DEC. 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Halyk Bank, Kazakhstan’s second biggest lender, said profits for the first nine months of the year had risen by around two-thirds, mainly because of an increase in the number of loans it has given out. The results are good news for Kazakhstan’s economy which has been under pressure from falling oil prices.
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(News report from Issue No. 211, published on Dec. 3 2014)
DEC. 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The OSCE said it does not expect the Uzbek parliamentary election on Dec. 21 to be either free or fair and that it will be sending only a small group to the vote.
In total the OSCE will send 20 observers to cover the election in Uzbekistan, a country with 30m people and 135 electoral districts.
The Uzbek government, though, had a slightly different way of interpreting the OSCE’s perceived snub. It said that the OSCE’s limited observation mission was because there had been large improvements in the process.
“There is a unanimous opinion that no problems are expected,” the Uzbek government said in a statement. The OSCE has never judged an election in post-Soviet Uzbekistan to be either free or fair.
Of course, in a way, the Uzbek government is correct. There are no problems expected in terms of the result.
The Uzbek government made sure that only four pro- president political parties were allowed to run for the 135 seats. The Uzbek Central Election Commission rejected the unofficial Erk opposition party’s registration application.
The importance of these parliamentary elections is not that they will, or even could, trigger a change in how Uzbekistan is run, instead they are an indicator ahead of presidential elections in 2015.
Signals from Uzbekistan have suggested that President Islam Karimov’s position has been weakened by a prolonged power struggle over the past year. If any strong contenders emerge out of the parliamentary elections, even from the pro-presidential parties, it could make for a more dynamic presidential vote.
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(News report from Issue No. 211, published on Dec. 3 2014)
NOV. 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A gas explosion in a block of flats in the city of Taldykorgan in south Kazakhstan killed at least seven people, media reported. Media quoted the emergency services as saying improper use of gas cylinders had caused the explosion. The accident highlights poor infrastructure used in Kazakhstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 211, published on Dec. 3 2014)
DEC. 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Under a deal thrashed out last month, Kazakhstan started supplying Kyrgyzstan with electricity, media reported. Kyrgyzstan has been desperate to secure electricity because of a dry summer that has left reservoirs feeding hydropower sites low on water.
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(News report from Issue No. 211, published on Dec. 3 2014)
NOV. 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s prosecutor charged Melis Myrzakmatov, the once powerful mayor of Osh, for alleged corruption in a move linked to next year’s parliamentary election.
Mr Myrzakmatov, a nationalist, ruled Osh, Kyrgyzstan’s second city, with significant de facto autonomy from Bishkek between 2009 and 2013. He was eventually upseated by central government but last year he announced his intention to compete in parliamentary elections scheduled for autumn 2015.
The new corruption charges, so the theory goes, are designed to scupper these ambitions.
Kyrgyzstan’s General Prosecutor accused Mr Myrzakmatov of stealing $500,000 during the tender of a construction project for a bridge in Osh.
Mr Myrzakmatov has been one of the government’s most outspoken and formidable opponents. Such was his hold over Osh that he survived the political reshuffle after the country’s revolution in 2010 and ethnic violence between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in June of the same year.
Many Uzbeks suspect Mr Myrzakmatov played a role in instigating the ethnic violence to consolidate his control over Osh.
Mr Myrzakmatov’s party, Uluttar Birimdigi, which is not in the current parliament, would have been guaranteed strong support among Kyrgyz in Osh and elsewhere in the South. This would have complicated the electoral arithmetic for other dominant parties, including President Almazbek Atambayev’s Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan.
Mr Myrzakmatov is being charged in absentia as his current whereabouts is unknown. Mr Atambayev launched a
‘war on corruption’ when he was inaugurated 2011. Most of the victims of this so-called appeared to be his political rivals.
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(News report from Issue No. 211, published on Dec. 3 2014)
DEC. 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan has taken the unusual step of banning drones from its airspace, media reported. The official reason for the ban is to secure its airspace and improve civilian flight safety. The real reason could be Uzbek paranoia about spying by neighbouring countries.
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(News report from Issue No. 211, published on Dec. 3 2014)
NOV. 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged a US delegation flying to Tashkent for bilateral talks to push for the release of political prisoners. HRW has criticised the US for relaxing its pressure on Uzbekistan’s human rights record because it needs to transport military kit from Afghanistan across Uzbek territory.
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(News report from Issue No. 211, published on Dec. 3 2014)
NOV. 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – German engineering company Bosch said it would open a 1,600sqm warehouse, that’s about a third of the size of a football pitch, in Tbilisi to supply power-drill equipment to Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. The opening of the Bosch warehouse is a vote of confidence in the region’s economy.
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(News report from Issue No. 211, published on Dec. 3 2014)
NOV. 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Many of Georgia’s top politicians and businessmen gathered at the funeral in Tbilisi of former economy minister Kakha Bendukidze who died this month in London. Bendukidze was aged 58 when he died. He was the architect of the privatisation drive under former president Mikheil Saakashvili.
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(News report from Issue No. 210, published on Nov. 26 2014)
NOV. 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia brought back the bodies of three crew members of a helicopter shot down by Azerbaijan earlier this month, media reported. The shooting down of the helicopter over the disputed region of Nagorno- Karabakh has heightened tension between the two neighbours.
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(News report from Issue No. 210, published on Nov. 26 2014)