MAY 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian police arrested and charged two Orthodox priests with leading attacks on a gay rights parade on May 17, media reported. The attacks brought condemnation from Georgia’s Western allies and tarnished the country’s reputation for liberal thinking.
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(News report from Issue No. 136, published on May 27 2013)
MAY 26 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Ashgabat, the Turkmen capital lying on the edge of the Kyzylkum desert, received the Guinness World Record for the highest density of marble buildings in the world. Flush with profit from gas sales, Turkmenistan’s leaders have re-built Ashgabat with white marble since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
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(News report from Issue No. 136, published on May 27 2013)
MAY 17 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Orthodox demonstrators attacked a small gay rights march in Tbilisi, injuring several activists. The attack showed Georgian society’s conservative leanings which can collide with the country’s drive towards the more liberal West. Human rights groups accused police of failing to protect gay rights activists.
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(News report from Issue No. 135, published on May 20 2013)
APRIL 30 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A photo essay on the prominent society website voxpopuli.kz of a lesbian couple celebrating their unofficial wedding in Karaganda, an industrial city in central Kazakhstan, caused a stir. Like its neighbours, Kazakhstan’s society is conservative and homosexuals are marginalised. Homosexuality was illegal in Kazakhstan until 1997.
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(News report from Issue No. 134, published on May 6 2013)
MAY 1 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The arrest of two Kazakh teenagers studying in the US with links to one of the alleged Boston bombers has triggered a major image problem for Kazakhstan.
Prosecutors in Boston charged Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov, both 19-years old, with obstructing the course of justice by trying to dispose of a rucksack and a laptop belonging to their friend, Dzhokhar Tsarnayev.
Three people died when Tsarnayev and his brother allegedly planted a series of bombs at the finishing line of the Boston marathon in April.
Now Kazakhstan has been dragged into the story.
But, while Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov were university friends of Tsarnayev their backgrounds were very different. Tsarnayev, an ethnic Chechen, was an economic migrant who had settled in the US to build a better life.
Both Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov were ethnic Kazakhs from relatively privileged backgrounds. Both were enjoying a relaxed period of study in Boston before heading home.
Regardless of the differences, Kazakhstan now has to deal with the image problem of Kazakhs caught up with bomb attacks in the US.
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(News report from Issue No. 134, published on May 6 2013)
MAY 6 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov understands the value of symbolism.
Since coming to power in January 2007 he has introduced various public promotions. One of these is a national Horse Day to celebrate Turkmenistan’s Akhal-Teke, a local thoroughbred that is famed worldwide for its speed, strength and beauty. It is also a national Turkmen emblem.
Horse Day is celebrated on the last Sunday in April and the apex of the event is a race with prize money of $11m. This being Turkmenistan and Mr Berdymukhamedov being a man-of-action, though, the race can only have one outcome.
Videos of the race, held on April 28, have emerged showing Mr Berdymukhamedov galloping clear of the pack. The crowd roars as My Berdymukhamedov, gloriously, crosses the finishing line in first place. That’s where the official video, aired on national television, cuts.
Other videos, though, showed the president’s horse stopping abruptly, throwing Mr Berdymukhamedov to the ground. Dark suited security agents then jump over the barriers and run towards their stricken president. The crowd goes quiet as their leader is carried away.
Mr Berdymukhamedov recovers to collect his prize and the incident is quietly air-brushed from official history but not before it has provided an insight into Turkmen image management.
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(News report from Issue No. 134, published on May 6 2013)
MAY 2 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Pushing aside its disagreements, Georgia said it would send a team to the Winter Olympics in Russia next year. Relations between Georgia and Russia have improved steadily since a war in 2008 although the Georgian Olympic Committee had considered boycotting the Winter Games, set to be hosted by Sochi on the Black Sea coast.
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(News report from Issue No. 134, published on May 6 2013)
MAY 1 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Police in Boston arrested two 19-year-old students from Kazakhstan and charged them with conspiring to obstruct justice by tampering with a computer and a backpack containing fireworks that had belonged to one of the alleged marathon bombers.
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(News report from Issue No. 134, published on May 6 2013)
JAWSHANGOZ/Tajikistan, APRIL 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — In this hamlet in the mountains of eastern Tajikistan, Firishtamo Shohnavruzov made a note in his battered jotter.
Like many poor farmers, Shohnavruzov has opened his home to international visitors.
“Two guests paid $5 each for plov (a rice and mutton dish) and chai (tea) and $14 for lodging,” he said.
The Pamirs are remote and rugged but with an increasing number of tour operators and basic B&Bs, they are attracting a growing number of intrepid travellers. In the first half of 2011, for example, the Pamir Eco Cultural Tourism Association (PECTA) noted a near 40% increase in the number of tourists to their office in Khorog, the main town in the south of the country.
Shohnavruzov Homestay is typical of the locally-based tourism PECTA, set up in 2008, wants to encourage. The main attraction is the so-called Pamir Highway, an arduous 500km Soviet-built road over soaring mountain passes that connects Khorog to Osh in Southern Kyrgyzstan.
There are still many, basic, infrastructure challenges, though.
Gulnara Akhmatbekovna, a tour guide in Murgab near the Kyrgyz border, leafed through various guides printed out in different languages.
“What I’d really like is an internet connection that doesn’t run on a generator,” she said.
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(News report from Issue No. 133, published on April 29 2013)
APRIL 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Bulat Utemuratov, one of Kazakhstan’s richest men and an associate of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev is apparently weighing up buying into Italian soccer club Inter Milan, Italy’s media reported. Some of the richest men in the former Soviet states have invested in European soccer clubs over the past decade.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 133, published on April 29 2013)