DEC. 30 2014, (The Conway Bulletin) — Pasha Bank, one of Azerbaijan’s biggest banks, has bought an 80% stake in Turkish bank TAIB for an undisclosed amount, media reported. The move by Pasha Bank shows the ambition of the Azerbaijani baking sector.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 213, published on Jan. 7 2015)
>>Re-starting gas supplies could improve relations>>
DEC. 30 2014, (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan has restarted gas supplies to Kyrgyzstan, ending an eight-month embargo.
This is significant as Uzbekistan-Kyrgyzstan relations had seemingly been drifting from bad to worse over border rows, water management and energy issues. Analysts had identified the cross-border tension as potentially destabilising to the whole region.
Media quoted Tahir Alimov, deputy director in Osh for Gazprom Kyrgyzstan, as saying that the gas started
flowing once again from Uzbekistan at 3am on Dec. 30. The resumption of gas supplies will be a major boon to Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev.
Kyrgyzstan has been negotiating with other countries across Central Asia to make up for the shortfall in Uzbek deliveries but, realistically, Kyrgyz officials were always going to fall short of making up for the lack of Uzbek gas.
Uzbekistan had switched off the gas supply to Kyrgyzstan in April when the current deal expired. Uzbekistan said that Kyrgyzstan didn’t want to negotiate a new deal.
Kyrgyzstan said that Uzbekistan wanted too high a price. At the same time Russia’s Gazprom completed a deal to buy Kyrgyzstan’s gas company and it seems that it, and not the Kyrgyz government, was able to negotiate a new deal.
Kyrgyz news agency 24.kg said that Uzbekistan and a Switzerland-based Gazprom-owned company had renegotiated the deal.
Perhaps, Gazprom has acted as a peace-maker.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 213, published on Jan. 7 2015)
JAN. 5 2015, (The Conway Bulletin) — Air Armenia, which suspended its international flights in October after declaring itself bankrupt, will re-start operations in March after agreeing a deal to sell 49% of the company to a Ukrainian company called East Prospect Fund, media reported. The news is important for Armenia’s travel links to Russia.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 213, published on Jan. 7 2015)
DEC. 21 2014, (The Conway Bulletin) — Nurali Aliyev, the 30-year-old grandson of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, became deputy mayor of Astana. The move sparked both allegations of nepotism and speculation that Mr Nazarbayev may be grooming Mr Aliyev, son of his eldest daughter Dariga Nazarbayeva as a successor.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 213, published on Jan. 7 2015)
>>US criticises yet another crackdown on civil liberties>>
DEC. 28 2014, (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan continued its crackdown on the media in the run up to New Year when it raided the office of US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).
Officials pulled RFE/RL off the air and detained a handful of its journalists. They said that the raid was
part of a criminal investigation although they refused to elaborate.
Earlier in December Azerbaijani officials arrested an employee of the local language RFE/RL service for allegedly working for a foreign security service. Also, one of the radio station’s star journalists, Khadija Ismayilova, is currently being held in pre-trial detention. She is accused of coaxing a man into suicide.
For the past couple of years, the authorities in Azerbaijan have been mounting an increasingly aggressive
campaign against the remnants of its free-speaking media and other more liberal minded sections of its civil society. Newspaper editors have been imprisoned, anti-government activists locked up and NGOs backed by Western powers threatened.
And this belligerent attitude towards Western values has now severely strained relations with the US and Europe.
The US issued a strongly worded statement criticising the raid on RFE/RL.
In 2014 the US also withdrew its long-running Peace Corps programme. Although this was described as routine, observers said it was likely linked to worsening relations.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 213, published on Jan. 7 2015)
DEC. 16 2014, (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kloop news website in Kyrgyzstan said the authorities blocked access to it after it posted a video apparently showing young Kazakh children fighting for the radical IS group in Syria. The owners of the website accused the government of over-reacting and pandering to Kazakhstan which has decreed the video illegal.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 213, published on Jan. 7 2015)
JAN. 5 2015, (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajik militants fighting for the radical Islamic group IS in Syria have reportedly said they want to return home to attack Tajikistan. This is Central Asian leaders’ worst nightmare. They fear radicalised and battle-hardened Islamic fighters will return to fight in their home countries.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 213, published on Jan. 7 2015)
JAN. 6 2015, (The Conway Bulletin) — A Sheraton hotel, owned by the Starwood Hotels & Resorts brand, has opened in Dushanbe, media reported. Dushanbe is undergoing something of a hotel boom in recent years with several major chains opening in the Tajik capital.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 213, published on Jan. 7 2015)
DEC. 18 2014, (The Conway Bulletin) — The European Parliament in Strasbourg ratified an associated deal with Georgia which deepens economic integration. The deal is important to Georgia because it moves it closer to its aim of joining the EU. At the same time the breakaway region of South Ossetia announced it wanted a stronger union with Russia.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 213, published on Jan. 7 2015)
DEC. 19 2014, (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Khujand, north Tajikistan, convicted 11 men of belonging to the banned militant group Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU). Alongside the growing lure of the radical group IS, the governments of Central Asia fear signs that the IMU is gaining momentum. It has launched attacks previously in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 213, published on Jan. 7 2015)