Category Archives: Uncategorised

I want to stay, says Uzbek President

May 19 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbek President Islam Karimov clearly intends to remain in power for some time to come.

At a conference in Samarkand, Mr Karimov, 76, said that he had no intention of relinquishing power any time soon.

“I am one of those who is criticised for staying too long,” AFP quoted Mr Karimov telling diplomats and scholars gathered for a conference on the Golden Age of Islam.

“I am criticized, but I stay. I am criticised but I want to keep working. What’s wrong with that?”

Mr Karimov’s comments are pertinent for two reasons. Over the past six months or so some doubt has crept in over the strength of the Karimov family’s grip on power. Mr Karimov’s eldest daughter, Gulnara, has disappeared from public life since she was reportedly placed under house arrest earlier this year. Prior to that she had been stripped, very publicly, of power and influence.

As, seemingly, her father’s successor, these attacks on Gulnara were seen as an attack on Mr Karimov himself. His powerful intelligence chief, Rustam Inoyatov is widely thought of to be behind the discrediting of Gulnara Karimova.

Mr Karimov has ruled over Uzbekistan since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Next year, Uzbekistan holds a presidential election. This may only be a Potemkin election but it is still important and it looks as if Mr Karimov will be one of the candidates.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 185, published on May 21 2014)

Electronic transactions rise in Armenia

May 19 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia increased by 14% the amount of transactions completed through their bank cards or credit cards during the first quarter of the year compared to the same period a year earlier, media reported. This is important as it highlights increased consumer sophistication in Armenia.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 185, published on May 21 2014)

Kazakhstan gives $2 m aid to Afghanistan

May 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin)- Kazakhstan will give Afghanistan around $2m of emergency aid in 2014, emergencies minister Vladimir Bozhko said. The West has been putting more pressure on Afghanistan’s neighbours, and especially Kazakhstan, to play amore prominent role in Afghanistan once NATO forces quit the country.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 185, published on May 21 2014)

Uzbekistan car sales fall

May 15 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The joint-venture between US carmaker GM and the Uzbek government sold 14% less cars in Russia between January and April this year compared with the same period in 2013, media reported. Reports did not give a reason why sales had tailed off. Russia is one of the key markets for the car plant, based in Andijan, east Uzbekistan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 185, published on May 21 2014)

China increases mining activities in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan

May 19 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon held talks in Dushanbe with Wan Zhenhua of Zijin Mining’s Zarafshon copper-gold- silver mining company in Khujand, Tajikistan (May 19).

Reports made the meeting sound rather Soviet. They listed the various social achievements which included finding work for 2,000 people since 2007 and noting that Chinese investment has reached $235m. The mine now produces half Tajikistan’s total gold production.

But the real story is elsewhere.

Typically, gold mining projects can take up to seven years to become profitable, while red tape surrounding license issuance and political unrest in Central Asia can considerably extend timeframes.

State-owned Zijin, China’s largest gold producer, also owns a gold mine in Kyrgyzstan’s Chui province. In Kyrgyzstan, Zijin had to evacuate roughly 250 employees from their operation in Orlovka village, Chui, in 2012 when one of their excavators reportedly killed a local’s horse, triggering an attack on the company’s offices.

Given the reluctance of other foreign investors to mine in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, some believe China’s interest in mining projects is about strategic control of mineral wealth in the two countries, rather than money.

“Chinese companies take on projects that in my mind are not profitable,” Valentin Bogdetski, head of the Kyrgyz Miners Association told the Conway Bulletin.

“Last year, a Chinese firm won a license for an iron ore concession in Zhetim-Too [Naryn province]. But this ore has little market value, so why do they want the license?”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 185, published on May 21 2014)

Tajik conscript dies

May 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin)- A Tajik army conscript who died in April was beaten to death, the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) website reported. RFE/RL also reported that another army conscript has been paralysed from being beaten. Bullying and beatings are a major problem in militaries across the former Soviet Union.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 185, published on May 21 2014)

Kyrgyzstan criminalises libel

May 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin)- Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atamabayev signed a law that will criminalise libel.Under the new law, the authorities in Kyrgyzstan can send people to prison for up to five years for libel. A statement by Mr Atamabayev’s office sad that the new law would not impact on freedom of speech.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 185, published on May 21 2014)

Turkmenistan abuses human rights ahead of 2017 Games

May 15 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Chronicles of Turkmenistan, a human rights website edited from Europe, reported on the plight of 370 families living in temporary accommodation outside Ashgabat.

According to the website, the authorities moved these families into the accommodation because they wanted to knock down the apartment blocks they lived in and replace them with modern buildings, part of an Olympic Village.

Ashgabat is hosting the Asian indoor and Martial Arts Games in 2017 and has aspirations, however deluded, to hold the Summer Olympic Games.

But, the website said, despite assurances from the authorities that new housing would be built quickly, many families have lived in temporary accommodation for years.

This is not the first time a website has reported on the issue of Ashgabat residents being displaced for centrally planned building projects. In 2011, the eurasianet.org website, reported that 50 residents had protested about the demolition of their houses.

Turkmenistan has grown rich over the past five years through the export of gas to clients such as China. The Guinness Book of Records has conferred the dubious honour on Ashgabat as having the highest density of white-marbled buildings.

The Turkmen officials have to ensure they are spending their energy-generated wealth wisely.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 185, published on May 21 2014)

Armenian farmers ask for loans to be cancelled

May 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A row is brewing in Armenia over whether banks should write off loans to farmers as a form of compensation for damage to their crops caused by a cold snap in March.

Despite pressure from farming unions, Armenia’s Central Bank chief, Artur Javadyan, said that banks could not simply write-off the loans.

Mr Javadyan said that banks could not risk financing farmers who already receive beneficial loan rates. The government partly pays the interest on loans to farmers.

“We have no right to force the banks to risk deposit holders’ and stockholders’ funds,” he said according to reports.

A heavy snow storm on March 30 seriously damaged crops in Armenia and farmers have asked for compensation. The row highlights just how important farming is in Armenia.

Rural Armenia is poor and the farmers often merely scrape a living. They are heavily reliant on loans and beneficial rates from the government.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 185, published on May 21 2014)

Gas supplies cut to Armenia

May 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A landslide in Georgia damaged a pipeline, temporarily cutting off gas supplies to Armenia, media reported. It’s unclear how serious the damage caused by the landslide is or when gas supplies through the pipeline will resume. Gazprom Armenia said it had enough reserves to cover the shortfall from the pipeline

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 185, published on May 21 2014)