АЏП, Summer 2012

Geopoeia
Jump to navigation Jump to search


Adzplogo.png
Кĕзе • Kĕze • Summer 2012


Explosion in nuclear powerplant

(15 September 2012) - Inhabitants of the southern Adzhatian settlement of Barhveź are worried after an explosion was heard in the country's only nuclear facility, nearby the village. The mayor of Barhveź, Adolf Andrupŏv, immediately called for an emergency meeting with the director of the facility, dr. Zăre Feŕćik-Dŏĺgoruki, who, at the end of the afternoon, issued a statement that it was only a minor explosion which didn't take place near any critical areas of the powerplant, and that there wasn't any risk for public health. Nevertheless, some inhabitants told the press that they will organise demonstrations to attract more attention for the powerplant situation; most of them want the facility to be shut down. Others decided to visit relatives in the north and they were very vague as to when they would return.

There has been an ongoing debate in southern Adzhatia about the powerplant, which was built in the '80s of the former century, but maintenance of which has been neglected since Adzhatia became independent in 1990. In national politics, the plant is however discussed very seldomly, which has fed the idea in the south that Ashtinok doesn't care about the wellbeing of its citizens over there.

Update (19 September 2012) - A first investigation revealed that no vital damage was caused by last Saturday's explosion in the Barhveź nuclear facility. This was announced by Pavoĺ Raikonen (Secializdźiś), the minister of disaster management. His colleague Elene Bŭkka (AVŎD), the minister of spatial planning, who is also responsible for matters related to energy supplies, ordered a full scale investigation regarding the plant's overall safety. 'The disaster in Japan of more than 18 months ago triggered little to no reaction in Adzhatia to see if our own plant is sufficiently safe', she said. 'The way I see it, a disfunctional nuclear plant may cause two big problems, instead of the more common óne: 1) we will experience a great loss of power, and 2) depending on the seriousness of a hypothetical accident, a large part of southern Adzhatia may become uninhabitable. Therefore, the time to act is now!'

Adzhatia intends to ratify treaties by the end of September

(14 September 2012) - The Dume will put the new FICT treaty (called Ísðor Treaty) and the Treaty of the Exumbran Convention on its agenda before the end of September, the new chairwoman of the Dume, Eve Ħrăħ, told the press this morning.

Apart from the government parties Secializdźiś, AVŎD and Bloc-Ħĭnzei, ms. Ħrăħ's own party, Ĕrevi Śviveź, as well as NKP, PŎA and DZ-P have stated that they will support ratification of both treaties, so there will be a comfortable majority in favour.

The chairwoman's announcement seems to conclude a period of national and international doubt whether our country would be politically stable enough to make the ratification happen at all, after the former chairman, mr. Śvein Ćŭrupa (Secializdźiś) openly clashed with foreign minister Astrid Kŭćma (Bloc-Ħĭnzei), accusing her of trying to determine the agenda of the Dume when she urged the Dume to ratify the treaties soon. AVŎD and Bloc-Ħĭnzei were outraged and called upon the Secializdźiś to have the chairman step down, which he did last week, on 6 September. With the election of ms. Ħrăħ, a situation came to an end in which both the government and the Dume were chaired by a member of the Secializdźiś party, which many parties and political analysts called 'unfavourable'. Ms. Ħrăħ has promised to chair the Dume strictly and thoroughly.

Anti-religious journalist missing

(11 September 2012) - Newspaper Śaizeźiś Jatća journalist Konstantiń Pŭŕvek (38) has been reported missing yesterday, an Ashtinok police spokesman confirmed today. Pŭŕvek, known for his far going atheist point of views, published an article on his own blog on Saturday, in which he claimed that the Adzhatian Orthodox Church has tight connections with criminal organisations which help certain Church leaders blackmail and silence (religious) opponents within and outside the Church. Pŭŕvek warned readers for a growing influence of the Church, which could lead to more restriction of minority rights and to an era in which the country would be 'ruled by fear'. He added links to several documents which he said contained proof of his accusations.

The original article was removed within an hour, but leftist sympathisers copied it and published it on several other locations on the internet. A spokesman of the Orthodox Church called the accusations 'outrageous' and said that Pŭŕvek should be sent to a psychiatric hospital for examination. Pŭŕvek was reported missing by his sister Esid, who said that nobody had seen her brother since Saturday evening.

