Page 32 - bneMag February 2021_20210202

32 I Cover story bne February 2021
Russian state-owned media has been having a field day with the storming of the US Capitol in Washington DC and has given the story blanket coverage.
Storming parliaments: New Europe's greatest hits
exploiting the upheaval by bussing hordes of aggressive supporters into
the capital Bishkek to intimidate those that had taken to the streets to back other figures who were attempting to launch bids to become the country’s new president. At one rally that broke up after an attack by Japarov supporters, an ex-president, Almazbek Atambayev, survived an apparent assassination attempt by an alleged Japarov supporter.
The US embassy in Bishkek has voiced concerns about the threat organised crime may pose to Kyrgyz democracy by exploiting the formation of a new government.
Georgia: a site of conflict
Georgia is well used to violent confrontations outside the parliament in Tbilisi. Thousands of protesters attempted to storm the building in June 2019 after word spread that a Russian lawmaker had been invited to make an address from the speaker’s chair. Some demonstrators lost eyes to rubber bullets fired by riot police.
In November 2019, police
used water cannon to dislodge protesters that had barricaded the entrance to the parliament.
Currently the only debates MPs of the ruling Georgian Dream Party
can enter into are those between themselves – since the parliamentary election last autumn, opposition
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US democracy was shaken on January 6 when a mob of Donald Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building to try to prevent Joe Biden being named the 46th president of the United States. Four people died during the riot,
one woman being shot by police.
Events in Washington DC were unprecedented, but they are much more common in the New Europe, where young democracies are struggling to establish themselves (often with the urging and advice of American ambassadors and
the US State Department).
People in Eastern Europe and across Central Asia are now looking on somewhat bemused by events that are a lot more familiar to them, this time playing out in what was supposed to be the bastion of Western democracy. Here is a list of recent parliamentary storms in Central and Eastern Europe.
Armenia: defeat sparks anger
There were scenes of chaos in Armenia’s capital Yerevan last November as protesters stormed government
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buildings, smashed up furniture and occupied the parliamentary chamber. Outside, an angry mob caught up with Speaker of Parliament Ararat Mirzoyan. He was brutally beaten.
Emotions were running high
because Armenia had just essentially surrendered following a bloody 44-day war with Azerbaijan over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. Protesters claimed the government had not squared
with them during the conflict over
just how badly things were going.
Kyrgyzstan: rioters dispute elections
In Kyrgyzstan – where the “Kyrgyz Donald Trump”, Sapyr Japarov,
will on January 10 attempt to claim
the presidency in a snap election – protesters last October stormed the president’s office and took control of government buildings, including the headquarters of the intelligence services, following parliamentary elections that opposition parties said were fixed.
Amid the turmoil, Japarov was busted out of prison, where he was serving
a sentence for kidnapping a political opponent. Japarov was accused of