AUG. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Aktobe, west Kazakhstan, jailed eight men for 3-6 years for spreading Islamic extremist propaganda, media reported. Kazakhstan is becoming increasingly sensitive to the spread of Islamic propaganda. It worries that the radical IS group in Syria and Iraq is actively recruiting from Central Asia.
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(News report from Issue No. 242, published on Aug. 7 2015)
JULY 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Statoil, the oil and gas company part owned by the Norwegian government, has decided to sell its 20% stake in the Trans- Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project that will pump gas from Azerbaijani fields in the Caspian to consumers in Europe.
Rovnag Abdullayev, the head of Azerbaijani oil and gas company SOCAR, announced the news on Azerbaijani TV.
“Statoil has decided to leave the TAP project completely, and there is a company which is ready to buy its stake,” ANS TV quoted him as saying.
“Several companies have expressed an interest in buying Statoil’s stake, and it would be better if several companies would buy it.”
Statoil declined to comment.
If confirmed, Statoil’s decision to quit TAP is probably more a reflection on how it is
re-adjusting its portfolio rather than on the project itself. Statoil has already said it wants to reduce its exposure to risk in its portfolio and has sold its stakes in the giant Shah Deniz field in the Caspian Sea as well as in the South Caucasus Pipeline.
Stakes in these projects were snapped up by SOCAR, BP and Malaysia’s Petronas and Statoil’s stake in TAP will attract bids from companies looking for a high-profile project.
TAP is an 870km pipeline project that should link up with the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline near the Turkey-Greece border which will then carry Azerbaijani gas onto central Europe.
The current TAP shareholders are BP (20%), SOCAR (20%), Statoil (20%), Belgium’s Fluxys (19%), Spain’s Enagas (16%) and Swiss company Axpo (5%).
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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)
JULY 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – BAKU — Harvey Nichols, the upmarket, blingy British retailer favoured by the world’s globe trotting metropolitan elite has closed its store in Baku only four months after opening.
A spokesperson for Harvey Nichols declined to comment but she did confirm the news.
“Harvey Nichols has terminated its licence agreement with the operator of the Baku store. Consequently, the Baku store no longer operates under the Harvey Nichols brand,” retail-week.com quoted a spokeswoman as saying.
A Bulletin correspondent in Baku confirmed that the Harvey Nichols signage had been removed from its shop in an upmarket shopping mall.
The closure will embarrass the authorities in Azerbaijan who have taken pride in attracting some of the top luxury brands to Baku and turning it into a regional shopping Mecca.
And it also shines another spotlight on Azerbaijan human rights and corruption records which have been attracting criticism.
Harvey Nichols opened its Baku store in March 2015, its eighth overseas outlet and the first in the former Soviet Union. It operated in Baku through a franchise arrangement.
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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)
JULY 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Kyrgyzstan sentenced Melis Myrzakhmatov, a former mayor of Osh and a firebrand politician with a large following to 7 years in prison for various financial crimes. Myrzakhmatov was viewed as a potential destabilising influence. He has been on the run since January 2014, when he lost his mayoral seat.
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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)
JULY 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – TBILISI — Around 1,500 Russian soldiers and dozens of pieces of artillery and missile systems started a major military exercise across the North Caucasus and the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia, Georgia’s government said.
The Georgian government described the war games, which came around a week after South Ossetian forces extended a de facto border into Georgia, as a major act of provocation by Russia that could destabilise the region.
“This provocative act of the Russian P Federation represents an infringement of Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Georgia’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
It said the Georgian military would respond if provoked.
Russia hasn’t commented but the South Ossetian land-grab, that included taking control of a 1.6km section of a pipeline operated by BP which pumps oil from the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea, and the alleged military exercises have created the worse stand-off between Georgia and Russia since they fought a war in 2008.
Earlier in July, Russia said that NATO exercises in Georgia, which included a contingent of US soldiers, would have “explosive consequences”.
Georgia said that the Russian 2-week long military exercise began on July 15 across the North Caucasus and South Ossetia.
Georgia is pushing to join NATO, especially since Russia annexed Crimea last year and, allegedly, sent its forces into eastern Ukraine to help rebel forces fight a civil war against the Ukrainian military.
Europe and the United States have been supportive of Georgia’s Western orientation, but also stand-offish on allowing Georgia to join NATO.
Donald Tusk, the European Council President, was in Georgia for a pre-planned visit. He detoured to the area where South Ossetia had extended its control.
He praised the Georgian government for its restraint.
“The Georgian government met it firmly, but calmly, he said. Our goal is not to yield to these provocations and not to give anyone any pretext for escalation,” Mr Tusk said.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)
DUSHANBE, JULY 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Tajik government said official news should be sent first to the state news agency Khovar, prompting allegations of a media crackdown.
Bishkek-based Tajik news agency Ozodagon published a scan of the decree.
The decree said: “All official information, meetings of the Government of Tajikistan, the President of Tajikistan’s working visits within the country and abroad, international, republican and sectoral meetings should be provided first to Khovar state information agency, and only after that should be sent by the agency to other media.”
The authorities in Tajikistan have been limiting media freedom over the past few years. The West has accused Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon of increasingly authoritarian tendencies.
The new law is another step towards becoming a fully authoritarian state, said Dr Irshod Sulaymoni, an independent political analyst in Dushanbe.
“The decree essentially contradicts the laws, including the constitution, of Tajikistan and questions the reality of equal access to information given by the law,” he said. “I think that the decree is clearly intended to control the official news.”
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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)
JULY 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Western media lobby groups called for Azerbaijan to release imprisoned journalist Khadija Ismayilova who is accused of various financial crimes. Her trial was due to begin on July 24. Ms Ismayilova’s supporters say the charges have been fabricated.
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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)
JULY 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Donald Tusk, head of the European Council, completed his tour of the South Caucasus in Baku where he held talks with Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev. Mr Tusk’s visit comes at a time of increasingly strained relations between Azerbaijan and the West.
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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)
JULY 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Almaty-based Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) will loan $300m to Armenia to weather tough economic conditions, media reported quoting Russia’s deputy economy minister Sergei Storchak. The ADB was set up by Russia and Kazakhstan. It supports members of the Eurasian Economic Union.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)
JULY 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a report entitled “‘That’s When I Realized I Was Nobody’: A Climate of Fear for LGBT People in Kazakhstan”, Human Rights Watch said that homophobia in Kazakhstan was rife. Almaty is bidding to host the Winter Olympics in 2022. The HRW report was released on the eve of the IOC decision on who to award the Games to.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)