FM and Dume Chairman fight over agenda

(3 September 2012) - During the first session of the Dume after the summer recess, foreign affairs minister Astrid Kŭćma (Bloc-Ħĭnzei) and Dume Chairman Śvein Ćŭrupa (Secializdźiś) got into a serious verbal fight over the Dume's agenda, after the minister tried to emphasise the importance of, among other issues, a quick ratification by the Dume of both the Treaty of the Exumbran Convention and the Ísðor Treaty of FICT.

Although most members of the coalition parties (which are Secializdźiś, AVŎD and Bloc-Ħĭnzei) agreed with the minister, mr. Ćŭrupa interrupted the minister rather pointedly that the Dume itself is responsible for the agenda of the Dume, and not the minister of foreign affairs. The flabbergasted minister tried to point out that it was not her intention to determine the Dume's agenda, but to merely bring subjects under the attention of the Dume which she considered important, but the chairman cut short her speaking time and didn't let her speak again about the same subject, which he considered 'closed'.

After members of Bloc-Ħĭnzei and AVŎD spoke loudly (and out of turn) of what they called the chairman's outrageous behaviour and called upon the Secializdźiś to talk sense into their party colleague, the chairman interrupted the session. The Secializdźiś parliamentary chairwoman Ŕanije Erijeź subsequently cornered the Dume chairman in the Secializdźiś office, the two engaging in a heated argument, the details of which didn't reach the press.

The session wasn't resumed today. AVŎD and Bloc-Ħĭnzei have already announced that they will issue a no confidence vote against the chairman during the next session. Ms. Erijeź said that she will try to talk them out of it, but acknowledged that mr. Ćŭrupa has done a lot of damage.

Update (6 September 2012) - Dume Chairman Ćŭrupa has resigned from his post early today after AVŎD and Bloc-Ħĭnzei threatened yesterday evening to blow up the coalition with the Secializdźiś and call for new elections. Yesterday afternoon, a no confidence vote against the chairman failed to get enough supporters; although most members of the Secializdźiś voted in favour, together with their coalition partners in order to preserve the coalition, not all of them did. The opposition parties voted against the motion, some of them because it would cause more instability in the government coalition if Ćŭrupa were allowed to stay, others (like the NKP) because they fear that continued arguing about the Dume's chairman will effectively paralyse the Dume and they wish to continue doing their normal jobs as parliamentarians.

Ćŭrupa made a decision himself however (although the Secializdźiś may have put pressure on the matter) and therefore the Dume has to elect a new chairperson. The vice-chairwoman, Eve Ħrăħ (Ĕrevi Śviveź), will be acting chairwoman in the mean time.

Update (12 September 2012) - Eve Ħrăħ (Ĕrevi Śviveź), who had been acting chairwoman of the Dume since the resignation of chairman Śvein Ćŭrupa (Secializdźiś) last Thursday, was confirmed as the new Chairwoman today. The government parties couldn't agree on an own candidate for the post, but when the communist NKP, which is the largest party in the current Dume, put their own candidate forward, Ħrăħ was asked by AVŎD and Bloc-Ħĭnzei to be a candidate. She was subsequently endorsed by her own party as well, and by the DZ-P (greens), and the Secializdźiś could do little else than agree with Ħrăħ too. Secializdźiś party officials outside the Dume criticised the situation in the Dume, saying that their party is being held hostage by the other coalition partners. Ŕanije Erijeź, leader of the Secializdźiś parliamentary group, dismissed the criticism, saying that it is more important to have a functioning parliament and a stable government than clinging to the symbolic importance of putting one's own people on important posts without considering the wishes of one's partners.

Adzhatia co-founds Exumbran Convention

(24 August 2012) - As planned, the new international organisation called the Exumbran Convention was founded yesterday in the Caribbean country of New Courland. Delegations of nine countries from all over the world signed the corresponding treaties. For our country, prime minister Eigĕń Hameen and foreign minister Astrid Kŭćma did the honours. The foreign minister said that she hoped that the Exumbran Convention and Adzhatia may both profit from each other. She dismissed allegations made by journalists that, while all other countries seem to have got prestigeous buildings and jobs within the Convention, the results for Adzhatia are quite meagre. 'A lot of commissions and institutions have been founded within the Convention already', she said. 'It looks like one or two executive posts will go to Adzhatians, and while those jobs may not be "prestigeous", as you like to call it', they may become important nevertheless. I'd also like to remind you that the appointments have a transitional character until the first Council Meeting, so things may change then. And of course it remains to be seen how the commissions will unfold themselves, but I can assure you that the government will choose competent officials for any top jobs offered to Adzhatians.'

