Tag Archives: society

Turkem President statue unveiled in Ashgabat

MAY 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – To rapturous applause from watching Turkmens, officials in Turkmenistan unveiled a golden statue of President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov riding a horse on a 21m high white marble plinth.

When Mr Berdymukhamedov came to power in 2007 he set out deriding his predecessor’s personality cult and opening the country up to the world. Over the past few years, though, his own brand of cult has mushroomed.

According to media reports hundreds of people sang and chanted as they watched the statue being unveiled in a central square in Ashgabat.

Britain’s Independent newspa- per quoted a man saying: “Arkadag works for the glory of our people from dawn to dusk.”

Arkadag means protector and is the people’s nickname for Mr Berdymukhamedov. Reports over the past few years, from winning horse races against obviously planted opponents to shouting at officials on TV, have painted Mr Berdymukhamedov as an increasingly autocratic and eccentric leader.

Europe, China and countries in the Middle East are trying to woo Turkmenistan and persuade it to sign various gas supply deals. Turkmenistan holds the world’s fourth largest gas reserves.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)

EU says Georgia is not yet ready for visa-free travel

MAY 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – At its summit meeting in Riga, the EU promised Georgia that it would decide by the end of the year whether to grant Georgians visa-free travel.

Georgia’s government has lobbied hard for a visa-free regime across Europe as it sees this as a vital step towards achieving its ultimate aim of joining the EU.

The EU had presented the so-called Visa Liberalisation Action Plan (VLAP) progress report on Georgia and Ukraine a couple of weeks earlier. It congratulated Georgia on its progress, but also pointed out that it needed to implement reforms in asylum, anti-corrup- tion, human trafficking and drugs.

The decision was a disappointment to Georgia’s government as well as for many ordinary Georgians. Misha Shavtvaladze, a political scientist from Tbilisi State University, explained.

“But the fact that we are not ready for this upgrade had a negative psychological effect. It has a lot to do with the national pride, like winning the Eurovision does.”

The opposition blamed the government for the lack of good news, but Georgian PM Irakli Garibashvili said he did receive a positive message from the EU. Georgia will be the next country to be granted visa waiver, possibly even earlier than Ukraine, he told media.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)

Azerbaijani traders grumble about European Games

BAKU/Azerbaijan, MAY 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — For 20 years Sugra, a weather-beaten 72-year-old, has pulled up vegetables, and picked off fruit, that she has grown in her small yard in the village of Sabirabad. She collects them together and brings them to market in Baku, 100km away.

The European Games, set for next month in Baku, will change that, though.

“We were told that vehicles from the regions will be allowed in Baku only from 10pm to 5am during the Games. This makes our work very complicated,” she said. “Why do I even need this Games? How will I sell my stuff? I have to go to Baku, in my town, I can’t sell all these.”

The authorities in Baku have said that they are concerned about traffic jams building up in the city during the European Games. Limiting cars and lorries from the provinces will reduce these jams.

Ziyafet, 44, who sells vegetables in the next door to Sugra Guliyeva said the police officer had already warned her to stay away from the city when the Games are taking place.

“I will lose contacts with my costumers,” she said. “Some want chicken, some want milk. I have to refuse them all.

These insights are important. The government is keen to showcase Azerbaijan through the inaugural European Games but human rights activists have accused it of cracking down on dissenters during the build up to the event.

But it is not only market traders who are grumbling. Taxi driver Akif, 36, said they had been told that they cannot work during the Games.

Only specific taxis, the purple London Cabs, will be allowed in the city.

“When we heard about the games, we were glad that this might give business a boost as many people will visit the city and we will have more costumers,” he said. “Now we are told we won’t be allowed to work. This is a huge loss for us. I don’t know how I will feed my family.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)

Tajik bank switches to Islamic banking code

MAY 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajik bank Bonki Rushdi Tojikiston (BRT) will switch to Islamic banking rules after striking a deal with the Saudi Arabia- based Islamic Development Bank, media reported.

BRT will be the first Islamic Bank in Tajikistan. Its conversion shows the increasing appeal of Islamic banking, after banks in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan agreed to switch.

BRT aims to complete the conversion by mid-2015.

“This will open the door to numerous other operators iden- tifying the opportunities inherent in the sharia compli- ant financial system,” Khaled Al-Aboodi, head of the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector was quoted as saying. Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector is the unit within the Islamic Development Bank which helps banks convert to Islamic banking rules.

