Category Archives: Uncategorised

Turkmenistan increases oil production

SEPT. 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan increased its oil products production by nearly 2% in the first half of the year, media reported quoting official statistics. Although a marginal increase it is important because Central Asia is experience a general shortage of oil products.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)

Tajik footballer returned home

SEPT. 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajik footballer Khurshed Beknazarov has test positive for a banned substance at the Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, media reported. Reports said that the 20-year-old defender had been sent home. The Asian Games are a showcase for countries and the ruling will be an embarrassment to Tajikistan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)

Tajiks fighting for IS

SEPT. 19 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Around 200 Tajiks are fighting in Syria and Iraq for the extremist group Islamic State, President Emomali Rakhmon said according to media. Mr Rakhmon has long said he is facing pressure from Islamic extremist recruits who are attracting disaffected young Tajiks.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)

Armenia to join CU soon

SEPT. 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia will join the Russia-led Customs Union on Oct. 9, Leonid Slutsky, head of Russian State Duma Committee on CIS told Interfax news agency. Armenia has previously said that it is aiming to join the Customs Union sometime this year although it has not set a date.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)

Azerbaijan arrested 26 fighting for IS

SEPT. 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Azerbaijan said they have arrested 26 people who had been fighting for the extremist Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq. Azerbaijan has also said that over 100 of its nationals have been killed fighting for IS.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)

Kazakh city’s healthcare crumble

SEPT. 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – An influx of migrants to Almaty looking for jobs has reduced the quality of public healthcare in the city, Kazakhstan’s deputy PM, Gulshara Abdykalikova, told media. Ms Abdykalikova specifically said that the quality of doctors and nurses needed to be improved.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)

Russia handed ex-BTA to Kazakhstan

SEPT. 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia handed over Erlan Kosaev, a former BTA Bank official wanted in connection with fraud, to Kazakhstan for prosecution. Mr Kosaev was a colleague of Mukhtar Ablyazov, who is currently in a French jail. Kazakhstan wants to extradite Mr Ablyazov although rights groups have said that he wouldn’t face a fair trial.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)

Uzbekistan plans to construct wind farm

SEPT. 18 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan plans to start construction of its first wind farm by 2016, pro-government media quoted the director of the institute of energy at Uzbekistan’s Science Academy, Hakim Muratov, as saying. He said Germany’s GEO-NET Umweltconsulting is assessing the best spots.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)

Turkmen forces take up positions in Afghanistan

SEPT. 18 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen forces have crossed into Afghanistan and built up defensive positions to stop Taliban forces raiding across its border, the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and other media have reported.

Taliban forces have attacked several Turkmen military outposts this year, killing soldiers. Turkmenistan’s defence minister has flown to Kabul for talks with his Afghan opposite number on the situation but the attacks have continued. Any troop movement over the border is likely to be a response to these attacks.

“The Turkmenistanis came here, dug trenches, set up wire fences,” one resident told RFE/RL according to the Eurasianet website.

“No one asked them what they were doing here. The trenches they dug are 4m wide and 5m deep. Besides that, in the same place they are paving a road.”

Importantly, eyewitnesses didn’t distinguish whether the apparent Turkmen forces which have crossed the border are official military or one of the numerous militia forces that populate the border zones.

The troop movement hasn’t been confirmed by either Turkmenistan or Afghanistan.

Central Asian countries have said that they are increasingly worried about the march northward of the Taliban after the withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan this year.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)

Sanctions on Russia hit Armenian cheese industry

SEPT. 24 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Each cloud, so the saying goes, has a silver lining. For Armenia’s economy, hit badly by EU and US imposed sanctions on its main trading partner Russia, this could be its cheese industry.

Last month in retaliation for EU sanctions, Russia banned most agriculture imports from the EU. One of the biggest imports was cheese. There is now a shortage of cheese in Russia, presenting its neighbours, including Armenia, with an opportunity, as Armen Gigoyan, head of Armenia’s cheese manufacturers’ union explained.

“We supply approximately 1,500 tonnes of cheese to Russia every year. Under the current vacuum conditions in the Russian market, we could export up to 5,000 tonnes, but shortage will occur on the domestic market once we exceed 2,000 tonnes,” he said according to media reports.

Russia imports around 150,000 tonnes of cheese every year, Mr Gigoyan said, half from the EU. With economists downgrading Armenia’s economic growth prospects, news of a potential gap in the market has to be welcome. The Armenian consumer, though, who may find that the price of cheese has increased in supermarkets may not agree.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)