JUNE 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Arsen Julfalakian and Artur Aleksanian, two Olympic medal winning Armenian wrestlers, have pulled out of the European Games in Baku because they said that it would be biased towards their Azerbaijani competitors, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.
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(News report from Issue No. 235, published on June 11 2015)
JUNE 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Doctors and other health workers will leave Kyrgyzstan for better paid jobs in Kazakhstan and Russia now that the country has joined the Kremlin- led Eurasian Economic Union, media quoted Kyrgyz health minister Talantbek Batyraliyev as saying. Kyrgyzstan’s health service is already in a precarious states.
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(News report from Issue No. 235, published on June 11 2015)
DILIJAN/Armenia, JUNE 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Once best known as a spa resort in the north-eastern mountains of Armenia, for the past couple of years Dilijan has also been a base for the Central Bank.
As part of a government plan to redistribute wealth around the country, the Central Bank moved 100 employees in the Central Bank’s research department and their families to this quiet, gentle mountain town of around 20,000 people.
“Central Bank’s move to Dilijan has had multiple effects,” the Armenian Central Bank chairman, Artur Javadyan, told the Bulletin on a trip to Dilijan.
“Our staff’s first concern was whether their children would have appropriate education and other facilities for permanent residence. This encouraged the Central Bank to create new and high quality infrastructures.”
It’s an ambitious project for the Central Bank to tackle. It had to build new infrastructure for its employees, such as schools, sports centres and apartment blocks, investments which have had positive drip-down effects on the local population, their shops and businesses.
And it appears to be paying off. The Central Bank employees who have moved to Dilijan, which lies in a national park, said they were enjoying the experience.
“It is great in here,” one said as birdsong floated across the air. “After a hard working day we go to play football, have some beer and rest.”
Nearby, a supermarket has experienced a boost in demand for products generated by the workers.
And Armenia’s newest financial hub — even if it is a small, embryonic one — is also a magnet for tourists interested in nature. Surrounded by forested mountains, Dilijan is famous for its natural springs which have attracted tourists from around the world.
“We’re so happy to see our city developing, where you can see the contrast of old and new,” said a Dilijan resident.
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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)
JUNE 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Games, due to start in Baku on June 12, may turn out to be more of curse for Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev than a blessing.
The Games have shone a spotlight on Azerbaijan and it is not a pretty sight, according to many Western politicians and activists.
The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, Michael Frost, was the latest high profile figure to criticise Azerbaijan on its civil rights record.
“As preparations are in full swing for the Baku Games, the Azerbaijani authorities stepped up their efforts to harass, jail, and surveil human rights defenders, as well as ban them from travel and freeze their assets,” he said, according to the UN website.
Many of the journalists and activists arrested over the past couple of years have been sent to prison on drugs and arms related charges. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has been chased out of Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijani officials dismissed Mr Frost’s statement as part of the anti-Azerbaijan narrative that has been put forward over the last few years.
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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)
JUNE 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The number of people travelling by air directly between Tbilisi and Moscow has risen by 65%, Georgia’s government said. Georgia and Russia have only recently re-started direct flights between the countries. The data shows just how important an air-link is between the two capitals for trade and tourism.
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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)
JUNE 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – More and more ethnic Armenian refuges from Syria are fleeing to Armenia, Hranush Hakobyan, minister for diaspora, said. Thousands of Armenians had lived in Syria. Many fled after the start of a civil war. Ms Hakobyan said there were now 13,000 in Armenia.
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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)
MAY 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia confirmed it will send a team to the inaugural European Games in Baku next month. Azerbaijan and Armenia are officially at war over the disputed region of Nagorno- Karabakh, now controlled by Armenia-backed forces. Some athletes wanted to boycott the event.
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(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)
MAY 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Asim Thabit Abdullah al- Khalaqi, a former inmate of the US’ Guantanamo Bay prison, died in Kazakhstan of kidney failure, media reported. The US released Mr Khalaqi, a Yemeni national who spent 11 years in Guantanamo Bay, six months ago with a handful of other inmates. They were resettled in Kazakhstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)
MAY 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – After a fire ripped through a Baku apartment block and killed at least 16 people earlier this month, the authorities ordered decorative panels which had been used to smarten the city ahead of the European Games next month to be torn down.
Media reported that Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev ordered the polyurethane panels to be removed .
Azerbaijan is keen to show off Baku and the country during the European Games. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported that some Azerbaijan residents started to rip off the foam panelling before the authorities had agreed for it to be taken down.
“It’s stupid to put up with this in silence. We have to act,” RFE/RL quoted one Baku resident as saying on Facebook. “We have to dismantle this idiotic facing. Life is worth fighting for.”
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)
MAY 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s Constitutional Court blocked a bill that would have banned so-called gay propaganda, only a few days after Olympic athletes said it contradicted the spirit of the Olympic Games.
In their letter to the International Olympic Committee, the athletes criticised he law, similar to one brought in by Russia in 2013, and asked the Games’ governing body to pressure Kazakhstan into reconsidering the law.
The strategy now appears to have worked.
As ever, timing is everything. Kazakhstan is competing with Beijing to host the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. A decision is due in July and Kazakhstan would have been very keen to avoid any negative publicity surrounding its bid in the run-up to that announcement.
According to media reports, the Constitutional Council rejected the bill because if considered it vague and legally incorrect.
That, though, may not be the end of it. The promoter of the bill, MP Aldan Smayyl, said amendments to the current draft will be made and the bill will be submitted to the Parliament again soon.
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(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)