Blogging the democratic revolution
Protests in the Middle East are rarely both large and spontaneous at the same time, although often it will appear that way. The same holds for the printing of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohemmed in a Danish newspaper, in which it appeared that many of the Muslim protestors took the same streets, bought and burned hundreds of readily available Danish flags, and were ready and willing to torch European embassies. All at the same time. Obviously, it has come to be shown since then that incitement and organization had been prepared for some time by a Danish imam, followed by…
Tim Russo continues to post his manuscript about his work promoting democracy in Armenia back in the ’90s, and a particularly interesting post for Publius readers would be one of his latest on the “
Nathan Hamm is noting some interesting political developments in the most democratic country of Central Asia, which has culminated in several thousand people protesting.
It’s only lately with all this free time on my hands that I’ve been able to regularly read over Publius’ blogroll, so I stopped over at Tim Russo’s Democracy Guy blog to see if he was talking at all about his time working for NDI in Armenia. More than ever, it seems. He’s self-publishing a book online about his time doing democracy activism, providing slice-of-life details and funny anecdotes from the ground. The latest is about trying co-exist with scorpions, and failign. You’ll like it. He’s put up six chapters so far. Check them out here: 1, 2, 3, 4,…
Somewhat predictably, after the united opposition failed in its attempt to enact a colored revolution in Azerbaijan — or at least prevent voter fraud at the municipal level — it completely fell apart. This Eurasia Daily Monitor article goes into detail about how the Azadliq “Freedom” coalition has split up on the national level following two months of disputes about strategy, and how other parties have found themselves dissolving internally as well. It’s a must read article for understanding the nature of the post-election opposition movement. This is what we could consider a classic case of what happens to a…
Afghan parliamentarian Malali Joya stood up to warlords in the parliament’s first session, accusing them of human rights abuses and refusing to be quiet when they told her to. It was just a blurb in most reports, but this article uses the incident as its main focus. It’s highly symbolic and female Afghanis looking on must be taking notes in their heads about the bravery of this woman. USA Today has this story. The attack took place as the national assembly convened its first working session in the capital, Kabul, a day after the assembly was inaugurated. A debate erupted…
People are voting in presidential elections today in Kazakhstan, though the winner is a forgone conclusion. Oil-rich Kazakhstan, the most prosperous country in ex-Soviet Central Asia, voted Sunday in a presidential election widely expected to give Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has led the country for the last 16 years, another seven-year term. Amid allegations of both official and opposition misdeeds, Nazarbayev was so confident of victory over his four challengers that he scheduled a gathering with supporters at a sports complex in the capital, Astana, on Monday morning, just minutes after election officials planned to announce preliminary results. Many opinion polls…
Falsifying elections is a tough job, so you need just the right authoritarian government to do it. Armenia was another country on the list to do so this weekend, with a constitutional referendum that, despite polling places being nearly empty all day, reported a relatively high turnout. But given that the opposition simply boycotted the referendum, it wouldn’t be all that surprising if a “yes” vote actually did occur, from what I can tell, and the specific amendments — like giving more power to the parliament, granted the judiciary more independence, and giving diasporans citizenship — sound like the first…
Looking for a fiercely independent country in the heart of Central Asia, with a penchant for free enterprise and building a working democracy? Then you’re looking for Mongolia, a stab in the heart to all of the region’s dictators. Well, President Bush just made history by being the first U.S. president to visit Mongolia, a visit he used to praise the country’s developing democracy. Gateway Pundit has a roundup. Registan has links to Mongol blogs.
After more than a half century of war and the threat of nuclear disaster, in which tens of thousands of civilians have been killed by military personnel and terrorist groups, peace between India and Pakistan may closer than ever. Ever since the threat of a new war in 2002 sparked international fears of nuclear annihilation on the subcontinent, the two countries have been initiating negotiations and confidence-building measures that are unprecedented in their long running conflict over the disputed territory of Kashmir. Both countries scaled down the amount of troops along the border in 2002, and then in 2003 issued…
While much of South America continues to wrassle over whether free trade is of any benefit to them, Asian giant India – once an inward-looking, narrowly nationalistic state – has now called for a free trade pact for South Asia – or, SAFTA. What a democratic revolution, given what India was in, say, 1970! With perfect intellectual clarity, India’s prime minister has stated the facts on NAFTA, CAFTA and all the other recent trade agreements, citing a slew of data, from how third-country factories go up in free trade states, to statistics about the tripling of trade – and wholeheartedly…
A crowd of over 15,000 demonstrators gathered in Baku’s Victory Square to protest Sunday’s fraudulent elections. The protests had been sanctioned by the government for today, but it is unlikely that further protests will be officially allowed. Opposition leaders have vowed to continue taking to the streets through the weekend, and if history is any indication, riot police will try to quell any unsanctioned protests. The good news is that several groups outside of the main opposition alliance have joined in, which means that the number can only grow from here. The oppositional block “Azadliq” along with “Yeni Siyaset” ÄNew…
Here’s a quick roundup about what all the regional blogs are saying, and then below that will be the aftermath of election day. – New Eurasia is blogging a storm. Just scroll. It includes on the ground reporting, pictures of campaign posters, exit poll information, and an appearance by Ariel Cohen calling the election the most fair he’s ever seen in the former USSR. – A lot at Registan too. Again, just scroll! – Scroll at Blogrel, as Katy is on the ground in Baku.
