business and the government have shown an unwillingness to face down worker demands.

And so it proved again. A Burgylau executive had told workers that the company was unable to pay workers any more because it wasn’t making a profit. This changed, though, after a visit from Alik Aidarbayev, governor of the western Mangistau region, who offered Burgylau another $18m worth of contracts in exchange for meeting the workers’ demands.

Burgylau is a subsidiary of KazPet- roDrilling.

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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)

Kazakh journalist Matayev accuses elite of stitch up

ALMATY, SEPT. 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — During his trial for various financial crimes, Seitkazy Matayev, the former head of the journalists union of Kazakhstan, accused Parliamentary Speaker Nurlan Nigmatullin and media tycoon Alexander Klebanov of organising his arrest in February.

The accusation that members of the Kazakh elite were behind his arrest underscores Matayev’s defiance during his trial and shines a rare spotlight on the powers and influences of the Kazakh elite. It has also peaked interest in the case, already one of the most high-profile corruption cases in Kazakhstan.

Matayev, who had once been press secretary to Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, and his son Asset are accused of stealing government money and tax evasion. Matayev’s trial is due to end on Oct. 3. Prosecutors have asked for six years and eight months jail term.

“Nigmatullin and Klebanov are among those who want to limit my professional activity by incriminating me of financial crimes,” Matayev said. “Nigmatullin once told me bluntly: ‘Give me KazTAG and everything will stop’, referring to months of harassment against me and my family.”

Nigmatullin and Klebanov have not responded.

KazTAG is the news agency which Matayev owns. He also owned the National Press Club in Almaty, which has now been destroyed.

Denis Krivosheyev, a political analyst, said Matayev’s case is reflection of the poor media environment in Kazakhstan.

“Seitkazy’s press club provided a platform for opposition journalists, which would irritate authorities to some extent, but he had also given prominence in his news outlets to topics that upset some elite members,” he said.

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(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)

Georgian Police arrest nationalists in Tbilisi after demo

TBILISI, SEPT. 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Tbilisi arrested 11 men after they attacked Turkish cafes and people wearing Muslim clothes after a march by nationalists through the city.

According to reports, a group of men, some masked, gathered at Rustaveli metro station in the centre and walked through a small street with numerous cafes and foreign restaurants where they shouted “Glory to our nation, death to enemies” and attacked the cafes.

The interior ministry later released a statement which blamed a group called Georgian Power, linked to hooligans at Georgia’s biggest football team Dynamo Tbilisi.

Earlier this year, a group of nationalists threw sausages at diners in a Tbilisi vegan restaurant.

A few days after that another group of nationalists and ultraconservative Orthodox Christians disrupted an open air concert in Tbilisi, accusing the organisers of arranging mass orgies.

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(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)