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Rumours swirl over Gulnara’s death in Uzbekistan, some people want her to return

TASHKENT, NOV. 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — If there is a shadow hanging over the presidential election in Uzbekistan and the apparent smooth handover of power to Shavkat Mirziyoyev coupled with warmer neighbourly relations, it is the figure of Gulnara Karimova.

Very little has been heard of Uzbekistan’s self-styled diva since she was placed under house arrest in Tashkent in March 2014. She had been the preferred successor of her father, Islam Karimov, but fell from grace after police forces in Europe started investigating her financial affairs. It emerged she had been taking bribes worth hundreds of millions of dollars from foreign telecoms firms.

Unlike her sister and mother, who have been pictured mourning and have set up an institute in Karimov’s name, Ms Karimova has hardly been mentioned in news coverage since her father’s death on Sept. 2.

That is until a Russian language website which specialises on reporting on Central Asia, centre1.com, quoted an unnamed member of the Uzbek security forces as saying that she had been poisoned at the start of November and buried in a shallow grave (Nov. 22).

The centre1.com story was widely sited across the media until her London-based son, also called Islam Karimov, released a statement two days later saying that she was alive and well.

“These are just rumours. She’s alive and still bound to a house arrest sentence ,” he told the BBC.

Even so, Ms Karimova has still not been seen in public.

On a trip to Tashkent last month by the Bulletin, though, it was clear that she still carries a degree of support from ordinary people, despite Western media referring to her as the most hated person in Uzbekistan – a reference based on a 2005 diplomatic cable sent from the US embassy in Tashkent to Washington.

Umida, 22, a Tashkent-based student, said that it would be good if the glamorous Ms Karimova returned to public life.

“Gulnara did lots of useful things in the sphere of culture and education and gave many opportunities to young people,” she said.

Dilmurad, 28, agreed. “I don’t know whether the accusations about her are right or wrong, but I would like to see many of the social projects she organised, the Forum Foundation, Art Week Style, Marathons, Fighting Breast Cancer, being held once again.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 306, published on Nov. 25 2016)

Turkmen minister visits Pakistan

NOV. 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan’s defence minister Colonel-General Berdiyev Yaylym Yagmyrovich flew to Rawalpindi in Pakistan to meet with the head of the Pakistani army General Raheel Sharif, media reported. According to the reports the main focus of the trip was regional security and the growth of the Taliban in Afghanistan. The meeting is important because it is more evidence that Turkmenistan, normally reclusive and proudly neutral, is increasingly concerned about regional stability.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)

People demonstrate in Azerbaijan over house demolitions

BAKU, NOV. 15 2016, (The Conway Bulletin) — Dozens of people in a suburb of Baku held a rare protest against the authorities over the demolition of 64 houses.

The authorities said that the houses needed to be cleared to build a new station for the city’s metro system extension. The protesters said, though, the compensation that they had been offered was derisory.

Nesibe Musayeva, one of the demonstrators, also said the authorities were deliberately underscoring the size of people’s properties.

“We can buy neither land nor houses with this money. Where can we go in such cold winter?” she said, tears welling up in her eyes. “Where can we go with such an amount of money? We don’t want money. We want just a place to live.”

In the run up to both the 2015 European Games and the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest, human rights groups accused Azerbaijan of abuse by beating residents who protested against house demolitions in the suburbs.

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(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)

Kazakhstan operating Tethys revenue drops

NOV. 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Guernsey-registered Tethys Petroleum posted a 46% decline in revenues in Q3 2016, compared to the same period last year, due to a production slump and a decrease in the price that its Kazakh customers pay for its oil and gas supplies. The company said that average production declined by 57% to 742 barrels/day as production cost increased. In a separate corporate note, the company said that a Kazakh prosecutor had dismissed allegations of misconduct against its subsidiary, but said that its assets remained frozen.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)

Armenia demurs for WMD

NOV. 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia’s parliament voted to extend for seven years a deal with the United States designed to stop the spread of so-called weapons of mass destruction. Under the deal the US supplies Armenia with equipment and training to stop the spread of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. The original deal was signed in 2000.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)

Kazakh police arrests senior officials

NOV. 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The deputy head of the government’s Baiterek development corporation, Aslan Jakupov, was arrested with two other people for taking bribe of a around $80,000 over a house-building contract in Pavlodar, media reported. Media said that Aslan Jakupov is the son of a senior Kazakh MP. The case shows just how ingrained corruption is in Kazakhstan. The prosecutor said that Mr Jakupov was suspected of taking a series of bribes from construction companies in deals across the country.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)

Kyrgyz MPs blame EEU for blocking meat exports

BISHKEK, NOV. 17 2016, (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyz MPS blamed the Eurasian Economic Union for unfair restrictions which have slowed meat exports.

The criticism of the Eurasian Economic Union, and the implied bias towards the bigger member states, is just the latest attacked on the Kremlin-led economic bloc from Kyrgyz politicians and businesses who have always been sceptical of the benefits of joining.

Earlier this year, Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev said that the Eurasian Economic Union had actually resulted in a drop in exports and also created mountains of extra red tape for businesses to deal with.

In parliament, Kyrgyz PM Sooronbai Jeenbekov said that meat producers have not been able to export to Eurasian Economic Union states since it joined the bloc because of alleged sanitary infractions.

“Kyrgyzstan fulfils all terms of the Eurasian economic union,” he said. “But protection of individual interests does not contribute to the deepening and strengthening of integration as a whole.”

A few weeks ago, Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev accused Kazakhstan, also a Eurasian Economic Union member, of reneging on a promise to build a new site on the border that would have allowed Kyrgyz producers to receive the necessary paperwork needed to export meat. He alleged that Kazakhstan was trying to prevent Kyrgyz meat imports to stamp out competition.

Like the rest of the Central Asia and South Caucasus region, Kyrgyzstan has been dealing with an economic downturn since 2014 linked to a fall in oil prices that triggered a recession in the Russian economy. Kyrgyz timing in joining the Eurasian Economic Union in August 2015 means that it has become even more tightly bound to Russia.

The Eurasian Economic Union includes Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus and Armenia.

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(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)

Georgia’s former president sets up party

NOV. 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili announced that he was setting up a new political party in Ukraine less than a week after quitting as governor of the Odessa region because of what he said were links between the government and corrupt practices. He called for an early election in Ukraine. Last month, Mr Saakashvili’s United National Movement party was soundly beaten in a parliamentary election in Georgia and his detractors have said that he has set up a political party in Ukraine because his much-vaunted return to Georgian politics failed to materialise.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)

Erdogan visits Uzbekistan

NOV. 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan was due to visit Uzbekistan on Nov. 18 for talks with acting- president Shavkat Mirziyoyev. Mr Mirziyoyev has made improving Uzbekistan’s international relations a priority since taking over in September after the death of Islam Karimov.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)

EDB to support Tajik Nurek

NOV. 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Russo-Kazakh Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) said it is ready to consider supporting the modernisation of the Nurek hydropower plant, the largest in Tajikistan. In an interview with Avesta, EDB chairman Dmitri Pankin said that, if the government asked for help, the EDB would help fund reconstruction work at the dam together with the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. The Tajik government had previously said the modernisation will cost $700m.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)