Parliamentary elections are due to be held in Azerbaijan on November 6, and the opposition hasn’t held back in making it known that it intends to attempt a colored revolution in the event of fraud. However, most observers believe that this event will be more violent than velvet, a repeat of the October 2003 street battles between thousands of incited protestors and security forces. The riots are inevitable, as their basis will be the faulty conduct of the campaigning process and the elections, and they will simply be nowhere near perfect. There will no doubt be an attempted revolution tomorrow.…
Senators Bill Frist and Richard Lugar have taken the initiative in Congress and presented a resolution calling for the fair treatment of Sanjar Umarov, the Uzbek opposition politician who has presented the most reasonable challenge to President Karimov so far. He was detained in late October. Here’s the text of the resolution. The resolution prompted the White House to issue a similar statement of support for Umarov and condemnation of the Karimov government. WASHINGTON, Nov 2 (Reuters) – The United States issued a sharp rebuke to the Uzbek government on Wednesday over the arrest of opposition leader Sanjar Umarov and…
The UN-Afghan joint commission, JAMB, has delayed the release results from parliamentary elections held in September. This is due to some 500 complaints filed related to possible electoral fraud committed at individual polling stations, all of which are being investigated before any final results are announced. The certification of final results from Afghanistan’s 18 September parliamentary elections has been delayed because of fraud complaints. A spokesman for the joint UN-Afghan election commission says about 500 complaints that are still being investigated could affect the outcome of some races. The allegations of fraud include the intimidation of voters, the stuffing of…
One of the world’s most important under-reported stories is the ongoing struggle for political influence and commercial advantage in Central Asia – mainly Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyryzstan and Tajikistan – between Russia, China and the United States. Security Watchtower has an important post, The Battle for Central Asia, which is worth reading and which links to a series from Radio Liberty on the subject. Although the security of petroleum supply and counter-terrorism are important themes in the struggle, there is also an ideological struggle based around democratization. A couple of points to highlight: “China will feel that if Central Asia…
On Academic Elephant’s superb blog, I found a small post that resonated with me: The tendency of the mainstream media to belittle U.S. officials when they visit small countries. There are all kinds of valid reasons to criticize them, and from many angles. But to savage Donald Rumsfeld because he paid a visit to distant Mongolia or distant Paraguay is absolutely despicable. The news media has mocked such visits, written them off as proof that Rumsfeld can’t get any other friends, and insulted the countries themselves and their customs. Elephant notes that the media focused almost exclusively on a horse…
The big news in Azerbaijan is that, less than two weeks away from parliamentary elections scheduled for November 6, President Aliyev has ordered that NGOs be allowed to monitor the election and that indelible ink must be used to prevent double voting. All of these are measures requested by the OSCE in order to hold transparent elections. So I’ve titled my post to mock the headline used by ABC News, as you’ll come to find out, for good reason. Oct 25, 2005 ???????? BAKU (Reuters) – Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev on Tuesday ordered steps to ensure a November 6 parliamentary…
A parliamentarian was killed while touring a prison, protestors took to the streets to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Kulov, an extraordinary session of parliament was almost held to that end, and it’s coming out that the assassination might have political implications much more far ranging than at first glance. This also follows government plans to possibly illegalize protests. What’s going on in Kyrgyzstan? New Eurasia has a roundup. Saturday saw protests on the main square, Ploshchad Ala-Too, by supporters of the murdered deputy Tynchbek Akmatbaev, who called for Kulov’s resignation . Riots began earlier this week, as MosNews…
In its ongoing crackdown on pro-democracy reformists, the Uzbek government has arrested Sanjar Umarov, the leader of Sunshine Uzbekistan and a potential challenger to President Karimov. The New York Times has more, though a lot of the information seems to come from the Sunshine Uzbekistan website. MOSCOW, Oct. 23 ???????? The leader of an Uzbek opposition coalition that has criticized the nation????????s authoritarian government was arrested Saturday night and accused of corruption, his family and an international human rights organization said. The office of the coalition, Sunshine Uzbekistan, was raided, and records and at least one computer were seized. The…
Some jackass “journalists” desecrated their supposed profession: story here. Read the whole thing.
Mark Steyn has a new killer essay at the Spectator about the collapse of Russia and the spread of Islamic fascism. It’s worth reading if only for the, er, fowl pun partway down page one (there’s one that’s actually funny further down, but I won’t ruin it for you). Excerpt: Moscow has reduced Grozny to rubble, yet is further than ever from solving its Chechen problem. Moreover, the sheer blundering thuggery of the Russian approach has no merits other than affording Moscow some short-term sadistic pleasure as it exacerbates the situation. The allegedly seething ???????Arab street????????, which the West????????s media…
As parliamentary elections on November 6 near, hardliners within the Azeri government are feeling the heat and are cracking down on reformers within their midst. This has culminated in the firing and arrest of Economic Development Minister Farhad Aliyev and his brother Rafiq Aliyev, who is the owner of Azpetrol, the biggest privately owned oil company in Azerbaijan. In a surprise move, President Ilham Aliyev has fired Economic Development Minister Farhad Aliyev from his post. Law enforcement agencies sources have told EurasiaNet that both Aliyev and his brother, president of the Azpetrol oil company, have been arrested under suspicion of…
I have just published the last in a three-part series the global implications of the attacks in London of July 7, 2005. This last post, After London – The Infrastructure of Terrorism in Pakistan, is the one most relevant to democracy issues because it deals with both the socio-political and the military networks of militant Islamist movements in that country. The post has links back to the first two posts in the series, as well as other posts related to the London bombings. Also note that I have a cool new look for my banner. I’m planning on having multiple…