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Azerbaijan’s energy minister dies

JUNE 9 2017 (The Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s long-serving energy minister, Natig Aliyev, died in a hospital in Istanbul from a heart attack. Aliyev had the heart attack in Baku at the end of the previous week and was then flown to specialist hospital in Istanbul. He had been energy minister since 2005, although he generally played a less prominent role in Azerbaijan’s oil and gas affairs than President Ilham Aliyev and the head of state- owned SOCAR Rovnag Abdullayev.

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(News report from Issue No. 332, published on June 12 2017)

Rail links China and Iran via Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan

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JUNE 8 2017 (The Bulletin) — Railway container services linking China with Iran via Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan are due to begin this month after the sides agreed various deals in May, the Railway Gazette reported. It said that the 10,300km journey would take around 14 days rather than 40 days by sea.

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(News report from Issue No. 332, published on June 12 2017)

Uzbek President outmaneuvers Karimov’s heir

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JUNE 12 2017 (The Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s vicious political scene has just spat out another top dog. Rustam Azimov, the former collective farm engineer has been a fixture at the top of the Uzbek political spectrum since 1998, when he was handpicked by former president Islam Karimov, Uzbek leader from 1991 until his death in September, to head the economy ministry. Considered one of Karimov’s favourites, Azimov had been thought by many as the most likely person to succeed his patron.

In January 2008, in a diplomatic note later leaked by Wikileaks, the US ambassador to Uzbekistan at the time Richard Norland wrote that Azimov was being groomed as a successor.

“Azimov’s star is rising. Being appointed first among deputy ministers will only fuel additional speculation that Azimov may eventually succeed Karimov,” he wrote.

Media reports from 2012, cited sources within the Uzbek government as saying that Karimov was now openly talking up Azimov as his successor.

Instead, his rival Shavkat Mirziyoyev has outmanoeuvred him and Azimov now finds himself in the lowly position of heading the Export- Import Insurance company. His political ambitions, like that of Karimov’s daughter Gulnara, who has been under house arrest since 2014, are surely over.

It has been a long-running rivalry between Azimov and Mirziyoyev. In May 2008, Norland wrote that the rivalry had become so bad that the Uzbek security services had invented information to present a more united front.

“Due to rumours that rivalries persist between Prime Minister Mirziyayev (sic) and First Deputy Prime Minister Rustam Azimov, the NSS (the Uzbek security service) also had fabricated information that both individuals had reached a rapprochement prompted by the burgeoning friendship between their wives,” he wrote.

Considered a smooth operator with a calmer temperament than the sometimes abrasive Mirziyoyev, Azimov also had plenty of experience dealing with foreign companies, often negotiating their entry into Uzbekistan on behalf of Karimov.

Prior to taking over as economy minister in 1998, Azimov was head of the National Bank for Foreign Economic Activity. Now, aged only 56, as head of the nonentity that is the Export- Import Insurance company, he will have plenty of time to rue opportunities missed in the battle to succeed Karimov.

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(News report from Issue No. 332, published on June 12 2017)

Shanghai buys into Kazakh capital

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JUNE 8 2017 (The Bulletin) — Shanghai’s Stock Exchange said that it had agreed a deal to buy 25.1% of Astana’s planned new bourse. The Astana Stock Exchange is planned to open by the end of the year as the centrepiece of a new Astana International Financial Centre. It wants to attract foreign companies and has already said that its national companies — Air Astana, Kazmunaigas and Kazatompom — will list part of their companies on the Astana Stock Exchange.

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(News report from Issue No. 332, published on June 12 2017)

Comment: Authority figures and democracy

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EDINBURGH, JUNE 12 2017 (The Bulletin) — This past week, politics in Britain have been overshadowed by the election meltdown and loss of authority of the British PM, Theresa May. She went from having a 20 point lead in opinion polls only two months ago to a single digit lead over Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, on election day. She won, but was returned a much diminished figure.

This is a stark contrast to the strongmen that rule Central Asia, where the democratic touch is so light. That doesn’t mean, though, that there isn’t plenty of political intrigue to enjoy and saviour in the region.

And this week has given us the story of how Shavkat Mirziyoyev has undone one of his key rivals for power, former economy minister Rustam Azimov. Once a potential Second President of Uzbekistan, he now finds himself heading up an entity called the Export-Import Bank. A story of power-plays and, possibly, betrayal.

There has been an apparent growth in grassroots movements in Uzbekistan. Our new correspondent reports from Tashkent on what has been described as the biggest protest in the country for 12 years. It’s great reporting on a very important story.

In Georgia and Azerbaijan the case of the abducted journalist continues to cause the authorities discomfort, as does the reminder that Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge is still an IS recruitment area.

On the business front, we report on China’s first foray into Kazakhstan’s banking sector and on olive oil production in Georgia.

