Tag Archives: society

Kazakhstan agrees prison officer training deal with UK

AUG. 31 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — On a trip to Kazakhstan aimed at persuading Kazakh companies to list their stocks on the London Stock Exchange, Alan Duncan, the British minister for Europe and the Americas said that he had agreed a deal to help train up Kazakh prison officers. Prison reform is high on the list of changes demanded by human rights activists of Kazakhstan. The country has spent millions on improving conditions but lobby groups say that it still has a long way to go.

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(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

Workers fight at Astana tower

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SEPT. 2 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh riot police intervened in a fight between foreign workers, identified as Indian by Twitter users, and security guards at the Abu Dhabi Plaza construction site in Astana. It is the second major incident at the site, set to be the tallest building in Central Asia, after a fire earlier this year. The fight also shows the tension between foreign workers brought into Kazakhstan to build major infrastructure projects and locals. Kazakhstan has become something of a magnet for migrant workers in the region.

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(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

Kyrgyzstan rows with Turkey over Gulen school network

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AUG. 16 2017, BISHKEK (The Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan accused Turkey of trying to pressure it into declaring a network of schools linked to the exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen as a terrorist organisation, knocking back attempts by Turkish officials to persuade governments in Central Asia and the South Caucasus to extradite so-called Gulenists.

Risking important Kyrgyz-Turkish relations, Kyrgyzstan’s education ministry released a statement that praised the Sebat school network, which it said has educated 10,000 Kyrgyz since 1992.

“Equating Sebat schools to terrorist organisations and imposing certain sanctions on students and members of their families only on the grounds that they are studying in Sebat schools is unacceptable and the statements of Turkish officials are irresponsible,” it said in a statement.

Five days before the Kyrgyz statement, Turkey’ deputy education minister, Ophan Erdem, told a group of Kyrgyz academics visiting Turkey that graduates from Sebat schools would be denied Turkish visas.

“Please ask your acquaintances, friends and brothers not to go to these terrorists’ schools because it is highly likely that we will deny visas to those who study at such schools. We do not even want to see their families in Turkey,” he was quoted as saying.

Turkish President Recep Erdogan has blamed Mr Gulen and his followers for a failed coup in July 2016. Since then, his forces have arrested thousands of Gulenists.

Turkey has persuaded Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to detain and start extradition proceedings against several people linked to Gulenist businesses and education institutions but has been less successful in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Turks linked to the Gulenists’ movement set up schools in Central Asia and the South Caucasus in the 1990s, shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union, which are now highly regarded.

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(News report from Issue No. 340, published on Aug. 20 2017)

Uzbekistan repeals exit visas

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AUG. 16 2017 (The Bulletin) — Uzbek president Shavkat Mirziyoyev has signed into law a decree that will scrap exit visas from Jan. 2019, state media reported. Repealing the exit visas is one of the most high-profiles decisions taken by Mr Mirziyoyev who has crafted himself as a moderniser and a reformer since taking over the presidency after the death of Islam Karimov in September 2016.

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(News report from Issue No. 340, published on Aug. 20 2017)

Video shows Kazakh police brutality

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AUG. 12 2017 (The Bulletin) — A CCTV camera on a building in Pavlodar, northern Kazakhstan, captured a near 4 minute-long incident that human rights activists said showed just how brutal Kazakh police are. In the video, three unarmed men appear to resist arrest by at least five policemen. After a tussle, the men are wrestled to the ground beaten with a truncheon, kicked in the head and abdomen and are sprayed in the face with an unknown substance.

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(News report from Issue No. 339, published on Aug. 13 2017)

Air passenger numbers rise in Georgia

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AUG. 9 2017 (The Bulletin) — Passenger flow at Georgian airports has increased by nearly 50% in the first seven months of this year compared to the same period in 2016, the civil aviation authority said in a report. Georgia has been experiencing a boom in tourism from the Middle East that has triggered a major increase in flights to and from the region. For Middle Eastern tourists, Georgia is an easily accessible lush and green country where they can escape the summer heat.

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(News report from Issue No. 339, published on Aug. 13 2017)

Azerbaijani sprinter wins 200m gold medal for Turkey

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AUG. 10 2017 (The Bulletin) — Competing for Turkey, Azerbaijan- born sprinter Ramil Guliyev won 200m gold at the World Athletics Championship in London.

The 27-year-old’s shock victory was Turkey’s only medal at the championship and a rare win for a track and field athlete from Central Asia and the South Caucasus. Kazakhstan’s Olga Rypakova, Olympic triple jump champion in 2012, also won a bronze medal.

A jubilant Guliyev did a lap of honour carrying both the Turkish and Azerbaijani flags. He competed for Azerbaijan until 2011 before switching to Turkey because he said that the Turkish facilities were better.

To win the 200m, Guliyev beat favourites Wayde van Niekerk of South Africa and Isaac Makwala of Botswana. “This is not a shock,” he was widely quoted as saying. “But it does not feel real.”

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was quick to congratulate Guliyev.

“I would like to note that for the first time, an Azerbaijani athlete becomes the world champion in athletics,” media quoted him as saying. “It is gratifying that you raised the flags of Azerbaijan and Turkey following your victory. It shows that you are a patriot devoted to your people.”

Tajikistan’s Andrey Abduvaliyev is the only athlete competing for a Central Asia or South Caucasus state to become World Champion. He won Gold the hammer twice, in Stuttgart in 1993 and in Gothenburg in 1995.

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(News report from Issue No. 339, published on Aug. 13 2017)

Uzbekistan says to scrap exit visas

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TASHKENT, AUG. 8 2017 (The Bulletin) — Uzbekistan will lift exit-visa requirements, media reported by quoting officials, potentially making it easier for millions of Uzbeks to travel abroad to find work.

Exit-visas are a hated hangover from the Soviet Union and, even if they were not difficult to obtain for most ordinary Uzbeks, were a reminder of the authoritarian nature of the regime. Scrapping them is another indication of the liberal reforms ushered in by Shavkat Mirziyoyev, president since September 2016 when Islam Karimov died. He has also promised to change foreign currency controls and also to encourage more foreign investment, as well as relax social controls, such as laws stipulating when bars and restaurants have to close.

Uzbekistan, like the rest of Central Asia, is reliant on remittances sent back from Uzbeks working abroad to bolster its economy. Most of these remittance payments are sent back to Uzbekistan from Russia.

Uzbekistan’s foreign ministry said a presidential decree on relaxing exit visas had already been drafted and government agencies were considering various pieces of legislation.

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(News report from Issue No. 339, published on Aug. 13 2017)

Tajikistan increases anti-headscarf campaign

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AUG. 2 2017 (The Bulletin) — Police in Tajikistan have detained and fined women for wearing hijabs, Islamic headscarves, the Forum 18 News Service reported. Last month, the authorities said they were launching an official campaign against what they described as non-traditional clothing. Forum 18 reported that women have felt “humiliated” for having to remove their headscarves in public.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on Aug. 5 2017)

A man shots dead people in Armenia

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AUG. 1 2017 (The Bulletin) — A man shot dead at least four people at a funeral in rural Armenia after a suspected row over loans, media reported. At least eight other people were injured in the shooting at the Yazidi funeral. The attack is potentially the worst mass murder in Armenia since a Russian soldier stabbed to death a family of seven near a Russian military base in the city of Gyumri in 2015.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on Aug. 5 2017)