MAY 1 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — State-owned Uzbekistan Airways carried 563,100 passengers in Q1 2017, a 5.1% increase from the same period in 2016, it said in a statement. The increase in passenger numbers is a reflection of a new policy to invest in new aircraft and new routes. Uzbekistan Airways also said that it carried nearly 25% more cargo in Q1 2017 compared to Q1 2016.
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(News report from Issue No. 327, published on May 5 2017)
MAY 4 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s National Security Committee said that on April 20 special forces carried out coordinated anti-terrorist operations in Aktobe in the west of the country and in Shymkent in the south. It said that three men had been arrested in Shymkent and seven in Aktobe.
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(News report from Issue No. 327, published on May 5 2017)
MAY 2 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Taliban militants have captured the Zebak district in Afghanistan, close to the border with Tajikistan, reports said. Security analysts have said that a surge north by the Taliban is a major threat to Tajikistan. Now, reports have said that Afghan government forces have been regrouping at a town on the border with Tajikistan after being defeated in a couple of battles.
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(News report from Issue No. 327, published on May 5 2017)
APRIL 27 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Shares at Kazakh copper miner KAZ Minerals jumped 5% immediately after Q1 results showed that copper production had nearly doubled from a year earlier. KAZ Minerals, listed on the London Stock Exchange, used to be called Kazakhmys. It is focused on mining low-cost open pit mines.
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(News report from Issue No. 327, published on May 5 2017)
MAY 1 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — In an interview with Reuters, BP’s Georgia country manager, Chris Schlueter said that the middle section of the $40b Southern Gas Corridor would be completed on time in 2018. This is important because it indicates that the entire pipeline system, running from Azerbaijan’s Caspian Sea coast across Georgia and Turkey into the Balkans and across the Aegean Sea to Italy may be operational by 2020 as promised. The Southern Gas Corridor is supposed to reduce Europe’s reliance on gas supplies from Russia and also boost Azerbaijan’s economy.
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(News report from Issue No. 327, published on May 5 2017)
MAY 4 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a draft law to be voted on by Kazakhstan’s parliament, candidates for future presidential elections will have to undergo a medical test. Pres. Nursultan Nazarbayev pushed through a raft of tweaks to the constitution earlier this year which he said were designed to shift power to parliament from the presidency in a move that makes Kazakhstan more democratic. His detractors have said that the changes tighten his control over power.
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(News report from Issue No. 327, published on May 5 2017)
MAY 4 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia cancelled a $240m debt owed by Kyrgyzstan which had been due to be paid off by 2025. The statement from the office of Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev said that the loan had been given to Kyrgyzstan on Sept. 20 2012. The statement did not say why Russia had decided to wipe off the debt but it has previously handed out soft loans and cancelled debt in return for political favours.
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(News report from Issue No. 327, published on May 5 2017)
APRIL 28 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s state-run drug purchasing company SK Pharmacia paid nearly four times more than it needed to for various medicines in 2015 in a corruption scheme that cost the Kazakh taxpayer millions, the state’s anti-corruption unit said. SK Pharmacia has been the focus of a major corruption investigation since the end of last year.
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(News report from Issue No. 327, published on May 5 2017)
APRIL 27 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Foreign investment in Kazakhstan jumped 40% to $20.6b in 2016, compared to 2015, investment and development minister Zhenis Kassymbek told media. The jump was mainly linked to major infrastructure projects in the energy and mining sectors, such as the expansion of the CPC Pipeline.
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(News report from Issue No. 327, published on May 5 2017)
APRIL 25 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The parliament of the Czech Republic voted to recognise and condemn the killings of Armenians in eastern Turkey at the end of WWI as a genocide, drawing praise from Armenia and scorn from Turkey. Pushing for more countries to recognise the killings as a genocide is a key plank of Armenian foreign policy. Turkey has always denied the killings were genocide and has instead said that they were the result of chaos at the end end of WWI as the Ottoman Empire collapsed.
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(News report from Issue No. 326, published on April 28 2017)