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Armenian intelligence chiefs questioned

SEPT. 27 (The Conway Bulletin) – Prosecutors in Armenia have interviewed two senior intelligence chiefs over a leaked phone call that appeared to show them colluding with other government departments over the detention of former President Robert Kocharyan in July, media reported. Mr Kocharyan was detained, and then released, for his role in the shooting dead of anti-government protesters after elections in 2008.
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>>This story was published in issue 387 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 1 2018

Armenian economy grows 6.5%

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SEPT. 27 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s economy will expand by 6.5% in 2018, higher than the previous expectations of a 4.5% growth, finance minister Atom Janjughazyan told a government meeting. Armenia, like the rest of the region, is rebounding from an economic downturn between 2014-17. A sharp rise in activity in the construction sector has been a key driver of the economic upturn.
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>>This story was published in issue 387 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 1 2018

Kazakhstan to start chemical castrations

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SEPT. 24 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s ministry of health said that it would start chemically castrating men convicted of paedophilia in accordance with a law passed earlier this year. Other countries that already chemically castrate paedophiles include Indonesia, Poland, South Korea and some states in the US. Media quoted Lyazat Aktayeva, the deputy health minister, as saying that up to 2,000 chemical castrations could be carried out.
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>>This story was published in issue 387 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 1 2018

EIB to lend Georgia’s TBC 30m euro

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SEPT. 24 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Investment Bank (EIB), which is linked to the European Union, lent Georgia’s TBC Bank 30m euro to extend its financing of small and medium-sized companies. Officials from both banks said that they expected 600 small companies to benefit from the loan. Financial institutions have been targeting boosts to Georgia’s business sector.
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>>This story was published in issue 387 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 1 2018

Rakhmon hosts CIS summit

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SEPT. 28 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon hosted a summit of leaders from the Commonwealth of Independent States, a former Soviet bloc, in Dushanbe. Visitors included Russian President Vladimir Putin. Importantly, Mr Rakhmon’s son, 30-year-old Rustam Emomali was photographed greeting visitors at the airport. This has normally been the job of the PM and Mr Emomali’s appearance reinforced analysts’ opinion that he is being lined up for the presidency. Mr Emomali is currently the mayor of Dushanbe.
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>>This story was published in issue 387 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 1 2018

Tbilisi’s taxis go all white

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TBILISI/SEPT. 28 The shabby-chic mosaic of Tbilisi taxis will be a thing of the past if the mayor’s office gets its way.

From next October all taxis will have to be white, the mayor’s office ordered. Although it didn’t specify which model of car taxis had to be, it also said that taxis will have to have doors opening onto the rear seats and to be left-hand drive.

“Some visual standards for taxis in the capital will be mandatory from October 1, 2019,” said Tbilisi mayor Kakha Kaladze. “!We decided on white as the mandatory colour for Tbilisi taxis from October next year.”

Taxi driver associations, though, said that the new colour regulations will impose costs that will just force up prices for clients.

Tourism to Tbilisi has taken off over the past 12 months and the authorities have been trying to respond by smartening up the city and professionalising its taxi service.

Earlier this year, the Tbilisi city authorities imposed registration requirements for taxi drivers who have been more used to operating with light regulations.
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>>This story was first published in issue 387 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 1 2018

Afghan rail link via Turkmenistan to is on, says Tajikistan

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SEPT. 25 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan’s government said that a project to link up Afghanistan and Tajikistan with an 80km railway through Turkmenistan was still ongoing despite news reports quoting the Tajik ambassador to Turkmenistan saying that it had been cancelled. Turkmenistan and Tajikistan have rowed over the past few weeks over delays at the Turkmen border for Tajik trucks trying to cross to Afghanistan. This has fuelled speculation that Tajik-Turkmen relations and joint projects would be damaged.
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>>This story was published in issue 387 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 1 2018

Kyrgyz deputy minister in drunk aeroplane row

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BISHKEK/SEPT. 24 — Kyrgyz PM Mukhammedkalyi Abylgaziev fired Zuurakan Kadenova as deputy minister for labour and social development two days after she was taken off a flight bound for Almaty in Seoul because she was drunk and incoherent.

The flight on Sept. 22 was delayed by two hours and eyewitnesses said that Ms Kadenova 46, was later seen in the airport with blood and vomit on her clothes.

She denied being drunk and said instead that a combination of a new diet plan, through which she said she had shed 5kg during her 20-day stay in South Korea, and corvalol, a mild tranquilliser, that she had taken, had made her feel ill. She said that she had not been allowed to go to the lavatory as the plane was about to take off.

“I was pale, like a drunk, and trembling, but I was not drunk. I do not drink spirits at all,” she was quoted by media as saying. “This is a political decision. Even at the airport in Seoul, when I read the news, I was ready to resign.”

A statement from Air Astana, though, differed. The Kazakh airline was quoted by several media outlets as saying that Ms Kadenova had been taken off the business class section of the flight because she was incoherent and unable to fly.

“For the safety of the flight, and also in view of the risk of further deterioration of the passenger’s health, a decision was made to refuse her transportation,” Air Astana said in a statement.

Ms Kadenova had been in Seoul for training at the Korean International Cooperation Agency, which arranges exchange programmes. There are strong links between South Korea and Central Asia, especially Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan where tens of thousands of ethnic Koreans live.

Ms Kadenova was made deputy minister for labour and social mobility in 2015, when current Kyrgyz President Sooronbai Jeenbekov was PM, and was previously a deputy minister for education, a teacher and a lecturer.

For the Kyrgyz government, Ms Kadenova’s sacking for being drunk will be embarrassing. South Korea is one of the countries it is targeting to boost foreign direct investment.
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>>This story was first published in issue 387 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 1 2018

Real wages in Kazakhstan slow

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JAN. 28 (The Conway Bulletin) – Real wages in Kazakhstan have fallen for a third consecutive year, Halykfinance said in a report. It said that inflation had continued to outstrip wage growth. Wages, the report said, had fallen by 2% in the first three quarters of 2017 and that this would trend would continue in 2018, although it would slow to a real wage drop of 0.5%.

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>>This story was first published in issue 360 of The Conway Bulletin

Close nuclear power station, EU tells Armenia

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JAN. 30 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Union has once again told Armenia that it needs to close its nuclear power station at Metsamor. The power station has become a major source of friction between the EU, which says it is an environmental risk, and Russia, which has lobbied to keep it open. It lies in an earthquake zone but still provides Armenia with 40% of its power as well as giving it a valuable export commodity.

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>>This story was first published in issue 360 of The Conway Bulletin