Category Archives: Uncategorised

Editorial: Kazakh President’s travels

APRIL 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – When they meet, Nursultan Nazarbayev and Islam Karimov want to show unity between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

But this is often just a facade.

The reality is that the two leaders clash and vie for influence over Central Asia. After all, Kazakhstan is the largest Central Asian country by territory, while Uzbekistan is the most populous.

Last Friday, Tashkent was the final stopover in an international foray by Mr Nazarbayev that had taken in Istanbul and Tehran as well. Mr Karimov seemed happy to receive his neighbour and said the two countries “need to synchronise watches” and work more closely together.

The friendliness and the smiles that the leaders exchanged during the meeting, however, is not a sign that the long-standing rivalry between the two neighbours has subsided. Instead it is a reflection of the economic situation that they find themselves in. They have to try to work together to deal with a worsening economic outlook.

ENDS

(Editorial from Issue No. 277, published on April 22 2016)

Editorial: Armenian official quits

APRIL 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Corporate governance and transparency activists in Central Asia and the South Caucasus have a scalp, finally.

Mihran Poghosyan was forced to resign from his post as Armenia’s Chief Compulsory Enforcement Officer after being tracked as the owner of off- shore companies that had won government tenders. This was considered a conflict of interest.

If true, the revelation, which emerged from the so-called Panama Papers leak, means that Mr Poghosyan had lied when he said that he had dropped his business interests before assuming office.

And, in a rare move for a senior official in the region, he resigned and said he will fight a legal battle in court to demonstrate his innocence.

The Panama Papers still have some distance to run and it is likely that more revelations will come out about senior officials and government leaders in the region.

What is far less likely, though, is that these revelations will trigger more resignations.

ENDS

(Editorial from Issue No. 277, published on April 22 2016)

Kazakhstan’s Halyk Bank goes digital

APRIL 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Halyk Bank, Kazakhstan’s second- largest bank, said it has launched a new banking subsidiary, Altyn-i, which will operate a digital-only model. Altyn-i will operate under Altyn Bank, the successor of HSBC Kazakhstan, that Halyk Bank bought in March 2014 for $176m.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 277, published on April 22 2016)

Georgian parliament introduces new tax code

APRIL 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Georgian parliament adopted a new tax bill taken from the so- called ‘Estonian model’, which mandates corporate tax to be imposed only on distributed profits. The government forecasts a loss of 600m lari ($260m) in 2017, the first year of the new tax regime. “This loss is expected to be fully compensated by economic growth,” deputy finance minister Lasha Khutsishvili told MPs.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 277, published on April 22 2016)

Tajikistan’s TALCO makes Glencore deal

APRIL 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – TALCO, Tajikistan’s aluminium smelter, said it agreed to supply 200,000 tonnes of aluminium per year to Glencore, a Swiss-based commodities trader. This is an increase of almost 23% compared to the previous deal which expires later this year. TALCO also said it increased its aluminium production by 17% in the first quarter of 2016, compared to the same period last year.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 277, published on April 22 2016)

Leyla and Arif Yunus leave Azerbaijan for asylum in the Netherlands

APRIL 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – In an apparent softening of their hardline stance on dissidents, the Azerbaijani authorities allowed human rights activist Leyla Yunus and her husband Arif Yunus to leave the country to seek urgent medical care in Amsterdam.

The Yunuses, increasingly frail after spending more than a year in prison, will also be able to claim political asylum in the Netherlands, effectively allowing Azerbaijan to back out of an increasingly difficult stand-off with the West over the two human rights campaigners’ imprisonment.

Dutch foreign minister Bert Koenders welcomed their arrival and said it showed that international pressure to release human rights activists can pay off.

“Leyla and Arif have put their own happiness and safety on the line in their struggle for democracy and human rights,” he said. “In cases like these, silent diplomacy definitely gets results.”

Dinara Yunus, their daughter, lives in the Netherlands.

Arif Yunus was arrested in July 2014, just days after Leyla. Both were first charged with treason. Prosecutors later added financial crimes to the list of accusations.

Both denied the charges and said that they were politically motivated and part of a wider campaign against critics of the government. They were freed in December 2015 due to worsening health conditions.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 277, published on April 22 2016)

United States and Kyrgyzstan argue over rights

APRIL 22 2016, BISHKEK (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan accused the United States of hypocrisy after the State Department said in a global human rights report that police brutality was commonplace and that the country’s minorities — ethnic, sexual and religious — were often harassed (April 21).

The US’ annual reports stirs indignation from countries who consider Washington’s criticism to be unjustified grand-standing but Kyrgyzstan’s reaction was especially sharp.

The Kyrgyz ministry of foreign affairs called the report politically motivated, unjustified and a form of geopolitical blackmail.

“The United States of America was pretty comfortable with previous authorities, who used to chase and burn the opposition, killed journalists and robbed the country,” it said in a statement on its website in a reference to the ousted regime of Kurmanbek Bakiyev. He was overthrown in a violent revolution in 2010.

It then pointed out the US’ human rights failings, including racial discrimination, police abuse and torture at the now closed Guantanamo detention centre.

The row between Kyrgyzstan and the US over human rights is rooted in the US’ recognition of Azimzhan Askarov, an ethnic Uzbek arrested and imprisoned in 2010 while he was investigating alleged police brutality, as a political prisoner.

The US has awarded him a human rights prize and called for his release.

In Bishkek, opinion was divided over the US’ criticism.

Some, like Shamima, a 23-year-old student, said Kyrgyzstan had swung towards Russia over human rights. She said that women’s rights were also weak in Kyrgyzstan.

“Official statistics says that up to 30 young women are being stolen every day through bride kidnapping, and the state does little to protect social minorities, such as sexual and other minorities,” she said.

But others defended the Kyrgyz government.

“Americans should not intervene into affairs of other countries. Whenever Russia does it, everybody points at it. But why then does the US keep intervening?” said 53-year-old Yuri.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 277, published on April 22 2016)

Tajik authorities introduce single phone number for police

APRIL 18 2016, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan’s interior ministry introduced a single phone number to dial police in an emergency, ditching a clumsy system that had forced people to remember different numbers for each district police station.

Now, dialling 1919 in Dushanbe, in Kulob or in Khujand will connect callers to a central switchboard which will then link through to a district police station.

And the reaction on the streets of Dushanbe was positive.

“Now it’s easier to call the police. I hope the system will be effective. Before, if something had happened, God forbid, I would not have had an idea how to call the police from my mobile urgently,” Sudoba, a 54-year old social worker, said.

“In emergency situations, each second counts. Calling the police in the right moment is vital.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 277, published on April 22 2016)

Chinese institution to fund road projects in Kazakhstan and Tajikistan

APRIL 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The AIIB, a China-backed international financial institution, said it would fund road projects in Tajikistan and Kazakhstan. According to unnamed sources quoted in the FT, the AIIB will join an EBRD-funded road project in Dushanbe and a World Bank and EBRD-backed ring road project in Almaty. The AIIB has said it is keen to fund infrastructure upgrades within its Silk Road project.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 277, published on April 22 2016)

Turkmen President reprimand officials

APRIL 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan’s President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov reprimanded Shamukhamet Durdyliyev, deputy PM and a member of the Presidential Administration, for the lack of progress made in a programme to beautify Ashgabat.

This is an apparent continuation of his penchant for publicly humiliating officials he feels have been underperforming. Ashgabat’s city administration has felt Mr Berdymukhamedov’s wrath before. Last August, he sacked Ashgabat’s mayor, Redzhepgeldi Nurmammedov, also for failing to improve his much loved capital city.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 277, published on April 22 2016)