Tag Archives: Kyrgyzstan

Central Asian FMs meet in the US

AUG. 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Looking to boost the US’ regional profile, US Secretary of State John Kerry hosted a summit with all five foreign secretaries from Central Asia. Dubbed C5 +1, the meeting was a follow-up from its inaugural session in Samarkand last year. It’s important because the US has been accused of losing interest in the region since pulling its military out of Afghanistan in 2014.

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(News report from Issue No. 292, published on Aug. 12 2016)

Kyrgyz president supports constitutional changes

AUG. 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev said that he supported a referendum that would tweak the constitution and shift more power from the president to the PM. In the aftermath of a revolution in 2010, Kyrgyzstan voted to give parliament and the PM more power, a shift to what Western analysts have often dubbed as Central Asia’s first parliamentary democracy. Mr Atambayev said changes were needed to stop a new president taking too much power.

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(News report from Issue No. 292, published on Aug. 12 2016)

People in Kyrgyz city burn posters

JULY 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — People in Batken, south-western Kyrgyzstan, burned a government poster aimed at countering the growth of radical Islam which showed Kyrgyz women in traditional clothes transitioning into women wearing a full, black burqa. Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev unveiled the poster this month as part of the fight against a recruitment drive in Central Asia by the radical IS group. The poster has proved controversial in Kyrgyzstan because of accusations that it is stigmatising conservative Muslims.

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(News report from Issue No. 291, published on Aug. 1 2016)

Kyrgyzstan to challenge Centerra share issue

BISHKEK, JULY 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The board of Kyrgyz miner Kyrgyzaltyn will dispute Centerra Gold’s issue of new shares to buy US-based Thompson Creek because it reduces its own overall stake in the company, which owns its biggest gold mine – Kumtor.

This month, the Canadian miner, 32% owned by Kyrgyzaltyn, said that it would buy Thompson Creek for the equivalent of $1.1b, in cash and new shares.

Kyrgyzaltyn had already said it disagreed with the transaction and that it voted against it during the Centerra board meeting.

As part of the financing for the acquisition of Thompson Creek, Centerra Gold issued new shares which analysts said will reduce Kyrgyzaltyn’s 32% stake in Centerra to approximately 28.8%.

Now the local language service of US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has reported that senior Kyrgyz government officials are considering how to dispute the move, setting the scene for more disagreements between the Toronto-based company and Kyrgyzstan.

The two have been locked in a protracted row for years.

Kyrgyzsan wants to increase its direct ownership of the Kumtor mine, the country’s largest economic asset.

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(News report from Issue No. 291, published on Aug. 1 2016)

Kyrgyzstan’s minister of culture resigns

JULY 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s minister of culture Altynbek Maksutov resigned, saying that he wanted to return to creative work. Mr Maksutov, a former actor and director of the Kyrgyz National Philharmonic was appointed minister of culture in October 2014. Earlier in July, PM Sooronbai Jeenbekov reprimanded Mr Maksutov for his so-called, and unexplained, inappropriate behaviour.

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(News report from Issue No. 291, published on Aug. 1 2016)

Briefing: Gulenist links in Central Asia & S.Caucasus

AUG 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — >>So, we know that the Gulen movement was big in Turkey but in Central Asia? Really? How deep is it and what does it do?

>> The movement, created by cleric Fethullah Gulen, is a social and religious group that has said it wants to integrate moderate Islam into the secular Turkish state and to replicate the model in other Muslim countries. The movement counts millions of followers. As it puts great emphasis on education and upward social mobility, the movement established a network of schools around the world, including in Central Asia and the South Caucasus.

>>OK, but who is Gulen? Wasn’t he an ally of Erdogan?

>> Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan found in Gulen a strong ally when he came to power in 2003, a bulwark against a possible military backlash, something that had dogged Turkish leaders for half a century. Gulen and Erdogan, though, fell out in 2013, when a corruption scandal targeting members of Mr Erdogan’s ruling AKP party emerged. Mr Erdogan and others in his party alleged that the Gulenist members of the judiciary had orchestrated the scandal. Since then the government has cracked down on Gulenists in Turkey. Mr Gulen has lived in the United States since 1999 in a self-imposed exile. Now, after a failed coup in Turkey last month blamed on Gulen, Turkey has said it could ask the US government for the extradition of Gulen. Since the coup, Turkish police have detained over 60,000 state employees and dozens of journalists and businessmen allegedly linked to the Gulen movement.

>>Quiete a full-on assault. Will Turkey now force a crackdown on Gulen- linked institutions in Central Asia and South Caucasus?

>> In short, this bureau and the analysts we contacted all agree that Turkey will not go as far as to sever relations with countries that don’t respond to the request to shut down Gulen-linked schools. Apart from Azerbaijan, all other countries are loosely linked with Turkey. Plus, as shown in our story on page 3, these schools are a relative island of quality and reliability in the South Caucasus and Central Asia’s messy educational system. Both Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan have shrugged off Turkey’s requests to shut down Gulen- linked schools. Georgia appears also to have pretty much ignored Turkey’s request. Only Azerbaijan, Turkey’s super-tight ally, has gone along with Turkey’s request and closed down a TV station that had planned to run an interview with Gulen and brought under government control a university linked to the Gulen movement.

