Today Kyrgyzstan is holding presidential elections. For the first time in the history of independent Kyrgyzstan, the presidency is shifting from one person to another in a peaceful way.

Current president of Kyrgyzstan Roza Otunbayeva is casting her vote.

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While an anti-child labor in Uzbekistan international campaign draws attention of more and more people, provoking authorities to tighten control over independent rights activists, who monitor the violations of child rights and report them to international NGOs, Uzbek official media puts “letters of admiration and inspiration” from Uzbeks as a response to President Karimov’s congratulatory message to cotton growers.

Narodnoe Slovo, Uzbek parliament-owned newspaper, has started publications of “ordinary people’s” messages on how the President inspired them to do more for their country. So, the first author of a letter, titled “Inspired for Wew Achievements,” is Olim Julliev, head of the Surkhandarya regional hydro-meliorative expedition, praises the Presidential efforts in the field of the development of the meliorative system, in cotton fields in particular. These efforts resulted in fertility of the Uzbek soil that gave 3,5 million tonnes of cotton this year.

Basically, the article highlights the wisdom of the President; how smart he was and still is in making right decisions that help develop the cotton industry for this whole time since 1991. As if no one else in the entire world could have ever thought about this with so much passion and devotion. Read the full story »

Inmate Dilshod Shohidov’s parents have reported that their son is regularly subjected to acts of torture and similar ill-treatment in a high security prison # 64 / 46 in Navoi city of Navoi region, Expert Working Group (EWG) reports.

According to NGo’s information, EWG has been providing legal aid to Shohidov’s family since 2009. This is not the first time the parents of inmate Dilshod Shohidov seek for the EWG’s assistance in submitting appeals and complaints on their son’s case to the official bodies in Uzbekistan. In spite of numerous appeals on acts of torture and similar ill-treatment addressed by Shohidov’s family to the government bodies torture against inmate Shohidov hasn’t stopped.

Latest available photo of Dilshod Shohidov

This is for the first time Dilshod Shohidov and his parents have decided to make public facts of torture as they don’t see any other means how to inform the competent authorities in Uzbekistan about the abuses in the prison system. Dilshod Shohidov believes that if the acts of torture and similar ill-treatment against him continue in this manner he might risk even losing his life.

The Shohidovs believe that making public the facts of torture against their son inmate Dilshod Shohidov would inform the relative government bodies in Uzbekistan which would take timely measures so that abuses against Dilshod Shohidov stop. Read the full story »

Due to the current departure of pilgrims from around the world, Uzbek “businessmen” (as well as “businesswomen”) of local “black” markets decided to increase their income by simply raising the USD per Uzbek soum (UZS) exchange rate while Uzbek Hajjis to-be do their last preparations, including the financial side of it.

To get to know how “black” exchange market actors do their cynic — but business-and-no-sincerity-proven — operations one could just go to any bazaar where the above mentioned businessmen present. For future Hajjis (Hajji — a status given to those who travelled to holy places of Mekka and Medina in Saudi Arabia during certain time during a year) it’s convenient to have U.S. dollars rather than Uzbek soums simply because of the possibility to exchange the first would be much easier abroad.

Theoretically, to get the American money in their pockets they could just go to any local bank and exchange their valuable soums in to U.S. dollars. But, wait a second! We are in Uzbekistan which is a country where logically approved events have a practically proven controversies. And money exchange is one of the most significant ones in the field of economics. Read the full story »

Editor’s note: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Uzbekistan and Tajikistan this past weekend. High on her agenda was the problematic issue of press freedom and human rights in the two countries. neweurasia’s Tomyris, however, wonders what may have been said — or not said — behind closed doors.

US Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, made her way to and through Central Asia this past weekend – stopping in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – on October 22nd and 23rd.

Here’s a summary of Clinton’s agenda: In Tajikistan, she met with President Emomali Rahmon and Foreign Minister Hamrokhon Zarifi to discuss bilateral and regional issues. She also met with locals, to – quite democratically – hear the voices of the people. And in Uzbekistan, Clinton met with President Islam Karimov and Foreign Minister Elyor Ganiev. Cars and technology were on her mind in Tashkent – Clinton visited the new General Motors Powertrain plant where she spoke about the Technology Entrepreneurship Program and Techno-Prize Competition.

