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Architecture in Kazakhstan stirs passions

>>A row over a blog discussing Almaty’s architecture hits a sensitive nerve>>

ALMATY, FEB. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — “This is sick,” one commentator wrote. “You’re a monster,” wrote another.”

The offending photograph showed an old cottage here in Almaty decked in fine Russian vernacular architecture: carved eaves called karnizy, ornate window frames called nalichniki.

The picture had been, for full-disclosure, run through a muddy Instagram filter, and the house wasn’t in the best of shape. Yet the dissenting faction, trolls or otherwise, couldn’t find anything to admire.

“Why don’t you show our Al-Farabi Boulevard instead?” one user offered. “We’ve got all the fanciest cars!”

I never thought a site about Almaty’s overlooked architecture would be so divisive. Yet the project, Walking Almaty, has revealed a certain fault line in the attitudes of local denizens.

For those born after the fall of the USSR in 1991, the Soviet stuff I celebrated was something of an embarrassment and anything old acted as a painful, rusty reminder. Al Farabi Boulevard at the southern end of town, with its Prada store and glass and steel feel, is the aspirational icon of this crowd.

Meanwhile, old-timers who still call the city by its Russian name of Alma-Ata converse through online forums. For them, the past is something lived, not something to be shirked, and as facades of faux-granite rise, they feel as disrespected as the haters I witnessed on Instagram.

One youthful user recently posted online a picture of a rebuilt cottage, its wooden fretwork ripped off, its new paint job unsubtle. The old-timers responded in chorus. “This is sick.”

By Dennis Keen, an Almaty-based American blogger and writer
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 219, published on Feb. 18 2015)

Kyrgyz Central Bank spends heavily

FEB. 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan has spent around 10% of its currency reserves this year defending its currency from devaluing, media quoted the chairman of the Central Bank, Tolkunbek Abdygulov, as saying. The Kyrgyz som is closely linked to the Russian rouble and has devalued against the US dollar by around 20%.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 219, published on Feb. 18 2015)

Berdy wants more clients

FEB. 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Perhaps feeling the pinch from falling energy prices, Turkmen leader Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov wants Turkmenistan to increase the number of foreign clients it has for its gas, the official website turkmenistan.ru reported. Mr Berdmukhamedov has already increased Turkmenistan’s client case since taking over.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)

Uzbek/Kazakh water politics

>>Is Kazakhstan shifting away from pro-Uzbekistan stance?>>

FEB. 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Astana has been a reliable supporter for Tashkent on some major regional issues over the past 20 years, backing Uzbek President Islam Karimov’s opposition to prospective Tajik and Kyrgyz hydropower dams and also deporting Uzbek asylum seekers.

But the Kazakh authorities may have recently started sending signals that suggest they want changes in Uzbekistan. For instance, Rapil Joshybayev, the Kazakh first deputy foreign minister told a group of Tajik officials in Dushanbe that Kazakhstan may have had a change of heart over the hydropower issue (Feb. 4).

“Kazakhstan is ready to consider the Tajik party’s proposals on fulfilling contracts as part of the hydropower stations construction projects,” he said.

This statement may signify a change of approach by Kazakhstan over a major piece of regional politics — the expansion of hydropower.

In short the upstream countries, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, want to build hydropower dams. The downstream countries, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, want to stop this.

These are tricky times for Uzbekistan. Next month, Uzbekistan will also have to deal with a presidential election.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)

Turkmenistan calls up reservists

>>Website says officers have been sent to training camps>>

FEB. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Increasingly worried by the threat from the Taliban over the border in Afghanistan, Turkmenistan is calling up more and more of its young men for military training.

The chrono-tm.org website reported that officers who form part of the reverse army have been sent on three month long training camps.

This is important because it is more incremental evidence from Turkmenistan, notoriously closed to outsiders, that it is worried about the Taliban. Last year Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov ordered his army to build defence positions inside Afghanistan after a series of attacks on Turkmenistan’s border posts killed several soldiers.

Since then, he has also tried to coordinate a joint strategy to defend Central Asia’s border with Uzbek president Islam Karimov. This sort of bilateral military alliance is virtually unheard of in Central Asia’s fractious neighbourhood.

“These actions on the urgent increase in size and readiness of the Turkmen army demonstrate serious concern the authorities hold on the potential threat from neighbouring Afghanistan and the tension on the Turkmen-Afghan border,” the website reported.

The problem for Central Asian governments is that NATO’s withdrawal from Afghanistan has created a security void. They have said that they worry the Taliban will look to expand into Central Asia.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)

Azerbaijan imprisons two for spying

FEB. 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan jailed two men for spying for Iran, media reported, potentially ramping up tension with its neighbour. Investigators said the two men worked with Iranian intelligence offices in 2013. Relations between the two countries had been dire but have improved over the past year.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)

Azerbaijan closes state enterprises

>>Pres. Aliyev cuts more government spending>>

FEB. 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev closed four state bodies in an effort to cut back on government expenses.

Although government officials avoided justifying the disbandment of the state-run companies Bakielektrikshabaka and Azerenerji, which were tasked with generating electricity in Baku and the regions, as well as the State Land and Cartography Committee and Baku Taxes Department, analysts said that cost-cutting was the clear motivator.

“I can’t recall four state bodies being terminated in one week until now,” an Azerbaijani analyst who wanted to keep his identity a secret, told The Bulletin.

“This is definitely about the oil price drop. The government should have done this before. It kept those bodies because of the easy oil money. Now the money is gone, they have had to disband these bodies.”

Ratings agencies have downgraded Azerbaijan’s sovereign debt rating and Mr Aliyev has also talked about reducing government expenditure. Last month it cancelled a multi-million dollar project to extend internet services to rural parts of the country.

Azerbaijan is reliant on energy to generate its income. BP, its biggest foreign investor, has already laid off 8% of its total workforce in Azerbaijan because of the slip in global prices. Oil has halved in value over the last seven months.

Mirvari Gahramanli, an Azerbaijani oil workers’ rights defender, told a local radio programme that the situation was likely to worsen.

“As oil prices go down, we expect more job cut in oil companies. Also, these people will have less chance to find new job places,” she said.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)

TAPI contractor

FEB. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmen officials are due to meet in Islamabad with counterparts from Pakistan, India and Afghanistan to decide on the contractor to build the TAPI pipeline, media reported. Sources said the leading candidate to build the pipeline to pump Turkmen gas to Asia is Total.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)

Turkmenistan census results

FEB. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan’s last official census, researched in 2012, showed that only 5% of its 6m population is ethnic Russian, the chrono-tm.org website reported. Quoting the 2012 census, the website also said 60% of young families, under 30-years-old, do not own their own homes. The census had been kept out of the public domain.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)

Measles on the rise in Kyrgyzstan

FEB. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Measles in Kyrgyzstan is on the rise because parents are opting their children out of the vaccination for religious reasons, media reported quoting government doctors. Figures quoted by the media said that the number of confirmed measles cases in Kyrgyzstan rose to 3,400 this year from 200 last year.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)