MAY 5 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbek President Islam Karimov visited Ashgabat for the second time in seven months to sign agreements with Turkmen leader Kurbanguly Berdimukhamedov. Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, both major gas producers, have increasingly worked together to open new markets and leverage more economic power.
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(News report from Issue No. 39, published on May 9 2011)
MAY 5 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia has re-started talks with Tajikistan on stationing 3,000 guards along the important Tajik-Afghan border, Reuters reported. Russia, the US and China are competing for influence in Central Asia. Russian soldiers patrolled the border until 2005.
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(News report from Issue No. 39, published on May 9 2011)
MAY 6 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – The opening of the Nabucco pipeline which will pump gas to Europe from Azerbaijan’s Caspian Sea fields will be delayed by two years to 2017, said the group of European energy companies developing the project. Nabucco is key to European plans to bypass Russia’s pipeline monopoly but it has struggled to secure gas supplies.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 39, published on May 9 2011)
APRIL 28 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – On a trip to Turkey, Kyrgyz PM Almazbek Atambayev hinted he was looking beyond the US use of the Manas airbase. Manas, outside Bishkek, has become a major cog in the US resupply chain for its forces in Afghanistan. Mr Atambayev said he wanted to turn Manas, already an international airport, into a major global transit centre.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 38, published on May 2 2011)
MAY 2 2011 – The symbolism is striking. In 2008 and 2009 so-called soccer diplomacy helped to build a reproach between Armenia and Turkey after generations of distrust and animosity. Now, a statue commemorating Armenian-Turkish friendship is being pulled down.
Armenia and Turkey had barely spoken since Armenia supported rebels fighting Azerbaijan, Turkey’s long-time ally, in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh after the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union.
The border between Turkey and Armenia was officially closed. But by 2009 with the help of the soccer diplomacy, when the presidents of each country visited the other’s capital to watch soccer matches, they were on the brink of repairing relations. Then the process stalled.
The dispute stretches back further to the Ottoman Turks. Most Armenians say a genocide by the Ottoman Turks killed 1.5m Armenians in eastern Turkey during World War I. The Turks refute this and say hundreds of thousands died on both sides in civil fighting.
On April 26, workmen moved in to pull down a statue in eastern Turkey symbolising Turkish-Armenian friendship. The statue is about the height of a 10-storey building and was started in 2006 but had still not been completed. It depicts two people emerging out of one stone block.
On a visit earlier this year, Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan described the statue as a monstrosity and local officials have said they have always planned to tear down the statue.
Built to symbolise friendship, the statue may now be a more fitting symbol for the stalled reconciliation process.
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(News report from Issue No. 38, published on May 2 2011)
APRIL 30 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia accused Azerbaijan of shooting dead three soldiers within 48 hours in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan denied the charge but the row further escalated tension.
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(News report from Issue No. 38, published on May 2 2011)
APRIL 26 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Perhaps befitting of the stalled reconciliation process, AFP reported that Turkish workers started to dismantle a 2006 statue symbolising Turkey-Armenia friendship that the Turkish PM described as an eyesore.
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(News report from Issue No. 38, published on May 2 2011)
APRIL 26 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – China secured more control over energy supplies from Central Asia when it agreed to lend Turkmenistan $4b to develop the South Yolotan gas field. South Yolotan is one of the largest gas fields in the world. Most of its gas is expected to be pumped to China.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 38, published on May 2 2011)
APRIL 25 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) members — China, Russia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan — pledged greater cooperation at a meeting in Shanghai. Russian news agency RIA Novosti described the meeting as the first summit for the SCO military chiefs. Some analysts have said the SCO could act as a counterbalance to NATO.
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(News report from Issue No. 37, published on April 25 2011)
APRIL 19/20 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – China extended its influence in Central Asia by signing gas and finance deals worth billions of US dollars with Uzbekistan during a visit by Uzbek President Islam Karimov to Beijing. In the last few years China has steadily bought assets across the region where it is competing with Russia and the West for influence.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 37, published on April 25 2011)