OCT. 24 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Gazprom Armenia, a subsidiary of Russia’s gas giant Gazprom, appointed former deputy director Hrant Tadevosyan as its new CEO. Gazprom’s CEO Alexei Miller formally introduced Mr Tadevosyan during a visit to Yerevan. His predecessor, Vardan Harutyunyan, was appointed to head the state revenues committee earlier in October.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)
OCT. 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Chinese telecoms giant Huawei said it will roll out a 4G service in Azerbaijan’s exclave region of Nakhchivan, highlighting China’s growing business influence in the South Caucasus.
Separated from mainland Azerbaijan by a sliver of Armenian territory, Nakhchivan also borders Turkey and Iran.
The region, which spans 5,500 square km, roughly as big as Brunei, holds symbolic significance as the birthplace of Heydar Aliyev, first president of independent Azerbaijan and father of current leader Ilham Aliyev.
The animosity between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh region means that Nakhchivan has, effectively, been cut off from the rest of Azerbaijan. To power the region, Azerbaijan and Iran swap gas supplies.
This makes the deal with Huawei, and China’s influence, important for Nakhchivan.
“Now people living in most distant villages of Nakhchivan can enjoy a high-speed internet,” China’s Global Post quoted Vasif Talibov, speaker of Nakhchivan’s autonomous parliament, as saying.
No details of the cost of the deal, or whether Azerbaijan was paying for any of the 4G roll-out, were released.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)
OCT. 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — When Armenian gunmen calling themselves the Daredevils of Sassoun after a group of lionised 8th century freedom fighters seized a police compound in Yerevan in July, the world’s attention was focused on another story unfolding next door – an attempted coup in Turkey.
Yet what took place in Armenia was an unprecedented strike against the state. Veterans from a war in the 1990s between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, the so-called Daredevils held police officers and medics hostage for two weeks before surrendering to the authorities without a fight.
But, by then, thousands of Armenians had come out onto the streets to express their solidarity with the gunmen.
In the eyes of the authorities the gunmen were criminals, official media described them as terrorists. Three policemen died during the siege, afterall. But on the day of their surrender, supporters gathered outside the Opera House in central Yerevan chanting their names and calling them heroes.
One long-term South-Caucasus observer told me that what happened in July was the emergence of a new and radical form of anti-government protest, likely to be repeated in other post-Soviet oligarchies.
There was no single reason for the gunmen’s actions, instead they were driven by an aggregate of problems facing Armenian society.
Poverty, corruption, inequality, and the authorities’ inability to resolve the ongoing conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh Their actions prompted mixed feelings among Armenians. Some were outraged that the gunmen were using violence to achieve their goals. Others saw this aggressive action as necessary but poorly executed.
But many were inspired. Since their arrest, Daredevil supporters have been mythologising them, writing songs about their sacrifice for a noble cause – a more prosperous and free Armenia.
Since the siege and the protests, President Serzh Sargsyan has promised reforms, and a new PM and government has been ushered in. Few, though, believe deeply rooted social and economic problems can be solved so easily.
And the story of the Daredevils is not over. Once a trial date is set, their support base will become active again, demanding their release. That raises the prospect of another spell of street protests in Armenia.
By Rahyan Demytrie, a BBC correspondent in the South Caucasus
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)
OCT. 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Two construction workers died in two separate incidents on building sites in Tbilisi within a couple of days, highlighting the often poor levels of health and safety in Georgia. The first man to die fell from a building. The second died from a suspected heart attack. Georgia is going through something of a construction boom at the moment.
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(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)
OCT. 24 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has signed a deal with Kyrgyzstan’s First MicroCredit Company to funnel $1m to households in the south of the country for projects to improve their energy and water efficiency. Projects that will qualify for EBRD funding include installing energy efficient windows, doors and water pumps.
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(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)
OCT. 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan-focused miner Centerra Gold said it completed the acquisition of Thompson Creek, a Canadian miner, in exchange for 8% of its shares. Centerra said that the deal is consistent with its diversification efforts. Under the Centerra brand, Thompson Creek will continue its operations in British Columbia. The Kyrgyz government owns a minority stake in Centerra and had opposed the transaction because it said it would have diluted its shareholding in Centerra.
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(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)
OCT. 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Shokasym Shoislamov, the Uzbek ambassador to Tajikistan, said the countries are negotiating an agreement to open the Tajik market to Uzbek car exports. Uzbekistan’s largest carmaker, GM Uzbekistan, a JV between US-based GM and the Uzbek government, exports most of its cars to Russia.
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(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)
OCT. 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan-focused energy company Nostrum Oil & Gas posted a 12% fall in oil output in the first nine months of 2016, compared to the daily average it maintained in the same period last year. Lower production and sustained low oil prices meant that revenues in Jan.-Sept. 2016 fell by 35%, compared to last year.
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(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)
OCT. 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Sweden’s Telia Company posted a net loss of $908m in Q3 2016 due to the settlement of court cases involving corrupt practices in Uzbekistan. Telia, which paid $1.4b to settle claims by US and Dutch courts in September, said that the court case is not yet closed, hinting of possible further claims. The company was accused of bribing Gulnara Karimova, daughter of late- Uzbek President Islam Karimov, to win telecoms licences.
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(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)
OCT. 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan said that its economy would shrink in 2016 by 2.8%, a major reversal from its earlier insistence that it would avoid a recession and post growth of 1.8%.
Answering questions posted by Reuters, the Azerbaijani economy ministry blamed sluggish oil prices and low global growth for the GDP revision. Last week government data showed Azerbaijan’s GDP had contracted by nearly 4% in the first nine months of 2016.
“The growth at 1.8 percent was projected in 2015, when the International Monetary Fund had been projecting the oil price at $64/barrel,” Reuters quoted government officials as saying. Oil prices are now around $50/barrel, double the price in January.
Most economists have been predicting a recession in Azerbaijan this year and the reluctance to downgrade its own growth estimate has been seen by many as fanciful thinking that will damage the credibility of the Azerbaijani government.
According to the World Bank the last time that Azerbaijan’s GDP contracted was in 1995.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)