Tag Archives: society

Tajikistan to rename cities

FEB. 1 2016, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rakhmon ordered Parliament to rename a number of cities, regions and a reservoir to give them more of a Tajik flavour.

Since becoming an independent state in 1991, the Tajik government has been keen to build up a back-story for the country. It replaced most of the Russian place names with names mostly derived from the Samanid Empire (819-919), a common tactic in Central Asia which had not been independent countries before 1991.

In 2007 Rakhmon also dropped the Russian suffix ‘ov’ from his name.

His press office said: “The renaming of districts and cities promotes national values and a sense of dignity. It is especially important to educate younger generations about the rich culture of the ancestors of the modern statehood of Tajik people.”

But not everybody thinks it is such a good idea.

Dushanbe taxi driver Odilbek, 38, said it was a waste of money. “These people do not understand what they are doing,” he said. “We have more serious problems and this is a waste of money. People will call the cities by their old names anyway.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Georgian President walks about in Pankisi George

JAN. 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a PR stunt aimed at knocking down Russian allegations that the radical group IS had set up a training camp in the Pankisi Gorge, Georgian president Giorgi Margvelashvili travelled to the region with the US and EU ambassadors for a walk-about and to talk to locals. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said in January that the Pankisi Gorge was an IS recruiting ground.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Uzbek capital installs bus wifi

FEB. 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tashkent’s state-owned bus company Toshshahartranshizmat has started to trial free wifi on its buses around the Uzbek capital, media reported, a signal of just how ubiquitous wifi has become in Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan’s security forces closely monitor internet use. Uzbekistan is considered one of the most repressive countries in the world.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Editorial: Tajik place names

FEB. 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – National identity for the countries of Central Asia is still a major issue, far more so than for their neighbours in the South Caucasus.

When independence was thrust on the five Central Asian states in 1991, the leaders of these newly created countries had to build a sense of nation- hood from scratch.

And so they turned to their history books. They dug up some famous names from the past and wrote them up as national heroes and icons.

For Tajikistan, the most significant national hero was Ismail Somoni, the founder of the Samanid dynasty. Tajik officials have pinned their national story, the narrative that they use to give people a sense of nationhood, around the Samanid dynasty. A statue of Somoni dominates central Dushanbe and the national airline and currency are all named after him, as are a host of other institutions and buildings.

Branding is important, even for a country, and Pres. Emomali Rakhmon is probably right to pursue it. He has to make sure, though, that branding doesn’t distract from governing.

ENDS

(Editorial from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Food prices inflate in Kazakhstan

FEB. 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Annualised food price inflation in Kazakhstan measured 11.6% for the 12-months to the end of January, the country’s statistics service said. The data highlights just how fast prices have risen in Kazakhstan. It devalued its currency last year, forcing up prices and salaries.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Armenia’s population sinks below 3 million

JAN. 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Emigration from Armenia shrunk its population below 3m for the first time since the 1970s, a psychologically-important threshold and a statistic that highlights a population outflow trend across Central Asia and the South Caucasus.

Armenia’s statistics agency said that the population fell in 2015 by 12,000 people to 2,998,600 people — the lowest level since 1977.

It’s also more evidence of a trend which has seen Armenia’s population shrink by 36,000 in the past five years and by 643,000 since 1991 when it became independent from the Soviet Union.

Armenia has large diaspora populations in France, Russia, the United States and across the Middle East. Most of the outflow is driven by people looking to join relatives in these countries and boost their job prospects.

One of the biggest problems for Armenian policymakers is that most of the people leaving Armenia are young and well-educated. This puts pressure on Armenia’s system with its aging population.

In 2013, the government ordered the State Statistics Committee to investigate the causes and results of this declining population.

There has been some inflow into Armenia over the past few years with ethnic Armenians who had previously lived in Aleppo, Syria, fleeing a civil war.

The Armenian government has accepted around 16,000 refugees from Syria.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Soldier pleads guilty in Armenia

JAN. 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Valery Permyakov, a Russian conscript soldier, pleaded guilty to assaulting and killing a family of seven in the Armenian town of Gyumri last year. The murders triggered anti-Russia protests outside Russia’s military base, its biggest in the South Caucasus, and threatened to damage bilateral relations.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)

Azerbaijan’s Central Bank to compensate savers

JAN. 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s Central Bank said it would compensate customers of banks who lost savings in banks which have been stripped of their licences over the past couple of weeks. Legally, the Central Bank is only obliged to compensate up to 30,000 manat ($18,400). Around 6,600 customers will be eligible for the refund.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)

Swine flu deaths rise in Armenia

JAN. 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s health ministry said that 18 people had died in the past two months from the H1N1 strain of swine flu, media reported, up from an earlier death toll of 10. The health ministry denied that the deaths had reached epidemic proportions but neighbouring countries have also started to report deaths linked to swine flu.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)

Georgian Opera House prepares for new season after $40m renovation

JAN. 29 2016, TBILISI (The Conway Bulletin) — It’s been one of the longest and most expensive renovation projects in Georgia’s history but now the 165-year-old Zacharia Paliashvili Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre, originally called the Tiflis Imperial Theatre, is finally set to reopen its doors.

The curtains will be opened tomorrow night on the theatre’s six year, $40m renovation, a project paid for by former PM Bidzina Ivanishvili’s Cartu Fund.

The first night will be reserved for invited guests only but members of the public can buy tickets for subsequent nights to see for themselves what has been promised has been a lavish renovation of one of the world’s most famous Russian Empire-era opera houses.

A grand and imposing building with a touch of Moorish swagger, the opera house dominates the central avenue running through Tbilisi. It was designed in the mid-19th century by Viktor Schröter, a German architect who lived in St Petersburg.

The main performance at the reopening of the theatre is a rendition of Georgian composer Zacharia Paliashvili’s symphony orchestra.

Standing in line to buy a ticket was, 70-year-old Lia Machitadze.

She wore a fur coat to ward off the January chill, large sunglasses and bright red lipstick. “I couldn’t wait for my aunt to take me to the opera when I was a little girl,”she said as she fluffed her hair up a little. “And now I can’t wait to experience its magical atmosphere again.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)