>>OK, but what about the businesses linked to Gulen?

>> The closest business link between Gulenists and the South Caucasus seems to have been uprooted immediately, with the sacking of Sadettin Korkut, chief of Petkim, a petrochemical complex in Izmir, owned by Azerbaijan’s state-owned SOCAR (See the front page of the Business News). It appears that SOCAR was also keeping a list of Gulen-linked people among its ranks. Together with Korkut, who was later arrested, around 200 other employees of SOCAR-linked companies were sacked. This, however, appears to be a one-off act of loyalty from Azerbaijan’s government to Ankara.

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(News report from Issue No. 291, published on Aug. 1 2016)

Tajikistan turns down Kyrgyz request for extra power

DUSHANBE, JULY 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan’s minister of energy, Usmonali Usmonzoda, said he had turned down a request from Kyrgyzstan for extra electricity because the Tajik power generating system did not have any spare capacity.

The inability of Tajikistan to send power to Kyrgyzstan shows just how interdependent countries in Central Asia are. It also comes at a time when extra scrutiny is being placed on the power generation systems in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan as they build up to powering the World Bank-backed $1.2b CASA-1000 power system to Pakistan.

At a press conference in Dushanbe, Mr Usmonzoda said that, due to rising industrial activity, Tajikistan does not have spare capacity.

“Kyrgyzstan asked for 2.5b kWh of electricity at 2.5 cents/kWh,” he told reporters. “This is a large volume and, because of the emergence of new domestic energy consumers, we decided to refrain from the supply.”

Last year, Tajikistan signed a short term supply agreement with Kyrgyzstan to export 146m kWh over the winter for 2.5 cent/kWh.

Now, though, Tajikistan may be looking for a better price.

Independent Bishkek-based energy expert Rasul Umbetaliyev told the KyrTAG news agency: “The minister diplomatically avoided answering directly, but the price for electricity exports from Tajikistan is currently 3.5 – 7 cents/kWh.”

Tajikistan is investing heavily in its power generating systems. It has approved a $3.9b project to build the Rogun hydropower system.

But with its economy stalling and industrial production lying stagnant rather than rising, production problems and not excessive demand could be holding back Tajikistan’s power exports.

Its electricity distributor, Barqi Tojik, has piled up $1.5b in debt. It hasn’t paid for the electricity it bought from power stations and it is still waiting to be paid by its largest customers.

The government is planning to split Barqi Tojik and bail it out.

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(News report from Issue No. 291, published on Aug. 1 2016)

Kyrgyzstan resists pressure to close Gulen-linked schools

BISHKEK, JULY 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s foreign minister Yerlan Abdyldayev shrugged off Turkey’s request to shut down Gulen-linked schools and told Ankara not to interfere in domestic Kyrgyz affairs, in what could spiral into a diplomatic spat between the two allies.

Last week, Turkish foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, sent a note to Kyrgyzstan asking to close 30 high schools and one university in Kyrgyzstan financed by the Gulenist movement, which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused of masterminding a failed coup in mid- July.

The Kyrgyz side sent a strong reply, that, while stressing the importance of bilateral relations, rejected Turkey’s demands.

“We believe it is wrong that a minister of foreign affairs of one country instructs another country to take certain steps, especially using a language of ultimatums and blackmail,” Mr Abdyldayev said in his official reply.

The view was reflected on the streets of Bishkek.

“Turkey has no right to interfere in our internal affairs, Mr Erdogan’s issues with the opposition are Turkey’s own problems,” Alexander, 34, told The Conway Bulletin.

Kazakhstan gave a similar response to a similar request from Turkey over the weekend.

The Kyrgyz and Kazakh responses suggest a reduced role for Turkey in Central Asia. Turkey’s influence in Central Asia peaked soon after the break up of the Soviet Union in the mid 1990s. Since the turn of the century, though, it has ceded ground to a resurgent Russia and an ambitious China which has been looking to boost influence over what it sees as its near abroad.

Analysts also said Kyrgyzstan may be unwilling to shut down the Gulen- linked institutions because they were considered relatively high quality.

“Gulen’s education system showed how education can look, and there are many excellent graduates who work in state and private sectors,” said political analyst Mars Sariyev.

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(News report from Issue No. 291, published on Aug. 1 2016)

Gazprom Kyrgyzstan repairs pipeline

JULY 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Maintenance work at the Bukhara-Tashkent-Bishkek-Almaty gas pipeline will result in gas cutoffs in several Kyrgyz towns, the press service of Gazprom Kyrgyzstan said. The pipeline is part of a Soviet-designed system pumping Uzbek gas to Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan and the repairs and gas cutoffs show just how antiquated the pipeline network has become.

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(News report from Issue No. 291, published on Aug. 1 2016)

Hollande to visit Kyrgyzstan

JULY 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — French President Francois Hollande told the new Kyrgyz ambassador to France that he is considering a visit to the Central Asian country in the near term, official media reported. Earlier this month, German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Bishkek, her first to Central Asia. Her stopover in Bishkek en route to a conference in Mongolia was seen as a reward for Kyrgyzstan’s relative democracy.

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(News report from Issue No. 291, published on Aug. 1 2016)