The idea for the Exumbran Convention came up in April, when the first summit of FICT ended disastrous and made some of the FICT member states look for an alternative to fulfill the goals they had expected from FICT. Chimor, Harrawi, Khusqaikama and Dhram Phá left FICT and have now joined the Exumbran Convention; our country is now the only one that is a member of both organisations. The other countries that have joined the Exumbran Convention are New Courland, Huenan, Kpwahele & Nɣurumba and Kronenburg.

Although our country is rather slow with procedural activities such as ratifying treaties, the foreign affairs ministry already mentioned a name for the job of Adzhatian permanent representative, who will be a member of the so called Permanent Preparational Office, the day-to-day management of the Exumbran Convention. The current Adzhatian ambassador in Moscow, mr. Bohatiŕ Kerećei, will be appointed as of 1 September, although he will be transitional only until the Treaty of the Exumbran Convention enters into force and the Dume has ratified it.

Former ACB-materials 'difficult to sell'

(14 July 2012) - The aircraft and other materials of the Adzhatian airline ACB that went bankrupt last month, is proving difficult to sell. This was told to the national television channel Mei Adźacie! yesterday by warrant-manager Iĺic Kaĺĺek. According to him, the best price that anyone would pay for the six antonovs and a broken yak, will be if the whole lot would be offered to a scrap metal dealer. 'Only last week a delegation from Harrawi came to see what we had to offer, but upon seeing the merchandise, they reacted really offended and left immediately', mr. Kaĺĺek said. 'I think we should take our loss and get over it.' The traffic ministry refused to comment on mr. Kaĺĺek's sayings.

In the last few weeks, the Yukkish airline Air Yukland has filled some gaps in the international connections from and to Adzhatia and an increase in dubious irregular connections with small airports in Russia has been noted recently. Apparently, the government is looking for investors who are willing to participate in founding a new Adzhatian airline. The traffic minister Vladislaf Tŭĺĺak was reported visiting Kronenburg, where he was seen talking to a representative of O3 Investments, an investment company of the well known Kronenburg billionaire Oscar A. Ottendorf Okrilla(nl).

Government wants redivision of districts

(29 June 2012) - The districts of Adzhatia will be redivided in 2013 at the earliest. This was announced by the interior minister, Măććeib Sokolŏv-Ăħćvei (AVŎD), during a visit to Ŏvanalăć, the capital of the Jantăsănkăm District in the far north. The current division in nine districts was done somewhat arbitrarily during the Soviet era; a new division should enhance the political connection wihtin the districts and improve their administrative strengths.

The change of the district division may also have some consequences for the regionally elected seats of the Dume. Currently there are 27, but the minister didn't say what the exact plans will be for those. It may even be the case that for the elections, the current division will be upheld.

Adzhatia to attend 'Exumbran' summit in New Courland

(27 June 2012) - Adzhatia will send a delegation to a summit on the Caribbean island of New Courland on 23 August, with the possible intention to join the so called 'Exumbran Convention', an international organisation that should better answer to the wishes of the countries that announced their departure from FICT in the last three months. Apart from several specialised organisations, the Exumbran Convention will have a parliament for which elections are to be held in the member states. The spokesman from the ministry of foreign affairs, who made the announcement about the Convention, said however that it isn't decided yet whether the Adzhatian people will be able to elect the Adzhatian representatives directly, or that the Dume will appoint them through an internal election.

'Exumbra' is Latin for 'Out of the Shadow', which stands for the fact that its intended member states are smaller and less prominent countries that are sometimes overshadowed by bigger and more influential neighbours. According to the ministry spokesman, who visibly had some problems pronouncing the English name of the organisation correctly, it is unclear yet whether the word Exumbran will be adopted in the Adzhatic language or that it will be translated. 'Exumbran Convention' could therefore be rendered as Ексумбран Јарціr / Eksumbran Jarciŕ or Шухтанвџан Јарціr / Śuħtanvdźan Jarciŕ.

In the mean time, an Adzhatian delegation headed by prime minister Eigĕń Hameen and foreign minister Astrid Kŭćma is present in Ísðor, the capital of Yukland, where the second Council Meeting of FICT is being held since yesterday. The Meeting will decide about a revised treaty, and have a renewed attempt at deciding the budget.