Reuters reported that Islamic banking has grown more popular across the world but has been slower in taking off in Muslim dominated countries that are officially secular. The popularity of finance raised through a sukuk, an instrument that adheres to Islamic banking rules, has also grown in popularity in the region. Earlier this year, the part state-owned International Bank of Azerbaijan said it wanted to issue a sukuk worth $200m to $300m.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)

Top Muslim position established in Armenia

MAY 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s official Muslim group, the Assembly of Muslims of Armenia, has created the position of chief mufti for the first time, online media reported.

Importantly, it gave the top job to an Iranian trained cleric, Arsen Safaryan.

Regional analyst Paul Goble wrote in his blog that there were a handful of reasons why this was an important development.

The first reason, he said, was that the new job challenges the Baku-based Muslim Special Directorate of the Caucasus. Azerbaijan is a Muslim country and the natural location for a regional Muslim chief.

Mr Globe then wrote: “This move gives Iran an opening to expand its influence among Shiia not only in the post- Soviet space, also a direct challenge to Azerbaijan, but also among the nearly 400,000 Armenian Muslims (the Hemshins) living in the Middle East and Europe and also among the Yezidis who vastly outnumber the Shiia in Armenia.”

There were, Mr Globe explained, thousands of Muslims living in Armenia but most fled to Azerbaijan in the 1990s after war over Nagorno-Karabakh broke out. There are now only around 1,000 Muslims in Armenia.

Iran and Armenia have been steadily improving ties over the past few years. They are both short of regional allies. Now, it appears, Armenia could be quietly handing more responsibility for Armenia’s small Muslim community over to Iran.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)

Azerbaijan distributes oil and gas wealth unevenly

SUMQAYIT/Azerbaijan, MAY 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Absheron, the narrow peninsula surrounding Azerbaijan’s capital Baku, gives a remarkable insight into the country’s patchy oil-funded growth.

Dystopian industrial decay, dirty villages of crumbling homes and bleak oil fields of rusty drills share the same few dusty square miles with newly built sumptuous seaside resorts, whitewashed villas and long stretches of crowded beaches dotted with flashy restaurants and garish wedding palaces.

The coexistence of opposites is arguably not a harmonic one. Embarrassed by the deteriorating state of Absheron’s infrastructure and the dire living conditions of much of its population Azerbaijan’s political elite seems to have opted for the creation of a Potemkin-façade of disproportionate lavishness.

Along the modern highway connecting Heydar Aliyev International Airport to the resort town of Buzovna high marble walls veil the view of surrounding shantytowns and oil spills.

Azerbaijan’s government indulges in creating unrepresentative showcases of the country, while the huge revenues of the oil and gas industry centred in and around Absheron, fail to filter down to the local inhabitants.

The uneven distribution of both profits and investments is epitomised by the fate of Sumqayit, Absheron’s biggest town. A thriving industrial centre during Soviet times, this northern shore town of concrete blocks and wide alleys now feels abandoned.

Resentment towards the government is high in Sumqayit and the town has become a breeding ground for religious extremism. Last year there were reports that Sumqayit had become a hotbed for Syria-bound would-be jihadists and a string of arrests and search operations were carried around town.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)

EBRD agreed loan with Armenia

MAY 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said it had agreed a €3.5m, 15-year loan with Armenia to build the country’s first EU-compliant landfill site. The EU has also agreed a €3.5m grant for the project.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)

Georgia hopes visa-free travel in EU

MAY 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia has toned down its hopes of a deal to scrap visas for its citizens travelling to Europe, the FT reported quoting Georgian officials ahead of an EU summit meeting in Riga. Georgia has been pushing to speed up integration with Europe.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)

Athletes challenge Kazakh gay laws

MAY 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a potentially damaging hit to Kazakhstan’s hopes of hosting the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, 27 current or former Olympic athletes wrote to the International Olympic Committee to ask it to pressure the Kazakh government into ditching a new law that bans so-called gay propaganda.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)

Fire destroys block in Azerbaijani city

MAY 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A fire ripped through a 16-storey apartment block in Baku killing at least 15 people and injuring 41 more. The fire highlights the often poor building practices in many Baku apartment blocks.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)