JUNE 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – US defence spending in Central Asia — and in particular in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan — has been slashed by more than 90%, media reported quoting figures released by the Pentagon. The US is withdrawing from neighbouring Afghanistan and winding down operations in Central Asia.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)
YEREVAN/Armenia, JUNE 25 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — This was the third time that 34-year-old Anoush, who was pregnant, and her mother-in- law had taken a bus from their village to Yerevan.
They wanted to find out if Anoush would keep the baby and this depended on what medical staff would say.
“My husband and his family want a boy. They want a boy to inherit their family name,” said Anoush.
This is Anoush’s fifth pregnancy, she has two daughters already. If medical staff told her that she was expecting a boy she would keep the baby. If it was a girl she wouldn’t.
Selective abortions are still relatively commonplace in Armenia for women from the villages. There, the pressure is on to produce a son as an heir.
A project prohibiting sex selective abortion will be introduced by the Ministry of Health as it has become a major concern to the government.
A recent UN-sponsored said selective abortion was damaging the normal demographic make-up of Armenia. According to research in 1993 the ratio of male to female newborns was 106 to 100. In 2012 the ratio has widen to 114 boys for every 100 girls.
Donara, a 50-year-old doctor, said that many women were being forced into abortions by their husbands or the family of their husbands.
“Today couples are parenting to one or two children and they want one of them be a baby boy. Perhaps the problem would be solved if they had better social conditions,” she said.
Some of the debate in Armenia has focused around not telling mothers what sex their baby is expected to be until after 30 weeks of pregnancy.
For Anoush, though, there was joy and relief as the doctors confirmed that she was finally expecting a son.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)
JUNE 12 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The US-based lobby group Freedom House rated Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan as having the worst democratic framework in its ranking of 29 countries in eastern Europe and the ex-Soviet Union. Human rights group often complain about a lack of democracy and entrenched corruption in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)
JUNE 12 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The World Bank agreed to give Uzbekistan a $260m loan to improve irrigation in its agriculture, media reported, angering human rights activists who accuse Uzbekistan of using child labour to pick cotton. Cotton is one of Uzbekistan’s biggest exports although many Western fashion brands refuse to use it in their clothing.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)
JUNE 14 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso visited Baku in a strong show of support for strengthening relations with Azerbaijan.
Mr Barroso pledged not only the EU’s full support for the Southern Corridor, an energy transit route from the Caspian Sea, but also support for a pact to further push Azerbaijan towards Europe.
Europe’s main motivation for the Southern Corridor — hinged around a gas pipeline linking the Caspian Sea to central Europe — is to reduce its reliance on Russia for its gas supplies. Azerbaijan’s motivation is to link directly to a major client.
But talk of another deal moves EU-Azerbaijan relations on to another level. Potentially, at least.
“We held a very successful meeting with President Ilham Aliyev, and made important decisions, one of which was to hasten the completion of a new agreement between Azerbaijan and the EU,” media quoted Mr Barroso as saying.
Russia is likely to look poorly on any move by Azerbaijan to integrate more closely with Europe. Just as with Ukraine and Georgia, Russia considers Azerbaijan to be part of its patch.
Three days after Mr Barroso’s visit to Baku, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov flew into town for bilateral talks. He is sure to make this point to the Azerbaijani leadership.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)
JUNE 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – After a six month delay, Kyrgyzstan approved a business plan for Centerra Gold’s Kumtor mine in the east of the country. The approval narrowly beat a deadline set by Toronto-listed Centerra Gold which had threatened to close the mine for the year. Kumtor is Kyrgyzstan’s single biggest industrial operation.
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(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)
JUNE 11 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Civil liberties in Azerbaijan have worsened considerably in the past five years, US Deputy Secretary of State, Thomas Melia said. Mr Melia’s statement during a testimony before the US Helsinki Commission were particularly poignant from a US diplomat.
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(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)
JUNE 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Tajikistan have blocked access to both YouTube and Facebook, betraying their fear of the web.
With Tajikistan’s major internet providers offering inconsistent explanations for the connection breakdown, many people reached the conclusion that the state’s communications service is behind the block.
It’s a tactic they have used previously.
Tajikistan blocked YouTube when violence broke out in the eastern province of Gorno-Badakshan in 2012, and again last year when a clip of President Emomali Rakhmon singing drunk at his son’s wedding went viral.
Umrana, 23, a Tajik blogger now living in Bishkek said that despite internet penetration of less than 10% in Tajikistan, its appeal to the aspirational middle class is what worries the government most.
“There is a legend that an Austria-Hungarian Emperor wouldn’t allow construction of railroads because he thought it would transport the French revolution. Our emperors are the same,” he said. “When they think of YouTube, they think of movement, unrest, threats.”
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)
JUNE 12 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan and Italy demonstrated their strong links by agreeing a series of deals at a meeting between Italian PM Matteo Renzi and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev at the Borovoye resort outside Astana.
Despite criticism of its handling of the Kashagan oil field development in the Caspian Sea, Italian energy company ENI was the main beneficiary of the deals.
Kashagan was supposed to be pumping out oil and projecting Kazakhstan into the top ranks of global oil producers. Instead, it lies idle while repairs are made.
Alongside Kazakh energy company KazMunaiGaz, ENI will explore a new site in the Caspian Sea. It will also team up with Italian engineer Finmeccanica to build a new shipyard at Kuryk on the Caspian Sea coast. Italian truck maker Iveco also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Kazakh ministry of transport.
Domenico Sermesi, a partner at Almaty-based Adala Consulting, said the deals were good news.
“After the hiccups of last summer, this agreement, together with the document on the military corridor, is a sign of a renewed partnership,” he said.
Reference to a military corridor is to NATO forces withdrawing from Afghanistan through Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan and Italy certainly have a close relationship and Mr Nazarbayev emphasised this when he said that he was “confident that ENI’s activities in Kazakhstan will continue to be successful”.
Of course there will be strings attached to this backing. Kazakhstan will expect support for its application to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and also to win a seat at the UN Security Council in 2017/18.
Regardless, the Italian stock market liked Mr Renzi’s visit to Kazakhstan. ENI’s shares rose 1.66% afterwards in an otherwise flat market.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)
JUNE 16 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – It looks as if Georgia’s ruling party Georgian Dream has completed its clean sweep and defeated former President Mikheil Saakashvilil’s United National Movement (UNM) party in local elections.
Official results have not yet been published from Sunday’s local election but preliminary figures put Georgian dream ahead in most regions.
Overall, victory for Georgian Dream appears emphatic, pulling in 50.8% of the national vote compared to the UMN’s 22.4%, according to the election commission.
Georgian Dream is the party of Georgia’s richest man Bidzina Ivanishvili. It surged to power two years ago in a remarkable parliamentary election in which it defeated a seemingly indomitable UNM.
Last year, Georgian Dream also won a presidential election, propelling Giorgi Margvelashvili to power, and now victory in local governments completes its domination.
The UNM complained that irregularities had tarnished the election but European observers passed it as a legitimate expression of the popular will.
In Tbilisi, the Georgian Dream mayoral candidate will have to compete in a second round vote, but only because he failed, just, to take more than 50% of the votes.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)