Tag Archives: society

Kazakh court acquits woman of call for revolution

ALMATY/Feb. 6 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in west Kazakhstan surprised observers by acquitting a woman of using social media to promote the banned Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan opposition party.

The acquittal of 39-year-old Aigul Akberdiyeva came five months after her husband 45-year-old Ablovas Zhumaev was sent to prison for four years on similar charges. Human rights activists had highlighted both their cases as evidence of Kazakhstan’s lack of freedom and how the security services were monitoring Facebook and other sites for anti-government comments.

It is rare in Kazakhstan for an accused person to be acquitted of their alleged crimes by a judge. The sentencing of her husband on similar charges makes it even more remarkable that Ms Akberdiyeva was allowed to walk away from the court a free woman.

The Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan is the party of opposition fugitive leader Mukhtar Ablyazov.

During her trial, Ms Akberdiyeva, a mother of four, said that she thought the social situation in Kazakhstan was dire and that she did not support the government. She argued, though, that she had not called for the overthrow of the government and that instead all she had done was express her opinion through Facebook.

And there were other signs this week that other ordinary Kazakhs agreed with Ms Akberdiyeva’s assessment of the economy in Kazakhstan and the quality of life for ordinary people. Media reported that several protests, rare in Kazakhstan, had broken out in cities across the country against the government’s attitude towards working parents after five young girls died in a house fire in Astana on Feb. 4 while both their parents were away working nightshifts.

Dozens of people attended the girls’ funerals the following day and on Feb. 6 hundreds of demonstrators rallied in Astana to demand the resignation of labour and social protection minister Madina Abylqasymova.

They also want more benefits for working mothers and were frustrated that no national day of mourning was called.
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>This story was first published in issue 399 of The Conway Bulletin on Feb. 8 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019

Uzbekistan lifts an on studying political science

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JAN. 31 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan has lifted the ban on studying political science at university, Reuters reported, another indicator of how the country has opened up under President Shavkat Mirziyoyev. The Reuters report said universities had dropped political science in 2013 as it was deemed to be promoting theories counter to then-President Islam Karimov’s “Uzbek model”.
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>This story was first published in issue 399 of The Conway Bulletin on Feb. 8 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019

Georgia arrests 16 people for spreading sex tape of MP

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FEB. 1 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Georgia arrested 16 people for allegedly leaking a sex video of senior Georgian Dream parliamentarian Eka Beselia. Ms Beselia had been head of Parliament’s legal affairs committee until she resigned last month over a row about the appointment of new members of the Supreme Court. She accused the nominees of being too close to former president Mikheil Saakashvili.
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>This story was first published in issue 399 of The Conway Bulletin on Feb. 8 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019

Turkmenistan to start building trans-country motorway

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JAN. 26 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan started work on construction of a $2.3 four-lane motorway that will run across the sandy Kara Kum desert and connect Ashgabat with Uzbekistan.

Serdar Berdymukhamedov, the son of President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and widely regarded as his heir, launched the construction, highlighting its prominence. The project is seen as a continuation of Turkmenistan’s government policy to try to kickstart its economy through a combination of spending cuts on services and prestige infrastructure projects which aim to generate thousands of jobs and additional revenue.

Turkmen officials have said that the road, the biggest ever built in Turkmenistan, will also build up its position as a prominent stage-post for trade routes running across Central Asia.

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>This story was first published in issue 398 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 31 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019

Georgians think country is moving in wrong direction

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JAN. 28 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a poll conducted in December 2018 for the US’ National Democratic Institute (NDI), 38% of Georgians said that the country was moving in the wrong direction, compared to 29% of Georgians who said it was moving in the right direction. These proportions have remained fairly consistent since June 2017.
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>This story was first published in issue 398 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 31 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019

Another gas leak kills 7 workers in Tbilisi

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TBILISI/Jan. 30 (The Conway Bulletin) — Seven construction workers living in a single-room apartment in Tbilisi died from carbon monoxide poisoning, bringing to 13 the number of people killed in the Georgian capital this month from gas leaks or explosions.

Only a few days earlier ministers had said that they wanted to make gas leak sensors obligatory in residential apartments. Georgian media said that the foreman from the construction site that the men were working discovered their dead bodies when he went to investigate why they hadn’t turned up to work.

Earlier this month a gas explosion killed four people and a gas leak killed two people in Tbilisi. Campaigners have said that although Georgia is experiencing a construction boom off the back of a growing economy and a booming tourism sector, it has lagged behind on safety standards.

Last year, two tourists from Oman also died from carbon monoxide poisoning in their Tbilisi hotel room. Media reports said that in 2016-18, 87 people died from carbon monoxide poisoning in Georgia.

Georgia’s construction industry will also come under scrutiny. In 2018 there were several deaths from accidents on construction sites and questions will be asked as to why seven workers were sharing a one-room apartment. Media reported that a makeshift boiler was the cause of the leak that killed the seven men. Georgia’s interior ministry declined to say whether they were migrant workers or Georgians.

Kazakh company KazTransGaz supplies gas to residential blocks in the city. It issued a statement denying any responsibility for the accident.

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>This story was first published in issue 398 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 31 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019

Calls to rename Kazakhstan as the Kazakh Republic

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JAN. 24 (The Conway Bulletin) — A pro-president Kazakh parliamentary party tabled a motion to rename Kazakhstan as the Kazakh Republic, as the country had been known in the first few months after the break up of the Soviet Union in December 1991. Proposals made by pro-president parties are often, but not always, approved by the Presidential Administration on behalf of Pres. Nursultan Nazarbayev before they are aired.
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>This story was first published in issue 398 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 31 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019

British fugitive hands himself in to Georgian police

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JAN. 23 (The Conway Bulletin) — A British man who fled to Georgia from a manslaughter trial in London in May 2018 handed himself in to Georgian police. Jack Shepherd, 31, was convicted in absentia of the manslaughter of Charlotte Brown when his speedboat capsized on the River Thames during a date in 2015. It took British police several months to track Shepherd down to Georgia where he had been living openly, going on dates and drinking in Tbilisi’s bars and nightclubs.
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>This story was first published in issue 398 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 31 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019

Georgian investor groups complain about Supreme Court nominations

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TBILISI/Jan. 25 (The Conway Bulletin) — Investor business groups in Georgia described the perception of Georgia’s legal system as “extremely negative” in a letter to PM Mamuka Bakhtadze as a row over nominations for judges to the Supreme Court intensifies.

Georgian civic groups have also complained about the nominations of 10 judges to the Supreme Court in December by the High Court of Judges.

In the letter, the American Chamber of Commerce in Georgia, the Business Association of Georgia, the EU Georgian Business Council and the International Chamber of Commerce in Georgia said the nominees have made “questionable decisions” in previous cases.

“The selection of Supreme Court judicial nominees, without a fair, transparent and predictable process reinforces the extremely negative perception of the Georgian judiciary and court system that is held by many observers,” the letter said.

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>This story was first published in issue 398 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 31 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019

Turkmenistan to privatise transport network

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JAN. 30 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan will sell off its transport network and cut funding to its Academy of Sciences in more cuts to public spending which are designed to keep its listing economy afloat.

In a decree published on Turkmen government websites, President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said that the changes were needed to modernise the Turkmen economy.

Last year, Mr Berdymukhamedov slashed subsidies on water, gas and electricity and also raised duties on alcohol and cigarettes. Although information is thin, analysts have said that the cutbacks are a response to Turkmenistan’s sluggish recovery from an economic downturn in 2014-17 linked to a collapse in energy prices. Gas is Turkmenistan’s main export.

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>This story was first published in issue 398 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 31 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019