Azerbaijan plans logistics base

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JUNE 7 2017 (The Bulletin) — Following the trend for centres dedicated to increasing trade and boosting logistics across the Central Asia and South Caucasus region, Azerbaijan said that it was going to create a tax-free zone at its Caspian Sea port of Alyat. Governments in Central Asia and the South Caucasus have been rushing to position themselves as the natural link between Asia and Europe. Taleh Ziyadov, director general of Baku International Sea Trade Port said he wanted to create a “five star hub” at Alyat, which is 65km from Baku.

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(News report from Issue No. 332, published on June 12 2017)

Georgian olive oil producer wants to break into market

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TBILISI, JUNE 12 2017 (The Bulletin) — Georgia’s first home-grown and home-processed olive oil is now being sold across the country, the culmination of a Turkish-inspired ambition.

In an interview with The Bulletin, George Svanidze, Georgia Olive CEO, said that he had always wanted to return from Turkey, where he lived, to develop a business in Georgia.

“We, the diaspora, wanted to bring something good, new investments to Georgia,” he said. “Our Turkish partners have three generation experience in olive oil production, so we decided to bring back this culture to our country.”

And it is this entrepreneurship, this ability to assimilate knowledge abroad and bring it home that makes the Georgian economy resilient and open, analysts have said. It has recovered quicker than its neighbours from a sharp economic downturn over the past three years.

Mr Svanidze said that he and his partners planted their first olive trees in Georgia in 2010. Since then, with the help of a government sponsored scheme called Produce in Georgia, the olive grove has grown to around 350 hectares – roughly the size of 350 rugby pitches. They have now set up a processing plant near the village of Sakobo in Kakheti.

And Mr Svanidze said that the soil quality in Georgia was superior to Italy, Turkey and Greece, the three main traditional makers of olive oil.

“We have such high-quality olives that we produce 1 litre of olive oil from 3.5kg of olives,” he said, comparing this to the usual 5kg needed.

Part of the challenge is tapping into the domestic market. Not many people cook, or eat, with olive oil, preferring to use cheaper oils from nuts.

Zura, the director of a wine shop, said as well as being more expensive, olive oil was too pungent for local palates. “I know Europeans really love it, but it’s no good for our kitchen. The taste is too strong,” he said.

But Mr Svanidze has heard this all before. “First we will take the Georgian market, after that the Trans-Caucasus market and afterwards we will export to Europe and Asia,” he said.

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(News report from Issue No. 332, published on June 12 2017)

Turkmenistan has imprisoned Gulenists, says HRW

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JUNE 9 2017 (The Bulletin) — The New York-based Human Rights Watch accused the Turkmen government of illegally detaining and imprisoning 18 men allegedly linked to the Gulen network that Turkish President Recep Erdogan accuses of plotting a coup.

In its report, Human Rights Watch said that the men were part of a group of 100 men arrested in September and October last year after a request from Turkey.

“The men’s families found out about the arrests in Turkmenistan only through unofficial contacts. They were allowed no contact with their loved ones until after the trial, which was closed and held at the pretrial detention centre. Four state- appointed lawyers served as the men’s defence counsel,” HRW said in its press release.

In Turkey, the security forces have rounded up thousands of supporters of the exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen. In Central Asia and the South Caucasus, Turkey has asked the authorities to detain and deport people linked to Gulen, mainly in the education sector.

Gulenists travelled to these newly independent former Soviet republics in the 1990s and set up what are now some of the region’s best-regarded universities and schools.

Human Rights Watch said it had seen a summary of the verdict handed out to the men which said that the court had found them guilty of offences linked to the incitement of social, ethnic and religious hatred and also involvement in criminal organisations.

Turkmenistan has one of the worst records for human rights and free speech and is considered a secretive, closed-off country. It has not commented on the Human Rights Watch allegations.

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(News report from Issue No. 332, published on June 12 2017)

Georgia plans to build a trade hub

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JUNE 8 2017 (The Bulletin) — Georgia’s government said that it plans to build two new logistics hubs, one at Kutaisi and one outside Tbilisi, in an effort to brand itself as a transit hub between Asia and Europe. Economy minister Giorgi Gakharai said the Tbilisi hub would cost $82m to build and the Kutaisi hub would cost $72m. This year Georgia signed a free trade agreement with China which it said it would use to promote itself as a trading bridge between China and the rest of the world.

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(News report from Issue No. 332, published on June 12 2017)

Abkhazia says arrests five Tajiks with IS link

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TBILISI, JUNE 9 2017 (The Bulletin) — The authorities in Georgia’s breakaway region of Abkhazia said that they had arrested five Tajik men for having links to the extremist IS group.

Men from Central Asia have come under increased scrutiny for links to the extremist IS group after a series of attacks this year blamed on the rise of extremist recruitment in the region.

In its four line message on the arrests, the Abkhazian authorities did not say where the men were arrested or why they were suspected of having links to IS. “After carrying out the necessary actions, the detainees were handed over to the Russian side to carry out operational-investigative actions,” it said.

What appears unusual in this case is the presence of five Tajiks in Abkhazia, not known for attracting migrant workers from Central Asia.

Russia is one of the few countries to recognise Abkhazia as an independent state.

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(News report from Issue No. 332, published on June 12 2017)