Category Archives: Uncategorised

Kazakh CB to use Bitcoin

JUNE 12 2017 (The Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s Central Bank said that it was road testing a Bitcoin application for selling short-term notes. Bitcoin is a controversial technology as it has been associated with money laundering and other crimes. It’s technology, though, has been acclaimed for allowing multiple small trades at a low cost. The Kazakh Central Bank said it was looking at using the technology for selling 100 tenge notes (around a third of a US dollar).

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)

ILO criticises Kazakhstan

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JUNE 12 2017 (The Bulletin) — The International Labour Organisation (ILO), a UN body, effectively accused Kazakhstan of ignoring its demands made 12 months ago to improve the rights of workers’ unions to operate. In a draft ILO committee memo, it said that the environment for unions to operate had worsened and not improved over the past year. Courts in Kazakhstan have disbanded the biggest trade union and imprisoned two union leaders for a series of unrelated offences. In 2016, unions organised a series of anti-government protests. The Kazakh government hasn’t responded to the ILO statement.

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)

Uzbekistan to build fruit farm

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JUNE 13 2017 (The Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev officially kicked off construction of a fruit farm in the Andijan region of the Ferghana Valley, highlighting a drive by the authorities to increase exports to neighbours. Media reported that the 615-hectare project will cost $24m and be operational by the end of the year.

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)

Azerbaijan jails opposition activist

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JUNE 16 2017 (The Bulletin) — A court in Baku sentenced opposition activist Fuad Ahmadli to 16 years in prison for stealing people’s personal data when he worked at mobile phone operator Azerfon.

Ahmadli’s supporters have said that the allegations are fraudulent and part of a government crackdown against dissenters. Ahmadli was a activist for the main opposition group, the Popular Front Party.

European politicians have accused the Azerbaijan government of cracking down on opposition members and journalists. The Azerbaijani government has said that the EU is being naive and that it is rooting out people who are in favour of regime change.

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)

Armenia accuses Azerbaijan

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JUNE 16 2017 (The Bulletin) — Armenia-backed forces accused Azerbaijan of killing three of its soldiers in another spike in violence around the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Tension has really been reduced since fighting in April 2016 killed several dozen people. Analysts have said that there is a greater chance of all-out war over the region now than at any time since a UN- imposed ceasefire in 1994.

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)

Turkmenistan increases security after threat

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JUNE 15 2017 (The Bulletin) — Turkmenistan has boosted its security over the past few days because it has received information that a terrorist attack against it is being planned, the local news service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. RFE/RL quoted a security official as saying that the information came from four men linked to the radical IS group who were extradited back to Turkmenistan from Turkey.

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)

Kazakhstan sets up prison units to tackle extremism

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JUNE 13 2017 (The Bulletin) — Appearing to acknowledge that prisons had become a breeding ground for radical Islam, Kazakh officials said that they were going to set up a unit that would specifically look to counter the radicalisation of inmates. Commentators have previously criticised the Kazakh prison service for the poor conditions of its facilities and the ease that radical Islamic recruiters are able to turn previously moderate Muslims into extremists.

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)

Uzbek interior minister plans first visit in 19 yrs

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JUNE 16 2017 (The Bulletin) — Uzbekistan interior minister Major- General Abdusalom Azizov will visit Tajikistan for the first time in 19 years next month, media reported, another sign that Uzbek-Tajik relations are improving under President Shavkat Mirziyoyev. Major-Gen. Azizov is due to attend a meeting of regional interior ministers in Dushanbe on June 27-29.

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)

Turkmen Pres. Berdymukhamedov cuts subsidies to save money

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JUNE 6 2017 (The Bulletin) — Turkmenistan’s President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov ordered his government to scrap all subsidies on household utilities, immediately drawing accusations that he was losing control of the economy.

In a surprise statement, the presidential press service said that Mr Berdymukhamedov had ordered parliament to cut the Soviet-era subsidies because they were “ineffective”.

Quoting official news sources, news agencies said that Mr Berdymukhamedov had ordered his government to cancel all subsidies except “for the most needy”.

Turkmenistan’s economy has been strained for the past three years, ever since energy prices started to collapse, and commentators said that a lack of funds and not any root and branch change of economic strategy was behind the move.

Turkmenistan holds the world’s fourth largest gas reserves. The vast majority of its foreign earnings come from selling this gas, mainly to China. The drop in gas prices has hit this income stream hard and although Mr Berdymukhamedov has never admitted as such, it has dented the economy. In 2015, the Turkmen currency was devalued by a third.

At the start of this year, Turkmenistan accused Iran of not settling a debt that it said it was still and in the last few months Mr Berdymukhamedov has embarked on a series cabinet reshuffles and sackings that analysts said hinted at panic and frustration over the economic turmoil.

Under Mr Berdymukhamedov, state subsidies in Turkmenistan have gradually been eroded. The subsidies have their roots in the Soviet Union which made a point of giving electricity, heating and water virtually away for free.

Turkmenistan is trying to extend its energy customer base to India and Pakistan via the so-called TAPI pipeline, and also to negotiate a way to sell gas to Europe via the South Caucasus energy corridor.

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

400 people protest in Uzbekistan’s largest demonstration for 12 years

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TASHKENT, JUNE 5 2017 (The Bulletin) — An estimated 400 people protested in Tashkent against police inaction over the murder of a 17-year-old student, the largest demonstration in Uzbekistan against the authorities for 12 years.

Under former leader Islam Karimov the authorities in Uzbekistan cracked down hard on public gatherings, essentially banning them. A Bulletin correspondent in Tashkent said this was the largest demonstration in Uzbekistan since the army shot dead several hundred people in the town of Andijan in 2005.

Activists said that the protest in Dostyk Square had been planned after 19,000 people signed an online petition calling on the authorities to investigate the death of Jasurbek Ibraghimov. He was beaten at his university in Tashkent at the start of May and died in hospital on June 1. The police had declined to investigate but after the public outcry changed their mind.

“We came to the park at 10am (0400GMT). There were 15 to 20 of us. The police tried to disperse us but after more and more people started coming they stopped interrupting the protest,” one activist said.

Another explained that the protest represented not just the need to investigate the death of Ibraghimov properly but also the pent up frustration felt by young Uzbeks. Many of the protesters were young, in their 20s, and savvy users of Facebook and other forms of social media.

“The protest was not spontaneous, it had deep roots. The unrest against corruption and injustice had been roaring like an enraged lion in people’s hearts until Jasur’s death,” said Anvar, a civil activist who agreed to be named. “The death of Jasur broke the silence. People took the park both to mourn the teen’s death and to say enough to social injustice and corrupt systems.”

Since taking over as leader in September 2017, Shavkat Mirziyoyev has talked of opening the country to investors and generating more personal freedoms, but commentators were taken by surprise by the spontaneous demonstration and the authorities’, relatively, relaxed attitude towards it. The protest also highlights just how powerful social media is becoming. The security forces monitor the internet but the sheer number of apps and internet variants and their increased user numbers makes it difficult to cover.

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