Category Archives: Uncategorised

Russia hold military exercise in Georgian rebel region

JAN. 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia held a military exercise in the Georgian breakaway region of South Ossetia involving 2,000 soldiers and artillery, a show of force designed to remind Georgia just how heavily armed the rebel region is. Russia and Georgia fought a brief war over South Ossetia in 2008. Russia and a handful of its allies have since recognised its independence but the international community still considers South Ossetia as part of Georgia.

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(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)

ICG warns Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan on Taliban threat

JAN. 11 2016, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) — Anti-terrorist operations by Pakistan’s military along its border with Afghanistan have pushed Islamist fighters north, increasing the threat posed by the Taliban to Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) said.

The ICG said these battle-hardened radicals had played a key role in briefly capturing Kunduz, on the border with Tajikistan, last year.

“Insecurity in Afghanistan’s northern provinces, including Taliban control of districts across from Tajikistan, has increased pressure, with risk that battle-experienced Islamic militants could link up with even small numbers of potential allies inside the country,” ICG wrote.

The ICG is an influential voice. Its report sides with Russia’s analysis that stability along Central Asia’s southern border has worsened.

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(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)

Turkmenistan acknowledges economic slowdown

JAN. 9 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) -Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov officially recognised the economic slowdown hitting the region when he said that Turkmenistan’s GDP growth in 2015 had been 6.7% compared to 10.4% in 2014. Turkmenistan’s economy has been booming thanks mainly to gas sales to China.

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(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)

Turkmenistan starts to ban cigarettes

JAN. 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen officials have started pulling cigarettes off shops’ shelves in what appears to be a draconian attempt to effectively ban smoking altogether.

In Ashgabat, an AFP correspondent interviewed a shopkeeper who said that officials had recently ordered him to stop selling cigarette or face a heavy fine.

“(They) came to our shop recently and forced us to remove cigarettes from the shelves, threatening us with huge fines,” 34-year-old Bairam Saryev said.

Turkmenistan’s President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov is known for his eccentricity. He is a former dentist and hates smoking. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has praised his efforts to discourage smokers by banning smoking in all public buildings, parks and offices as well as cigarette advertising.

Last year WHO said only 8% of Turkmenistan’s population smoked, the lowest of any country.

The Turkmen government has not published any official announcement on whether it will ban smoking altogether.

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(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)

Editorial: Turkmenistan’s final puff

JAN. 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – By all accounts, Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, the president of Turkmenistan, is a very particular man.

He likes to be a winner, making sure that he wins horse races held in Turkmenistan each year. He likes, and appreciates, statues of himself which have started appearing in Ashgabat. He likes, far more than his predecessor, foreign travel.

He doesn’t like poor performing officials and he especially doesn’t like smoking. At least that’s the impression he has given.

Mr Berdymukhamedov has taken it upon himself to eradicate smoking, it appears. According to news reports he has banned smoking in almost all public places and has stopped shops from selling cigarettes.

This is, surely, a shame as lighting up a ciggie at the end of a day is a simple pleasure that had been available in Turkmenistan, a country not known for its personal freedoms.

Still, there may be one upside for smokers in Turkmenistan. The illegal cigarette behind the bike shed may come come back in vogue.

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(Editorial from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)

Rail revenues fall in Kazakhstan

JAN. 8 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Revenues earned by the Kazakh national railway company were down by 12.6% in the 11 months to the end of November compared to the same period in 2014, the ranking.kz website reported. The website said that passenger numbers had dropped off, another sign of the tight grip that the current economic downturn has taken of Kazakhstan.

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(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)

11 die from swine flu in Armenia

JAN. 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – At least 11 people have died of H1N1 Swine Flu in Armenia, media reported quoting the ministry of health. The ministry of health said that this did not equate to an epidemic, although there are another 80 people in prison suffering from the flu. Swine flu worries governments around the world because it can spread and has previously triggered epidemics.

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(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)

Iran ratifies security deal with Tajikistan

JAN. 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Iran’s parliament ratified a security deal with Tajikistan despite a row over an invitation to a Tajik opposition leader to visit Tehran that dented relations between the two countries earlier this month. Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon and Iran’s Hassan Rouhani had agreed the security deal in 2014.

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(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)

Tajikistan sets presidential referendum date

FEB. 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan’s parliament said a referendum on both ditching limits on presidential terms and reducing the minimum age for presidential candidates would be held on May 22, a move widely perceived as allowing Emomali Rakhmon and his family to retain their hold on power.

The 63-year-old Mr Rakhmon has ruled over Tajikistan since a civil war in the mid-1990s. He is generally considered an autocrat who has enriched his family and their supporters and crushed opposition.

Last year the Tajik authorities banned the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan, previously the country’s only official opposition party.

Mr Rakhmon appears to be hedging his bets ahead of a presidential election in 2020.

The constitutional changes, which are likely to be voted through by Tajiks more concerned with the economy than political reforms, will mean that he can either stand for a fourth term as president or that his eldest son, Rustam, can run for president. Rustam will be 33 in 2020. The constitutional amendments will reduce the minimum age for presidential candidates to 30 from 35.

People voting in the referendum will also be asked to decide whether to outlaw political parties linked to religion, a move appeared designed to block any splinter group from the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) gaining any popular backing.

Separately, a court in Dushanbe started the trial of 13 members of the IRPT who are accused of radicalism.

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(News report from Issue No. 267, published on Feb. 12 2016)

Russia drops Kyrgyz projects

DEC. 24 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev said a recession in Russia had hit the Kremlin’s finances so hard that it had pulled out of financing two hydropower projects in Kyrgyzstan. Russia’s economic demise presents an opportunity for China or others to fund infrastructure projects in Central Asia in return for influence. The two projects had been expected to cost $3.2b.

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(News report from Issue No. 262, published on Jan. 8 2016)