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Abkhazia says arrests five Tajiks with IS link

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)

Investment boosts for Uzbek car making

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TASHKENT, JUNE 5 2017 (The Bulletin) — Looking to give the Uzbek car-making sector a boost, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev unveiled a series of investments and tax cuts specifically aimed at boosting production and job numbers.

The uzdaily.uz website reported that on June 1, Mr Mirziyoyev had signed into law an investment scheme worth $800m for Uzavtosanoat. It reported that it was hoped that production would jump by 300% and the number of people employ would also surge accordingly.

The Uzbek auto sector has been heavily hit by a collapse in the Russian car market. Data released in April showed that the number of cars produced in Uzbekistan had halved in 2016 to around 92,000. This year, though, there are signs that the the Uzbek car making sector is beginning to rebound.

French carmaker PSA, which owns the Peugeot and Citron brands, has signed a deal to assemble 16,000 cars in Uzbekistan.

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

Kyrgyzstan trials opposition leaders

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JUNE 5 2017 (The Bulletin) — Omurbek Tekebaev, leader of Kyrgyzstan’s Ata-Mekan party, and Duishonkul Chotonov, Kyrgyzstan’s former emergencies minister, went on trial for allegedly taking bribes in 2010. They were arrested in February, triggering a series of protests in the capital Bishkek. Both men deny the charges and have said that they are politically motivated. Mr Tekebaev is the Ata Meken candidate for a presidential election in October.

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

Kazakh foreign ministry announces Syria peace talks postponed

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JUNE 8 2017 (The Bulletin) — The fifth round of Astana peace talks focused on the war in Syria have been postponed. The Kazakh foreign ministry, as hosts, made the announcement although it didn’t say when the talks would resume. Kazakhstan has been hosting Syria peace talks all year and the fifth round was scheduled for June 12/13.

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

Kyrgyzstan arrests suicide bomber

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JUNE 8 2017 (The Bulletin) — The authorities in Kyrgyzstan said that they had arrested a man plotting a suicide attack in the country. In August 2016 a man drove a car bomb into the Chinese embassy in Bishkek. It was later blamed on Uighur separatists. No more details of the arrest or of the bomb attack plan were released.

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

Gulen-linked arrested asks for asylum in Georgia

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JUNE 7 2017 (The Bulletin) — Supporters of Mustafa Emre Cabuk, a manager of a school linked to the Gulen network, protested against his detention by the Georgian authorities last month. A court is considering his appeal for asylum after Turkey asked for Mr Cabuk to be extradited on charges that he was a so-called Gulenist, a group it blames for an attempted coup last year. Turkey has been pressuring countries in Central Asia and the South Caucasus to close down Gulen education networks and extradite the teachers.

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

Kazakh court jails Ablyazov

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JUNE 7 2017 (The Bulletin) — A court in Kazakhstan sentenced fugitive former banker-turned- opposition-leader Mukhtar Ablyazov to 20 years in prison for various financial crimes. Ablyazov is currently living in France where a judge ruled that he couldn’t be extradited to Russia or Ukraine because there was a risk that he would then be sent to Kazakhstan and tortured. Kazakhstan has said that Ablyazov plotted to overthrow Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev after he fled the country with billions of dollars he stole from BTA Bank, where he had been chairman.

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

Georgians march for rapper arrested with drugs

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JUNE 11 2017 (The Bulletin) — Hundreds of people in Batumi and Tbilisi protested against the detention of 21-year-old rapper Giorgi Keburia, also known by his stage name as Kay-G, for carrying ecstasy tablets. His supporters said that the drugs had been planted on the rapper in retaliation for mocking police in a recent music video. The demonstrations highlight the increasingly vocal drug legalisation lobby in Georgia.

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

Currencies: Kyrgyzstan’s som

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JUNE 12 2017 (The Bulletin) — The Kyrgyz som dropped another 0.3% over the week, adding to a general downward trend since the end of April when it briefly threatened to break through the lower 67/$1 barrier.

On April 27, the Kyrgyz som hit 67.13/$1, a level not seen since the currency devaluation of 2015/16. Since then the som has fallen back to a level that analysts have said is a more natural range of between 68 and 69 per $1. It is now trading at 1.25% higher than at the start of the year.

Elsewhere, the Uzbek soum continued its slow downward trajectory and the Kazakh tenge moved closer to falling through the 316/$1 barrier, a level not seen since the beginning of May. It has generally tracked down with oil.

Azerbaijan’s SOCAR eyes more deals

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JUNE 5 2017 (The Bulletin) — Azerbaijan is eyeing up investing another $3b into an energy project in Turkey, SOCAR Turkey CEO Zaur Gahramanov said. Azerbaijan is already a major investor in Turkey, with an estimated $11b worth of projects. The main projects are the Star oil refinery near Izmir and the Petkim wind farm. This year SOCAR failed in its bid to buy a network of petrol station in Turkey from Austria’s OMV. Mr Gahramanov said SOCAR was considering building a network of petrol stations from scratch or potentially another wind farm.

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