DEC. 18 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Keen to expand its overseas presence, Azerbaijan opened its first embassy in Vietnam. Both Azerbaijan and Vietnam have invested heavily in their energy sectors in recent years. The Azerbaijani government has said that it wants to open more embassies.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 17 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has been living in New York since leaving office last month, Georgian media reported. They quoted him as saying that he was working on various projects for US universities. Ukrainian TV broadcast an interview with Mr Saakashvili supporting pro-EU protesters in Kiev.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 16 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Italian officials are investigating whether the Kazakh government pressured energy company ENI to influence ministers in Italy into deporting the wife and daughter of fugitive opposition leader Mukhtar Ablyazov in May, media reported. An Italian TV interview with an anonymous ENI manager triggered the investigation.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 13 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh foreign minister Yerlan Idrissov travelled to Ethiopia, to meet with the country’s PM and visit the headquarters of the African Union, media reported. Kazakhstan has pinpointed sub-Saharan Africa as a high priority area to boost both its business and diplomatic presence.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 8 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — An Armenian and a Turkish actor broke the world record for the longest handshake in a stunt aimed at improving ties between the two neighbours. Oganes Ajinyan, an Armenian, and Denis Barish, a Turk, shook hands for 43 hours in Tbilisi. Relations between Armenia and Turkey are strained over genocide accusations from World War I.
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(News report from Issue No. 164, published on Dec. 11 2013)
DEC. 4 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — UNESCO agreed to include Manas, the epic Kyrgyz national poem, on its cultural heritage list. The decision is a victory for Kyrgyzstan which sees the poem as a bedrock of its national identity. Streets are named after Manas which tells the story of 13 Kyrgyz tribes uniting to form one nation.
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(News report from Issue No. 164, published on Dec. 11 2013)
DEC. 10 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan will drop visa regulations for citizens of 34 OSCE member states by the end of 2014, media quoted a spokesman for Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev as saying. The spokesman didn’t specify which of the OSCE’s 57 member states would be given visa-free status.
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(News report from Issue No. 164, published on Dec. 11 2013)
DEC. 4 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — In the end, despite, Iranian objection, Azerbaijan got its way. It can now celebrate a decision by UNESCO, the UN’s cultural body, to decree the game of chovqan as originating in Azerbaijan, media reported.
Chovqan is similar to polo. Other examples of past-times and hobbies that UNESCO has given special national status to include Japanese Washoku cooking and Georgian wine making.
But Azerbaijan’s drive to have UNESCO infer special status on chovqan has upset its neighbour Iran which said the game was pan-regional. Relations between Azerbaijan and Iran have become increasingly strained.
And there are people in Baku who also agree that Azerbaijan’s priorities in pushing for special UNESCO recognition of chovnaq is wrong.
Local media quoted Rahman Badalov, a Baku-based philosopher and art critic, as saying that this was “the latest example of the government misusing budget resources”.
Still, for Azerbaijan’s officials this is an important victory that helps to build its national heritage.
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(News report from Issue No. 164, published on Dec. 11 2013)
DEC. 6 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — China agreed a deal that it hopes will deepen economic relations with Azerbaijan, media reported. The deal will mean that China gives nearly $5m to Azerbaijan to promote both bilateral cooperation and Chinese-made products. Over the last couple of years, China has been trying to boost its economic ties with the South Caucasus.
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(News report from Issue No. 164, published on Dec. 11 2013)
DEC. 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan will halt all its oil exports via Russia in February, an official for the Azerbaijani state energy company SOCAR told Reuters. Azerbaijani-Russian relations have become increasingly strained and over the past few years Azerbaijan has shift most of its oil exports to Europe via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.
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(News report from Issue No. 164, published on Dec. 11 2013)