Tag Archives: society

Uzbek court sends Karimova to prison for another 8 years

MARCH 18 (The Bulletin) — A court in Uzbekistan found Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of former Uzbek president Islam Karimov and previously considered the most powerful woman in the country, guilty of corruption that cost the country $2.3b and sentenced her to another eight years in prison. Karimova has been under house arrest and then in prison in Tashkent since 2014 when she was accused of taking bribes from telecoms companies looking to do business in Uzbekistan. In an open letter to President Shavkat Mirziyoyev earlier this year, she had begged to be released from prison. Five other people were also imprisoned alongside Karimova.

ENDS

— This story was first published in issue 440 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia report coronavirus infections

Leave a Reply

TBILISI/March 2 2020 (The Bulletin) — Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia all declared their first cases of the coronavirus Covid-19 and closed their borders with Iran, a hotbed of the disease.

In Central Asia, governments blocked entry to countries that they considered high-risk and cut flights to China in a desperate attempt to keep out the coronavirus that has spread around the world from its origin in the city of Wuhan.

All the confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the South Caucasus appear to have been linked with Iran. Borders between Iran and Armenia and Azerbaijan have become increasingly porous over the past few years as trade and relations improved.

Governments in the South Caucasus appealed to the public not to panic. In an Instagram message, Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili stood on a commuter bus wearing a facemask. She appeared to be the only person wearing a mask.

“Let’s spread #SafetynotFear!” she wrote. “We need to show people that safety means remaining calm and being responsible.”

In Armenia, PM Nikol Pashinyan was more dismissive of the threat from the virus, saying that flu was a bigger killer. He also said that the health services were on top of the situation in Armenia, although there was a “shortage of masks”.

Central Asian countries have not reported any cases of the coronavirus, although analysts said that this may be because officials were not keen on reporting them or that health officials had failed to spot them.

And governments continued to try to incubate against the disease. Kazakhstan cut the number of flights to China and South Korea and stopped issuing visas to Chinese.

— ENDS

— This story was first published in issue 438 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Lydian says court backs it in dispute with government

Leave a Reply

FEB. 27 2020 (The Bulletin) — Toronto-based Lydian International said that a court in Armenia had dismissed eight of 10 criticisms of its operations at the Amulsar gold mine in the south of the country, including that it had mined illegally and that protected and near-extinct animal species had been found on its site. Lydian has been stopped since June 2018 from accessing the mine by protesters who have blocked the access road. They have complained that Lydian’s operations were ruining the environment, a standpoint that the Armenian mining inspection body agreed with in August 2018. Lydian said the rulings were politically motivated at the time.

— ENDS

— This story was first published in issue 438 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Top Armenian judge sues Pashinyan for defamation

Leave a Reply

FEB. 27 2020 (The Bulletin) — One of the most senior judges in Armenia, Hrayr Tovmasyan, who is head of the Constitutional Court, said that he had filed a defamation lawsuit against Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan. The lawsuit is just the latest twist in the fight between the Constitutional Court judges and Mr Pashinyan. He has accused them of undermining reforms that a revolution in 2018 swept in and has ordered them to resign, which they have refused. A referendum in April will potentially give Mr Pashinyan the power to sack the judges.
— ENDS

— This story was first published in issue 438 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Kyrgyz court refuses to approve extradition to Turkey of suspected Gulenist teachers

Leave a Reply

BISHKEK/Dec. 30 2019 (The Bulletin) — A district court in Bishkek shunned Turkey by refusing to sanction the extradition of two Turkish teachers suspected of being so-called Gulenists.
The court said that the extradition of the teachers, approved earlier by Kyrgyzstan’s deputy prosecutor general, was illegal.

Rights activists have said that so-called Gulenists who have been extradited from countries in Central Asia and the South Caucasus have been tortured in Turkey and don’t get fair trials. The Turkish government blames Gulenists for a failed coup in 2016 and has promised revenge.

