Global Voices Online

After laying the blame for the stabbing of a pro-opposition journalist by his gay lover, Queerty comments on news that the authorities are once again playing the homophobic card in the run-up to the presidential election in Azerbaijan. State TV claims that a leading opposition leader and possible candidate in the October vote is homosexual. Unzipped: Gay Armenia also comments on the news, and says that in a region such as the Caucasus such tactics work every time.

Recent Links also in Central Asia & Caucasus

Musafirbek says that the president of Uzbekistan officially thanked the cotton-growers for gathering the harvest of this strategic product for Uzbekistan. However, those who sweat away, collecting this cotton (including children) were not mentioned in the president’s address.

Alexander Visotzky writes about the opening of a monument in Astana, the new capital of Kazakhstan, where the authorities uncovered a 15-foot high bronze statue of incumbent president Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Dafydd reports that the EU has lifted the arms embargo on Uzbekistan. Reasons given are abolishment of the death penalty and release of political prisoners.