JULY 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – More bad news for Armenia’s economy. Quoting the state’s statistics agency, media reported that jewellery production in Armenia had fallen by a third this year between January and May. It did not say why production had fallen although sanctions on Russia have impacted Armenia’s economy.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)
JULY 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – An official at the Tajik ministry for industry told the Asia Plus news agency that the country was a step closer to cement self-sufficiency thanks largely to the work of Huaksin Gayur Cement, a factory completed last year that can produce 1m tonnes of cement annually.
That figure dwarfs the productive capacity of national champion Tajik Cement, which produces four or five times less. Tajikistan consumes 1.5m tonnes of cement per year and imports from Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Iran and Russia.
The 75% Chinese-owned enterprise in the capital Dushanbe is one of several key Chinese investments to have popped up in Tajikistan over the last year. In addition to building heating plants for Dushanbe and Tajikistan’s second city, Khujand, China has begun construction of an oil refinery in Khatlon province that will almost meet Tajikistan’s domestic fuel needs.
Factory-by-factory, Beijing is also easing the employment crisis in the world’s most remittance-dependent country. Huaksin Gayur Cement has provided over 400 local jobs. The Khatlon refinery will provide a similar number.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)
China’s investment surge in impoverished Tajikistan is beginning to show results.
JULY 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – More reports have surfaced from Uzbekistan of mass arrests in the Uzbek security services.
Last month, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported that police detained roughly 100 people in Ukraine’s customs service on various accounts of corruption now, it appears, 40 members of the security services have been arrested.
Sources told RFE/RL that Colonel Javdat Sharifhojaev, a powerful member of the security services, was among those arrested.
It’s unclear if the latest arrests are linked to the very public row between the daughter of Uzbek president Islam Karimov and the security services or, instead, if these various detentions are the result of a genuine anti-corruption drive that it appears to have launched.
It could also be a turf war between the various, and powerful, departments of the security services.
Uzmetronom.com, a website linked to the Uzbek authorities, said that the Uzbek authorities had decided to increase penalties against officials for taking bribes.
The Uzbek authorities, apparently, declined to confirm the detention of the various officials.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)
JULY 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Eduard Shevardnadze, a foreign minister of the Soviet Union and president of independence Georgia, died in a Tbilisi aged 86.
Tributes poured in from around the world for one of Georgia’s most recognisable modern-day politicians.
Georgia’s President Giorgi Margvelashvili described Shevardnadze as “one of the most distinguished politicians of the 20th century.”
His friend and political ally, the former leader of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev said: “He was an important contribution to the foreign policy of perestroika and was an ardent supporter of new thinking in world affairs.”
From Washington, John Kerry, the US Secretary of State said: “(Shevardnadze) played an instrumental role with President Gorbachev, President Reagan, and Secretary Shultz in bringing the Cold War to an end.”
But Shevardnadze leaves behind a mixed legacy.
As Mr Gorbaechev’s surprise choice as foreign minister for the Soviet Union in 1985, Shevardnadze was instrumental in rolling back Communism. He helped pull the Soviet military out of Eastern Europe and Afghanistan; gave a taciturn nod to the reunification of Germany.
Shevardnadze quit in 1990 because he feared a reactionary response but was persuaded back at the end of 1991, becoming the last foreign minister of the Soviet Union.
As president of independent Georgia, though, Shevardnadze’s reputation is far more ambiguous. He governed from 1993 until a revolution in 2003 toppled him. That revolution, later dubbed the Rose Revolution, ushered Mikheil Saakashvili into power and his staunchly pro-Western agenda.
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(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)
JULY 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajiks will be able to watch their favourite Turkish serial Defenders again after the government lifted a ban. The government had said the Defenders showed scenes related to extremism. Kazakhstan is also considering a ban. More likely the problem is fear of Turkish cultural and political influence.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)
JULY 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan has given a green light for Russian mobile operator MTS to re-start work in the country after it withdrew following a row in 2012, various local media reported quoting security forces. Media said that MTS would resume operations in Uzbekistan by the end of 2012.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)
JULY 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kazakh authorities want to improve the credit rating service by allowing people to challenge ratings they consider to be wrong. Credit is an important issue in Kazakhstan where banks are trying to control portfolios carrying some of the highest proportion of bad debt in the world.
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(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)
JULY 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan has completed a 700km stretch of railway linking Iran and Kazakhstan, media reported quoting officials. The railway, which runs through the Karakum Desert, is another important exit route for goods and oil being exported out of Central Asia.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)
JULY 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Eurocement, a Russian company linked to oligarch Filaret Galchev, will build a factory near Tashkent, media reported. The $128m plant will take two years to build. The announcement is an indicator that Russian business is interested in Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan and Russia have had strained relations.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)
TBILISI/Georgia, JULY 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — From Basquiat to Banksy, politically charged street art has been a fixture of western cities for decades. Now, though, the walls and underpasses of Georgian capital Tbilisi are becoming an open-air gallery for a similar sort of subversive expression.
“It started after the war,” 34-year-old Natia, who runs workshops for aspiring street artists, said referring to the 2008 war with Russia. “One of our friends started using a stencil of Putin’s face, and people just got more creative.”
Today, that protest focuses on two of the most important issues for Georgia’s increasingly vocal liberal youth — gay rights and the decriminalization of marijuana. Graphic artist Musya Qeburia, 23, witnessed a police raid in June on her friend’s party. The police detained several guests for urine tests.
“They just came and took them for no reason, I was angry,” she said. In response, she erected what has become Tbilisi’s most celebrated piece, a line of figures, including Yoda, Super Mario and Brussels statue the Manneken Piss queuing to offer urine samples to a pair of Georgian police officers, one of whom looks like Chuck Norris (see photo on page 1).
The piece went viral on social networks, and according to Musya it has had a big impact.
But the reaction is not always positive. Rusa, 29, with three friends repainted a prominent central Tbilisi staircase in the colours of the rainbow flag, the symbol of gay rights.
“It was a silent, anonymous protest, silent because of the violence last year,” said Rusa, referring to an anti-gay riot in Tbilisi in 2013. “There were pictures of the staircase, people noticed. Then two days later city hall came and destroyed the staircase and reconstructed it (without the paint).”
Musya is undeterred. “They can only destroy,” she said. “They can’t make anything beautiful.”
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)