Author Archives: Editor

Tajik opposition activist beaten up in Vilnius, says Human Rights Watch

MARCH 19 (The Bulletin) — The New York-based Human Rights Watch said that two men beat up an opposition Tajik activist living in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania in what it said was a politically motivated attack. HRW said that the attack on March 16 was part of a wider campaign by Tajikistan’s government to track down and intimidate former members of the now-banned Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan.

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— This story was first published in issue 440 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

India wins $40m deal to supply Armenia with military radars

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MARCH 18 (The Bulletin) — India has won a $40m military supply deal to sell radars to Armenia, media reported. Media in India reported that the deal was signed on March 1 and boosts India’s military status in the region, normally considered Russia’s sphere of influence. India has been trying to boost its influence in the Central Asia and South Caucasus.

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— This story was first published in issue 440 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Uzbek court sends Karimova to prison for another 8 years

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MARCH 18 (The Bulletin) — A court in Uzbekistan found Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of former Uzbek president Islam Karimov and previously considered the most powerful woman in the country, guilty of corruption that cost the country $2.3b and sentenced her to another eight years in prison. Karimova has been under house arrest and then in prison in Tashkent since 2014 when she was accused of taking bribes from telecoms companies looking to do business in Uzbekistan. In an open letter to President Shavkat Mirziyoyev earlier this year, she had begged to be released from prison. Five other people were also imprisoned alongside Karimova.

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— This story was first published in issue 440 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

SamsungPay starts operations in Kazakhstan

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MARCH 17 (The Bulletin) — Samsung Pay, the contactless smartphone payment system, is now available in Kazakhstan, Korean electronics-maker Samsung said in a statement. It said that Kazakhstan was added to its list of countries able to use the payment system on March 5 after six weeks of testing. It is now available in 26 countries around the world.

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— This story was first published in issue 440 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Azerbaijan releases journalist abducted in Tbilisi

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MARCH 17 (The Bulletin) — Afqan Muxtarli, an Azerbaijani investigative journalist who was kidnapped from Tbilisi in 2017 where he had been living in exile and handed over to police in Azerbaijan, was unexpectedly freed from prison in Baku (March 17). Mr Muxtarli, who was convicted of smuggling and illegally crossing the Azerbaijani-Georgian border and sent to prison for six years, always maintained that he was targeted because of his journalism. He had fled Azerbaijan in 2014 because he said that he was warned that he would be arrested. Human rights activists accused the Georgian authorities of colluding in the abduction of Mr Muxtarli.

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— This story was first published in issue 440 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Iran criticises Armenian plan to set up embassy in Israel

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MARCH 16 (The Bulletin) — Even though it is wracked by the spread of the coronavirus, Iran’s government still found time to criticise a neighbour’s move to strengthen diplomatic ties with its arch-enemy, Israel. Armenia had said last year that it wants to open its first embassy in Tel Aviv. According to Iranian press reports, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, a senior foreign policy adviser to the Iranian Parliament speaker, criticised this decision. For Armenia, what Iran thinks about its various policy moves is important as the two neighbours have struck up a friendship over the past few years.

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— This story was first published in issue 440 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Korea’s Hyundai signs deal to supply buses to Turkmenistan

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MARCH 15 (The Bulletin) — Korea’s Hyundai signed a $60m deal to supply Turkmenistan with buses. The deal for an unspecified number of buses follows on from previous deals between Hyundai and Turkmenistan. In 2016 it signed a $66m deal to supply 500 buses. The new buses will be supplied by Dec. 12.

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— This story was first published in issue 440 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

World Bank approves $239m funds to build improved water system

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MARCH 13 (The Bulletin) — The World Bank approved a $239m credit line to Uzbekistan to help build improved water services. The World Bank country manager in Uzbekistan, Hideki Mori, said that 500,000 people will have improved water supplies in Uzbekistan after this project is completed. The project is focused on the remote Uzbek region of Karakalpakstan and around the town of Samarkand.

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— This story was first published in issue 440 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

MARKETS: Stocks fall on coronavirus impact

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MARCH 26 (The Bulletin) — Stock markets turned fully bullish over the past week or so as investors took fright over the potential long-lasting impacts of the coronavirus on societies and economies. Even gold producers which had survived the initial onslaught, saw their share prices turn red.

Centerra Gold, which mines the giant Kumtor mine in Kyrgyzstan, saw its share price drop by 16% to C$7.42 and Anglo Asian Mining, which mines gold in Azerbaijan, saw its share price drop by 30.6% to 85p.

The region’s two listed banking stocks, TBC Bank and Bank of Georgia, were the worst hit.

The outlook for investors is grim too. With no sign of the coronavirus slowing down, and the epicentre of the disease now rooted in Europe, analysts are predicting more restrictions on life and more drags on economies and markets.

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— This story was first published in issue 440 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Berdymukhamedov travels to Baku to discuss east-west corridor

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MARCH 12 (The Bulletin) — On a trip to Baku, Turkmen leader Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev discussed expanding the neighbours’ bilateral trade ties. Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan see themselves as key to the East-West trade corridor that has attracted billions of dollars of investment over the past few years and media reported that this issue was also among the issues that they discussed. The trip to Baku was a relatively rare overseas trip for Mr Berdymukhamedov, although he has shown more interest in developing foreign ties to expand Turkmenistan’s gas trade routes.

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— This story was first published in issue 440 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin