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Six killed in gun-battle in village near Azerbaijan’s capital

NOV. 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Two Azerbaijani policemen and four gang members were killed during a gun-battle in a village near Baku when the authorities raided what they described as the stronghold of a group with links to religious extremists.

The fierce battle, which involved machine gun fire and grenades, shocked people living in Baku, triggered warnings from the authorities of a rise in violence linked to extremists and threatened to damage Azerbaijan’s relations with neighbouring Iran.

Although they didn’t explicitly link violence to IS in Syria, the authorities have been increasingly nervous of IS recruitment in Azerbaijan.

In a statement Azerbaijan’s prosecutor-general said that the group, called the Muslim Unity Movement was planning various attacks across Baku and that they had links to Islamic extremists.

“These people and their supporters gathered in Baku and other regions, stocked with various types of weapons, ammunition, explosives,” the prosecutor-general said.

“During the operation, the gang showed armed resistance to police officers and started firing automatic weapons, hand grenades were also thrown.”

The prosecutor-general also said that 14 so called gang members were arrested during the raid in the village of Nardaran.

But neighbouring Iran viewed the incident differently.

The men who were killed were Shia Muslims. Azerbaijan is officially a secular country and the authorities have previously cracked-down on the Shia community, much to the irrita- tion of Iran. The Iranian official media was scathing of the Azerbaijani authorities’explanation.

The Iranian-state owned PressTV described the violence as a crackdown on Azerbaijan’s Shia Muslims.

“The attack came as Shias gathered for a religious ceremony in the village of Nardaran to mark Arabaeen, December 2, the 40th day since the death of Imam Hussein and his followers in a battle of Karbala,” it said. “The reports said violence erupted when security forces attempted to arrest Tale’ Bagirzade, the leader of the MMU, who was delivering a speech on the occasion.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Qatar Airways flies to Armenia

NOV. 24 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Qatar Airways, the flagship carrier in Qatar, will open a new route to and from Armenia. The Yerevan- Doha-Yerevan connection will begin operations in 2016 and ensure an air link between Armenia and the Persian Gulf region after UAE’s Etihad pulled out of the country in April.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Uzbek authorities look power upgrade plan

NOV. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Looking to boost power production to meet rising demand, the Uzbek authorities unveiled a $900m upgrade programme for its hydropower stations. As populations increase and living standards rise, demand for power has risen across Central Asia and the South Caucasus pressuring the authorities into investing in their power generation infrastructure. Earlier this month the Uzbek government announced a privatisation plan that included one of its cement makers.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Armenia’s and Azerbaijan’s presidents to meet on Karabakh

NOV. 24 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev and Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan will meet in Paris on Dec. 1 to discuss their cease-fire over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, media reported.

The two countries are still officially at war over Nagorno-Karabakh and meetings between the two leaders are rare. Their last meeting was also in Paris in 2014.

Armenian-backed rebels control Nagorno-Karabakh but there are constant skirmishes that kill soldiers almost every week. Over the past few years tension over the region has ebbed and flowed, sometimes threatening to spill over into all-out war.

Earlier this month, the Azerbaijani ministry of defence said that its forces had killed two ethnic Armenian fighters. The Armenian government confirmed this and said that two of its soldiers had been killed by an Azerbaijanji sniper.

At previous meetings between Mr Aliyev and Mr Sargsyan, these normally take place in Paris or Moscow, there have been warm words and friendly photo-ops but no lasting moves to bring about a permanent peace to the region.

Only a 1994 UN-brokered cease- fire maintains a shaky peace. The war killed an estimated 30,000 people and created thousands of refugees.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Uzbekistan increases cement production

NOV. 24 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan has increased its cement production by 7% so far this year, media reported quoting industry executives (Nov. 24). They also said that they plan to add more capacity to their production. Uzbekistan is a net exporter of cement. It has become big business and is a major employer.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Armenian economic activity increases

NOV. 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Economic activity in Armenia increased by 3.5% in the first 10 months of the year compared to the same period in 2014, media reported by quoting the statistics agency. The statistics agency also said that salaries had increased by over 9% during the same period, a reflection of the drop in the value of Armenia’s dram currency.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Air Armenia bankrupts

NOV. 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Air Armenia, the national flag carrier, lost its appeal against a bankruptcy order.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Kazakh leader signs new employment law

NOV. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev signed into law changes to the country’s employment code that make it easier for companies to sack workers. The new law also makes industrial action harder to take. Businesses have said that the law is a necessary modernising step. Trade unions have said it is designed to undermine them.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

VTB Bank injects $40m into Kazakh subsidiary

NOV. 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russian lender VTB Bank said it had injected $40m into its Kazakh subsidiary to increase its total capitalisation by 44% to around 24b tenge ($78m). The move is more evidence of a worsening economic outlook. In the first three-quarters of the year, VTB Bank recorded losses of 791m tenge ($2.6m), compared to a 850m tenge profit in the same period last year ($4.6m at the time).

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Air Armenia loses bankruptcy order appeal

NOV. 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — An appeals court in Armenia upheld a bankruptcy order against Air Armenia, dealing a major blow to the national flag carrier’s chances of survival.

Earlier this month a court declared Air Armenia bankrupt because it owed HSBC Armenia over 2m euro.

After losing an appeal against the bankruptcy order, Arsen Averisyan, majority owner of Air Armenia, said he would be able to pay back the loan once he had cashed in various assets.

“We can’t cash these bonds now, but if creditors uphold the recovery program, then we will remain in the market. We have 50 days,” he said.

Until 2013, Air Armenia had only flown cargo flights. After the bankruptcy of Armavia, though, it stepped into the gap and started up an ambitious network of passenger routes from Yerevan to various Russian cities, Paris, Frankfurt and Athens.

Mr Averisyan wanted to adopt the Armenian national livery and become its biggest and most important airline.

But Air Armenia’s timing was poor. The same year that Air Armenia started its passenger operation, the Armenian government liberalised air routes in and out of the country. This increased competition and drove down prices. The price of tickets on the most important routes between Yerevan and Moscow and St Petersburg plunged.

Opposition politicians have blamed the liberalisation for pushing Air Armenia into bankruptcy.

After only one year of flying passenger routes, Air Armenia stopped flights altogether.

It was handed a lifeline earlier in August when a deal was agreed with East Prospect Fund, a Ukrainian company registered in the British Virgin Islands, to buy a 49% stake in the company for $68.6m.

This cash injection, though, was clearly not enough to pay off Air Armenia’s debts. Air Armenia’s needs another deal if it is to survive.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)