About Tajikistan, but also alluding to similar issues in Uzbekistan, Interfax-News reported:

“The United States is concerned by the state of the freedom of the press in Tajikistan…”

And thus there was much discussion about the importance of opening up the media landscape in both former Soviet counties.
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Editor’s note: Originally posted by Nima Khorrami Assl at NewEurasia partner site, Kanal PIK.

Notwithstanding its religious, cultural, and historical links with Iran, the Republic of Azerbaijan has had a difficult relation with its southern neighbour since its independence in 1991. Antagonised by Tehran’s support for Armenia during the 1992-1994 war and suspicious of Iran’s meddling in its internal affairs, Baku has sought to counter the ‘Iranian threat’ by forging closer ties to Israel. This, in turn, has eroded whatever room that used to exist for improvement of ties between the two states, and therefore it is no exaggeration to claim that Tehran-Baku relations have been under strain for over a decade.

Over the last two years, however, tensions have reached new heights as Azerbaijan has consciously become part of the “shadowy intelligence war” between Iran and Israel. The strangely aggressive outburst by Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi, chief of Iran’s armed forces Joint Staff Command, not only brought into sharp focus Tehran and Jerusalem deepening intelligence war in Azerbaijan, but also reflected the Iranian government’s growing concern over Israel’s “penetration” of its northern neighbour. On August 9 Firouzabadi warned Azerbaijan President that he would face “a dark fate” should he continue to expand ties with Israel; a statement that prompted the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry to deliver an official protest to the Iranian Embassy in Baku as well as the arrest of three members of the banned Islamic Party of Azerbaijan which Baku claims is funded by Tehran.

Faced with enormous socio-political challenges in the immediate aftermath of its independence, Baku urgently needed to find a reliable political, economic and strategic partner in order to preserve its national sovereignty. Moscow and Tehran were out of the equation given their historical support for Azerbaijan’s arch rival Armenia. Presence of a large Jewish minority in Azerbaijan and the strength of communal links between the Jewish state and Baku, on the other hand, encouraged Azerbaijani policymakers to establish relations with Jerusalem; an effort that was further facilitated by both states near-identical sense of regional insecurity born out of war and siege.

And ties have gone from strength to strength since they are mutually beneficial to both Israel and Azerbaijan. Expanding its influence into the non-Arab segments of the Muslim world has long been a strategic Israeli objective. Having relations with a Muslim nation, especially a Shiite country, not only means an extra vote in the UN, but also indicates that Israel does have Muslim ‘friends’, and thus it is not an enemy of Islam.

Energy security is also an integral part of this bilateral relationship due to Azerbaijan’s vast energy resources and its geography. In fact, Israel is now the second largest importer of Azerbaijani oil after Italy. There is also a growing covert collaboration in the energy sector between the two states. According to Rafael Abbasov, former director of economic and trade development at the Israeli Embassy in Baku, “Israeli firms are a lot more involved than at first meets the eye”. In order to avoid causing problems for the government in Baku “they often register as U.S. or UK branches and then participate in bidding for tender contracts”.

Finally, improvement of ties between the two capitals has provided Israel with a “forward operating base” from where it monitors Iran and its controversial nuclear programme. According to Soner Cagaptay, an analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Israeli intelligence agencies have established “listening posts along the Azerbaijani border with Iran” for some time now. In addition, given Azerbaijan’s fear and distrust of Iran, Israel sees in Baku an ally which can be easily persuaded to support Israeli efforts to counter Iran’s influence especially that a nuclear-capable Iran could have important geostrategic implications for Baku.

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Criminals brought to justice.

This is an everyday tagline journalists write about when covering common-day societal happenings – and sometimes it’s a tagline that describes the injustice that swarms their own profession – particularly in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, today.

Killing a journalist is killing a civil servant. Killing a journalist not only kills the voice of a community, but also kills the news, the ambitious and trusted medium through which we learn about the news and the vehicle through which we learn about what goes on in society.

On October 11th, 3 men were sentenced for the murder of independent Kyrgyz opposition journalist Gennady Pavlyuk, in Kazakhstan. Pavlyuk, 51, died on December 22nd 2009 after being thrown – hands and feet bound – from the 6th floor of a building in the “Apple” city of Almaty. And 2 years later, an answer to the puzzle has finally been instituted.