The press secretary of the Pervomaisky District Court, Asel Ravshanbekova, didn’t give the Kyrgyz branch of the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty any reasons for the court to overturn the deputy prosecutor’s extradition approval other than to say that it was considered “illegal”.

Even so, the court’s decision is a sharp and rare blow to Turkey’s status in the Central Asia and South Caucasus region. With the exception of Kazakhstan and Armenia, the other countries in the region have been quick to round up Turkish teachers working at schools and universities regarded as Gulenists. These were educational institutions set up in the 1990s by followers of Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic cleric who was once an ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan but now lives in exile in the United States.

These Gulen-linked schools were considered to be the best schools and universities in each country in the region, producing government ministers and business leaders.

In 2017, Turkey as much as told Kyrgyzstan that it needed to close down the Gulen school network known as Sebat. Kyrgyzstan refused but did rebrand the schools as Zepat. These fee-paying schools still educate many sons and daughters of the elite.

Kyrgyzstan-Turkey relations have improved since Sooronbai Jeenbekov took over as president in 2017 but the strain over the fate of the Gulen schools and their teachers has damaged some of the goodwill.

Mr Jeenbekov took over as president from Almazbek Atambayev, who had pushed a foreign policy that, while not anti-Turkey, was definitely cool towards its traditional ally.

ENDS

— This story was first published in issue 433 of the weekly Bulletin on Jan. 13 2020

— Copyright owned by the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

Former diplomat jailed for treason in Uzbekistan

Leave a Reply

JAN. 9 2020 (The Bulletin) — Uzbekistan jailed Kadyr Yusupov, 67, its former ambassador to Britain and an adviser on Uzbek-Chinese trade, for 5-1/2 years for treason. Human rights activists said that Yusupov had been forced to admit his guilt at a secret trial. The allegations of treason against Yusupov have not been fleshed out. He was arrested in December 2018, a few days after allegedly jumping in front of a train on the Tashkent metro.

ENDS

— This story was first published in issue 433 of the weekly Bulletin on Jan. 13 2020

— Copyright owned by the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

Armenia approves increase in child benefits

Leave a Reply

JAN. 10 2020 (The Bulletin) — Armenia’s government approved a six-fold rise in the cash payment given to families for having their first child in order to try to reverse the country’s falling birth rate. From July, a family will receive a 300,000 dram ($625) payment for the birth of their first and second children, six times higher than the current 50,000 drams for a first child and double the current 150,000 drams for a second child. Monthly child benefits will also be increased by 50% to 26,500 drams.

ENDS

— This story was first published in issue 433 of the weekly Bulletin on Jan. 13 2020

— Copyright owned by the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

Armenian police investigate baby-selling ring

Leave a Reply

DEC. 26 2019 (The Bulletin) — Police in Armenia have arrested Razmik Abramyan, the country’s chief obstetrician-gynaecologist and other senior officials as part of an investigation into the alleged sale of babies, the AFP news agency reported. Mr Abramyan is accused of pressuring women into giving up their babies which were then sold on for adoption. He has denied the claims.

ENDS

— This story was first published in issue 432 of the weekly Bulletin on Dec. 27 2019

US soldiers develop cancer from 9/11 deployment in Uzbekistan

Leave a Reply

DEC. 19 2019 (The Bulletin) — Dozens of US soldiers who deployed to the Karshi-Khanabad former Soviet base in southern Uzbekistan in September 2001 to attack al Qaeda forces in neighbouring Afghanistan have developed cancer, media reported. They said that the base, known by soldiers as K2, was littered with chemical weapon spills and radioactive waste.

ENDS

— This story was first published in issue 432 of the weekly Bulletin on Dec. 27 2019

Unesco recognises Kyrgyzstan’s kalpak as heritage item

Leave a Reply

DEC. 17 2019 (The Bulletin) — The tall white and black kalpak hat worn by Kyrgyz elders has been given Unesco heritage status. An AFP reporter in Bishkek reported that the government hopes the Unesco recognition of the kalpak will help boost tourism to Kyrgyzstan.
ENDS

— This story was first published in issue 432 of the weekly Bulletin on Dec. 27 2019