JULY 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The cost of buying a home in Kazakhstan continues to rise. The latest figures from the national statistics agency showed house prices had increased by 21% in the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2014. Policymakers worry that the Kazakh housing market is hitting a bubble.
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(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)
JULY 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Prisoners in a jail in western Kazakhstan rioted over conditions, media reported. Human rights groups regularly complain to Kazakhstan about conditions that it keeps prisoners in. An official told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that the riot had been quashed by law enforcement officers.
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(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)
JULY 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Police in Almaty detained the chief of the state anti-monopolies commission, Murat Ospanov, for allegedly taking a $200,000 bribe, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. Kazakhstan appears to be pursuing an anti- corruption drive and has detained several high-ranking officials.
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(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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(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)
China’s investment surge in impoverished Tajikistan is beginning to show results.
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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(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 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan is negotiating the extradition of two diplomats languishing in a German prison for smuggling cigarettes, media reported. A court in Frankfurt jailed the diplomats in April. One of the jailed men was Kazakhstan’s General Consul in Frankfurt.
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(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)
JUNE 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Almaty sentenced Bagdad Maykeev, a former General and Kazakh deputy defence minister, to six years in jail for taking bribes worth about $500,000 in a case that highlights the endemic levels of corruption at the highest levels in Kazakhstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)
JULY 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Islamic extremists who have captured several cities in Iraq under the banner of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) have been directly trying to recruit disenchanted religious Kazakhs.
In an interview with Tengrinews, a news website linked to the Kazakh government, political analyst Yerlan Karin said that he had seen videos put out by ISIS showing men with Kazakh passports being recruited and then trained.
He also said that in Syria, where Islamic extremists from Central Asia, had been fighting, units were organised along ethnicity. And this, experts have said, is particularly worrying as they may be more inclined to use the skills and experience learned in Syria back home.
“There have been such cases in Central Asia already: 25 Kyrgyz nationals who returned from combat zones in Syria and attempted acts of terrorism in their home country are now in prison in Kyrgyzstan,” Mr Karin said.
The authorities in Central Asia have been particularly nervous about the civil war in Syria and now the ISI attacks in Iraq, as they represent an easily accessible war zone for Islamic extremists to gravitate towards.
ISI have declared an Islamic Caliphate stretching across Syria and Iraq.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)
ALMATY/Kazakhstan, JULY 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Globally, eating horses is controversial. The Italians, Dutch, Brazilians and French traditionally enjoy horsemeat, but in the United States it is highly taboo.
Americans balk at the idea of eating the animals that helped to settle the West. Horses have not been killed for human consumption on US soil since 2007.
In Britain, the so-called “horsegate” outcry of 2013, when supermarket burgers and sausages were found to contain large amounts of horsemeat, reviled British sensibilities triggering an avalanche of criticism over food security.
But in Kazakhstan, with its culture so heavily entwined with a traditional nomadic way of life, horsemeat is still very much seen as a delicacy and a status symbol.
At midday in Almaty’s Green Bazaar, the counters selling horse meat were doing brisk trade. Vendors slammed lumps of horse onto old sky-blue weighing scales to count the kilos.
Aisha, who was 43-years-old and a mother of four children, hovered over a table packed with cuts of horse. Intestines and ribs glistened next to prime rump.
Saiyan, the owner of the stall, said that she sells Aisha her fresh horsemeat three times a week. The horse meat cost 2,200 Tenge ($12) a kilo.
Dressed in a white trouser suit and yellow snakeskin shoes Aisha inspected the different cuts.
“My family eats a small amount of horse meat every day,” she said. “We don’t suffer from any flu or illness. This is why we eat it, for good health.”
Horsemeat in the Green Bazaar, however, is twice the price of lamb in the main markets. It might be beneficial to health and cherished by Kazakhs, but it is only obtainable to a privileged few.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)