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A week and a half away from Election Day and one of the front runners in the act of international campaigning is, and has been, banned from participating – the media. How can elections be called free and fair if the media is bound? They can’t – and especially not in Kyrgyzstan these days.

Back in August neweurasia noted that in the following the country’s October 2011 elections, 11 online medias were denied accreditation during the campaigning, while traditional medias were indeed approved. The reason: according to Kyrgyz Law, web-based new agencies are not recognized as legitimate media outlets. To read more into the story, check out: “Internet barred from covering Kyrgyzstan’s electoral campaigns”.

Online media aside – officials have been attacking traditional media, too. Radio shows have been interrupted, TV programs jammed – and so on. From BBC and CNN to Euronews, K+, Russia’s RBK, Rossiya-24, Russia’s Channel One and beyond – international media has fallen victim to a Kyrgyz national media-misdemeanor.
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Institut d’Alisher Navoi, a Belgium-based non-profit think tank focused on Central Asian studies in Human Rights, Regional Security, Sustainable Development and Good Governance, released a call to the members of the Security Council that will be held on October 21, 2011, on a new member-state as non-permanent Member-State of this body from among the Asian countries.

The seat is supposed to go to either the Islamic Republic of Pakistan or Kyrgyzstan.

The statement goes:

“In the view of the fact that a membership in this authoritative body of the United Nations means acknowledgement of the contribution of the candidate country to the international peace and stability under the international law, we, representatives of the civil society from Alisher Navoi Institute express our firm discontent with a possible election of Kyrgyzstan to this respective body of this universal organization.

According to independent observers the internal political situation in Kyrgyzstan is far from stability while the central government in Bishkek attempts to convince its own citizens and the world community
in its ability to fully control the situation in the country. But de-facto the Kyrgyz authorities power is restricted just to the northern areas of the country.

An illustrative example, in the middle of August 2010 the mayor of the southern city of Osh, Melis Myrzakmatov ignored the decision of the President Otunbaeva that he should resign. Frankly speaking the internal political situation in this poorest Central Asian nation is on the edges of the anarchy. Different types of public disorders with and without any reason don’t stop in this country. The aggressive form of nationalism against ethnic minorities, especially the Uzbek minorities is fiercely being introduced on the eve of the upcoming presidential elections.”

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Local media are still actively discussing the stalemate situation around 8 contested presidential candidates. Around 50 people went protesting in front of the Central Election Commission today (October 4th) to back those who had previously been removed from the rally based on the CEC decision of September 20-24. Since then most active and relatively popular among those 8 candidates – Toktayim Umetalieva, Nariman Tuleev and Tursunbai Bakir Uulu – have literally been squabbling with CEC for a right to go for a presidency race.

The issue boils down to September 20, when CEC finds most of the supporting signatures of the candidates false. Commission suspects of made up signatures and some technical mistakes in the collected lists – the violations that, according to CEC, explain their decision of refusing the candidates (initially 9) for continuing with their campaigns. The candidates appeal for court claiming the decision was political and, well, illegal. After several court proceedings and Parliament’s direct involvement, by Sunday (October 2nd) the situation gets fairly calm as some of the candidates are finally admitted to the Kyrgyz language test.

September 29th – CEC decides to review the signature lists again and then come up with the final go – either registering or rejecting the candidates after the authenticity of signatures is verified (by October 6th). CEC’s Kanat Abdykadyrov says that CEC will only act according to respective law on the elections and will double-check the papers in the presence of the candidates, their proxies, media and civil society representatives. Umetalieva, Soodanbekov, Tuleev and some others call it populism and warn about the chance of appealing to criminal court against some of CEC members.

In the meantime, Marat Sultanov, another candidate from Ata-Jurt party, drops out and volunteers his support to Nariman Tuleev (one of the contested candidates)… Two things raise questions here: Why not support his fellow party-man Kamchybek Tashiev, who is already in the game and, by some accounts, has relatively big chances to win? And, what will eventually happen to Tuleev and Co? Things should be sorted out within the following few days.

More to come in the future posts…