JULY 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – China has said it is keen to invest $1b building a new terminal at the Manas airport outside Bishkek, media reported. This is important symbolically. The US military was based at Manas for 13 years flying support missions to Afghanistan and Russia has also said it was interested in investing in the airport.
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(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)
JULY 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – In an effort to dampen souring corruption rates, Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev signed into law a bill that will force municipal governments to post in public their plans about various contraction projects. Construction is a major source of corruption in Kyrgyzstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)
JUNE 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz officials denied entry to the country to Uzbek human rights activist Vasila Inoyatova, media reported. Human rights groups have complained that Kyrgyzstan discriminates against Uzbeks. Ms Inoyatova has been a critic of the Kyrgyz authorities’ attitude towards Uzbeks.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)
JULY 1 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Speaking at a ceremony where government staff received free housing, Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev said that $100m of a $1.2b fund from Russia designated for Kyrgyzstan’s Customs Union entry would go towards a pot for cheap credit for citizens looking to buy homes.
“Having a roof over your head means having freedom and happiness,” said Atambayev at the ceremony. Kyrgyzstan may formally enter the economic alliance, which is set to become the Eurasian Economic Union, as early as autumn this year.
Housing is a politicised issue in Kyrgyzstan, with illegal land grabs affecting the country’s two main cities, Bishkek and Osh. Poor rural migrants have formed new settlements, often unconnected to municipal services like electricity, stretching for miles beyond both cities.
The Customs Union is also a highly politicised issue and Mr Atambayev has been at pains to emphasis the benefits of tighter relations with Russia and the joint Kyrgyz-Russian fund. With a start-up capital of $500 million in Russian credits, the fund has been heralded as a means to strengthen Kyrgyzstan’s industrial capacity and move it away from an economic model structured on re-exporting cheap Chinese goods.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)
JUNE 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s authorities have deported 25 Chinese migrants for working illegally at an oil refinery in Tokmak in the north of the country after a fight with their Kyrgyz co-workers, media reported. The incident highlights lingering tensions between Chinese workers and locals in Central Asia.
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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)
JUNE 26 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – From 2015, except for members of the Eurasian Economic Union (EaEU), migrant workers from the ex-Soviet Union will only be allowed to work in Russia if they carry a passport and not just an ID card. Kyrgyzstan wants to join the EaEU which includes Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)
JUNE 25 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz agriculture accounts for around a fifth of GDP and just under half the country’s employment according to the country’s National Statistics Committee, yet many farmers say the sector is on its knees.
As Kyrgyzstan prepares for entry into the Eurasian Economic Union comprising Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia, discussions over farming’s future are only likely to intensify.
On June 12, Alibek Rakaev, Head of the Association of Pastoralists told journalists that meat production in the country was falling due to the prevalence of diseases that village vets have proven unable to diagnose or treat. Livestock farming was in a “critical condition”, he said.
Back in Soviet times Kyrgyzstan’s meat and dairy products were exported all over the Union, but neighbouring Kazakhstan now views Kyrgyzstan’s products with caution and has banned import of Kyrgyz milk and meat in the past. The Eurasian Economic Union has even tighter controls.
Poultry farmers might welcome membership, with high tariffs on non-Union imports potentially restricting the flow of Chinese chicken and eggs onto the domestic market, but for Kyrgyzstan’s crop-growers, Jomart Jumabekov, a member of the Public Advisory Board on the Ministry of Agriculture, said, closer integration with Russia and Kyrgyzstan means problems.
“I view the Customs Union negatively. Russian and Kazakh wheat and grains already dominate our market,” Mr Jumabekov told the Conway Bulletin. “With even fewer barriers to trade with these countries, we will stop growing even a small proportion of our own food. No-one will till the land.”
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)
JUNE 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Around 100 people demonstrated in front of the Jalal-Abad regional administration headquarters in the town of Aksy in south Kyrgyzstan to demand the resignation of the governor, who they accuse of corruption. Aksy is significant as a demonstration there in 2005 triggered a revolution.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)
JUNE 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – US defence spending in Central Asia — and in particular in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan — has been slashed by more than 90%, media reported quoting figures released by the Pentagon. The US is withdrawing from neighbouring Afghanistan and winding down operations in Central Asia.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)