Category Archives: Uncategorised

Kazakhstan agrees prison officer training deal with UK

AUG. 31 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — On a trip to Kazakhstan aimed at persuading Kazakh companies to list their stocks on the London Stock Exchange, Alan Duncan, the British minister for Europe and the Americas said that he had agreed a deal to help train up Kazakh prison officers. Prison reform is high on the list of changes demanded by human rights activists of Kazakhstan. The country has spent millions on improving conditions but lobby groups say that it still has a long way to go.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

Fire destroys chemical factory in Armenia

Leave a Reply

AUG. 29 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — An explosion at a chemical manufacturing plant in Nairit, Armenia, ignited a fire that raged for at least two days. The chemicals plant has been on the verge of bankruptcy for several years, with management sacking two-thirds of the staff en mass in 2015. The plant is currently owned by Samvel Karapetyan, one of Armenia’s richest men, through his company Electric Networks of Armenia. It is unclear if anybody was hurt in the explosion and what caused it.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

US military war games held in Georgia

Leave a Reply

SEPT. 3 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — US forces started joint annual exercises with forces from Georgia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Latvia, Romania and Ukraine. This is the seventh year running that Georgia has hosted the multilateral war games. The US has said that its main ambition from the exercises is to give Georgian forces a boost.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

Two Canadian MPs banned from Azerbaijan

Leave a Reply

SEPT. 4 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry issued an official complaint to the Canadian foreign ministry after two Canadian MPs visited Nagorno-Karabakh as guests of Armenia. Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper said that Tony Clement and Rachael Harder had also been banned from travelling to Azerbaijan. They said that they had accepted an invitation to help make a documentary about the disputed region by a Toronto-based group called One Free World International.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

Workers fight at Astana tower

Leave a Reply

SEPT. 2 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh riot police intervened in a fight between foreign workers, identified as Indian by Twitter users, and security guards at the Abu Dhabi Plaza construction site in Astana. It is the second major incident at the site, set to be the tallest building in Central Asia, after a fire earlier this year. The fight also shows the tension between foreign workers brought into Kazakhstan to build major infrastructure projects and locals. Kazakhstan has become something of a magnet for migrant workers in the region.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

EBRD extends financing in Armenia

Leave a Reply

SEPT. 5 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — On a trip to Armenia, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said it was extending its scheme aimed at boosting lending to women and small and medium-sized businesses. It will lend Araratbank, one of the larger banks in the country, the equivalent of $10m in local dram currency, media reported.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

Bishkek court closes opposition TV station

Leave a Reply

BISHKEK, AUG. 22 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Less than two months before what is shaping up to be an increasingly feisty and acrimonious presidential election, a court in Bishkek ordered the closure of the Sentyabr private TV channel that was broadly sympathetic with the opposition. The court banned Sentyabr for broadcasting film that it said was extremist. Specifically, it broadcast an interview with an ex-police chief in Osh in which he accused Pres. Almazbek Atambayev’s preferred successor, ex-PM Sooronbai Jeenbekov, of fuelling ethnic tension in the region in 2010.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 341, published on Aug. 27 2017)

Uzbekistan frees former UN staff member jailed in 2006

Leave a Reply

AUG. 22 (The Conway Bulletin) — The United Nations said that Erkin Musaev, a former staff member who had been running a joint programme with the European Union in 2006 in Tashkent when he was arrested trying to leave Uzbekistan, has been freed. Musaev was imprisoned for various crimes, including embezzlement and espionage. The UN has always said that the crimes have been fabricated. Under Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Uzbekistan has released several political prisoners.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 341, published on Aug. 27 2017)

Uzbekistan joins IRENA

Leave a Reply

TASHKENT, AUG. 24 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan joined the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), an intergovernmental organisation set up to help member countries strengthen their sources of green power. IRENA has 152 members. Uzbekistan has previously shied away from joining international organisations. Under the presidency of Shavkat Mirziyoyev, though, it has become open to international cooperation.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 341, published on Aug. 27 2017)

Iowa recognises Armenian genocide

Leave a Reply

AUG. 18 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The US state of Iowa issued a proclamation recognising the killing of up to 1.5m Armenians at the end of the First World War by Ottoman Turks as “the first modern genocide”. Turkey has always denied the genocide and said that Armenians were killed in the general chaos at the end of the war.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 341, published on Aug. 27 2017)