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Turkmen President calls a presidential election

OCT. 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan’s President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov called an election for Feb. 12, barely a month after he tweaked the country’s constitution to allow him to rule for life.

Mr Berdymukhamedov, who won a presidential election in 2012 with 97% of the vote, is expected to easily win next year’s vote, his third election since winning power in 2007.

But like the rest of the region, Turkmenistan’s economy has been creaking under a slump in global energy prices. This could make the election more complicated than previous votes.

Last month the 59-year-old Mr Berdymukhamedov removed an age cap of 70-years from the Turkmen constitution and also extended presidential terms to seven from five years, inline with many of his Central Asian peers.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 301, published on Oct. 21 2016)

EBRD gives loan to Turkmenistan

OCT. 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The EBRD lent $850,000 to Gul Zaman, Turkmenistan’s largest events and catering company, to expand its business and create a premium industrial-scale bakery. The EBRD said that the EU will also provide grants and training for the project. Last month, the EBRD gave a $2.8m loan to a Turkmen brewer to build a potato crisp plant.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 301, published on Oct. 21 2016)

Radicals attack transgender in Georgia

OCT. 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Human rights groups called for the Georgian government to do more to fight hate crimes after a transgender woman was badly stabbed in an apparent attempted murder. Georgia has seen a rise in attacks and marches by rightwing radicals over the past few years. Last month a group of nationalists marched through a street in the old town of Tbilisi taunting foreigners.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 301, published on Oct. 21 2016)

Nine die in crash in east Uzbekistan

OCT. 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Nine people, including six soldiers, died in a helicopter crash in east Uzbekistan, media reported. The helicopter that crashed was a Mi-171, a Soviet-built troop transport. Uzbek media described the crash as an accident but didn’t give any more details. There have been several accidents involving the Mi- 171 over the past few years.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 301, published on Oct. 21 2016)

Uzbekistan’s power sharing details emerge

OCT. 13 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s clans have pulled together behind Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the acting president and PM, in a power-sharing deal designed to ensure stability after the death of Islam Karimov last month, diplomatic sources told Reuters news agency.

Analysts, including The Conway Bulletin, have said that the smooth promotion of Mr Mirziyoyev and his seemingly inevitable victory in a presidential election in December, suggested that a deal had been done between Uzbekistan’s key power-brokers, but this is the first time that diplomatic sources have gone on record to confirm this.

The unnamed sources said that both Security Service chief Rustam Inoyatov and finance minister Rustam Azimov supported Mr Mirziyoyev as the Uzbek elites’ front-man but that he would consult with them on major decisions.

“Rival clans had agreed that Mirziyoyev would be the public face of the Uzbek leadership with the title of president, but that he would in reality not be able to make independent decisions,” Reuters quoted the sources as saying.

This is not without precedent in Central Asia, where succession issues have dominated politics. In 2006, when Turkmen president Saparmurat Niyazov died, Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, an obscure former dentist, was picked to become president as a compromise by the various power groups. He, though, has since developed a personality cult and rules the country virtually single-handedly.

In Uzbekistan, Karimov had ruled for 25 years, ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, although it was clear that in the last couple of years he and his family had ceded control to other people.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 300, published on Oct. 14 2016)

Gazprom influence grows over Armenia’s government

OCT. 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan appointed the CEO of Gazprom Armenia, Vardan Harutyunyan, as head of the state revenue committee, a move that confirms the growing influence of Russia’s Gazprom in the government.

In September Mr Sargsyan appointed Karen Karapetyan as PM. Mr Karapetyan had been the mayor of Yerevan and previously, also, CEO of Gazprom Armenia.

Mr Harutyunyan had worked at Gazprom since 2009 and was named CEO in 2010, after Mr Karapetyan’s departure.

After his appointment as PM, Mr Karapetyan also nominated Gazprom’s express secretary, Shushan Sardaryan, as his adviser.

Gazprom Armenia is a fully owned subsidiary of Gazprom, the Russian gas giant. Russia is one of Armenia’s biggest allies, maintaining a large military base in the country.

Mr Harutyunyan’s new position puts him in charge of collecting taxes and administering government revenues.

Heading Gazprom Armenia is one of the most important jobs in the country. Gazprom supplies most of Armenia’s gas, via Georgia, although the government is trying to secure more imports from Iran. Media in Armenia suggested that Tigran Karapetyan, the PM’s 29- year-old son, may be given the job.

Russia has previously been accused of using Gazprom to pressure and influence foreign governments.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 300, published on Oct. 14 2016)

Uzbek football team wins Chinese

OCT. 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – China’s football coach Gao Hongbo resigned after his team lost 2-0 to Uzbekistan in a World Cp qualifier match. Mr Gao had returned to coaching China this year, after a two-year stint in 2009- 2011. In September, Uzbekistan was ranked in the top-50 national teams in the FIFA ranking.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 300, published on Oct. 14 2016)

Inflation picks up in Armenia

OCT. 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – After seven months of deflation, some prices in Armenia have started to rise, the Statistics Committee said. Food prices decreased marginally, but non-food items and the service sectors registered inflation of around 1%.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 300, published on Oct. 14 2016)

Azerbaijan’s SOCAR wants to sell stake

OCT. 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – SOCAR Turkey Enerji, a subsidiary of Azerbaijan’s state-owned energy company SOCAR, said it will consider selling part of a 5.32% stake it directly owns in Petkim, a petrochemical complex, near Izmir. SOCAR Turkey is also considering participating in the construction of the new Star refinery together with Russia’s Rosneft. Sustained low oil prices have pushed SOCAR to reshuffle their investments abroad.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 300, published on Oct. 14 2016)

US & UK embassies warn of attacks in Kyrgyzstan

BISHKEK, OCT. 8 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The US and British embassies in Kyrgyzstan issued a warning that a terror attack was likely, barely six weeks after a car bomb was rammed into the Chinese embassy.

The warning will frustrate the Kyrgyz authorities who recognise the damage it will do to the country’s reputation as both a place to do business and as a tourist destination. Local media quoted the Kyrgyz National Security Committee as saying that they had no information on potential terror attacks.

In a statement, though, the US embassy said a terror attack was likely. “The US embassy has received information indicating the possibility of terrorist attacks, which may potentially involve kidnapping and hostage taking, targeted against local authorities and foreign diplomats during the month of October,” it said.

The warning didn’t give any specifics on who posed the threat or where the information came from but Kyrgyzstan, and other countries in Central Asia, have been dealing with a recruitment drive by the extremist IS group and other affiliated Islamic radical groups which want to destabilise the region. The separatist Uyghur group, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, was also blamed for the car bomb against the Chinese embassy on Aug. 30. Only the driver of the car bomb was killed.

Kyrgyzstan has been marketing itself to Western tourists as the Switzerland of Central Asia, with snow- capped mountains and Alpine lakes. It also wants to attract more foreign investors. In 2012 Kyrgyzstan became the first country in the region to scrap visas for citizens of most Western countries.

Warnings of potential terror attacks and hostage-taking, though, will dent these drives to attract tourists and business.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 300, published on Oct. 14 2016)