NOV.10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Europe’s main democracy watchdog, the OSCE, accused Azerbaijan of crushing independent media. Dunja Mijatovic, OSCE media representative, said free media had been “purposefully persecuted under various, often unfounded and disturbing charges.”
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(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)
NOV. 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan signed a deal with Turkey to provide gas for a new pipeline running from the Caspian Sea to Europe.
The deal means that Europe will take delivery of Turkmen gas directly, part of a major proposed new gas route that will avoid using Russian infrastructure.
Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan singed the deal with his Turkmen counterpart Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov during a visit to Ashgabat.
“We attach great significance to deliveries of Turkmenistan’s natural gas to Europe via Turkey,” media quoted him as saying.
“Europe’s energy security is important for us.”
Over the past few years, Turkmenistan has boosted its exports of gas dramatically. China is its main client but it has also sorted out alternatives. Joining the so-called TANAP pipeline is a major boon for Mr Berdymukhamedov as well as for Europe.
The TANAP programme will pump gas from Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz 2, which is under construction, to Central Europe by 2019 although it was always envisaged that other countries would also use the pipeline.
Turkmenistan has previously expressed some interest in sending its gas to Europe but had not unveiled any specific plans. Now that a deal with Turkey has been struck, it seems that Turkmenistan is committed to sending its gas to Europe.
Importantly, though, neither Mr Erdogan nor Mr Berdymukhamedov revealed any of the details of the deal.
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(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)
NOV. 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia submitted a revised budget for 2015 that increased state expenditure, most eye-catchingly boosting pensions. The increase will mainly be funded by raising tax on alcohol and cigarettes. The coalition government has been looking for a policy to boost its supporter base.
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(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)
NOV. 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan will donate $100m to Kyrgyzstan, Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev said during a trip to Astana to sign a new electricity supply deal. Mr Atambayev described the aid to Kyrgyzstan as can act of fraternal support from Kazakhstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)
NOV. 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Several hundred people protested against a crackdown by the authorities in Azerbaijan against the media, a rare protest in this increasingly heavily policed state.
A Bulletin correspondent said that the demonstration in Baku was good natured and had a festival-like atmosphere with flag waving, folk music and dancing.
Police tried to block reporters from speaking to demonstrators and from filming the march but they eventually relented.
Shakar Isgandarli was one of the demonstrators.
“I am a teacher of two political prisoners, Anar Mammadli and Bashir Suleymanli,” he said. “I taught them to fight against injustice. And they did. Now the Aliyev regime has jailed them for this”.
Europe and the United States have made increasingly harsh statements about the crackdown by Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev on the media but, seemingly, without much impact. Virtually every week, reports from Azerbaijan say that another anti-government activist has been imprisoned.
Mammadli and Suleymanli are two human rights lawyers who were imprisoned earlier this year for tax evasion and illegal business activities. They have said that these charges have been fabricated.
Protesters called for the resignation of Mr Aliyev and vowed to continue protests. The risk for Mr Aliyev is that although the police and prosecutors have been effective at imprisoning government critics, the arrests are stirring more anti-government feelings.
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(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)
NOV. 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Luxury carmaker Rolls Royce has opened its first showroom in Kazakhstan, media reported, underlining how attractive the country still is for high-end goods despite a recent downturn in the economy. Rolls Royce is owned by Germany’s BMW and joins most other carmakers with a showroom in Almaty.
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(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)
BISHKEK/Kyrgyzstan, NOV.12 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The human rights officer, a veteran who has done her time in several tense capitals, singled out with annoyance one major European country for its relative inaction on human rights matters in Central Asia — Germany.
“Germany’s approach is one of soft diplomacy, which has its strengths, but to what end in Central Asia?” she asked rhetorically. “All of my meetings with German officials have been worthless. It’s impossible to get Germany to take a stand on human rights in the region.”
This is, of course, a criticism that many Western governments have to contend with — that they look for strategic military or business deals over human rights.
The Bishkek-based human rights activist attributed Germany’s unwillingness to criticise human rights failures in Uzbekistan to the airbase it maintains in Termez. Last month it agreed an extension on this base.
But more generally — and against its otherwise strong international reputation on human rights matters — the German government has applied relatively little pressure on Central Asian governments on questions of human rights.
All this is a particular disappointment for human rights advocates in the EU and beyond.
Germany has a large business stake in each of the five former Soviet Central Asian countries. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have been especially lucrative for Germany. Today Germany is also home to hundreds of thousands of repatriated ethnic Germans, mostly from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
But whatever the explanation of Germany’s inaction — financial interest, concerns about remaining ethnic Germans in the region, or deference to the idea of a Russian sphere of influence — the lack of direction does no favours to those non-governmental organisations trying to raise the profiles of political prisoners and the lack of a free press in the region.
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(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)
NOV. 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Through its subsidiary Super iMAX, Korea Telecom will launch a 4G technology in Uzbekistan in 2015, media reported. South Korea is one of the biggest investors in Uzbekistan. The 4G service will be available in Tashkent, Samarkand and Bukhara.
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(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)
NOV. 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Egypt have charged four Tajik men with recruiting for the extremist group Islamic State (IS), the US-fund Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported quoting officials at the Tajik embassy in Cairo. Central Asian states are increasingly worried about young disenfranchised men joining IS.
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(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)
NOV. 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Replacing leaky pipes at the Kashagan oil field in the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea will cost around $3b, Reuters reported quoting a senior Kazakh official. Kashagan was to be the project that propelled Kazakhstan into the top tier of global energy suppliers instead it has run hugely over budget and time.
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(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)