FEB. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Azerbaijan have brought new charges against RFE/RL reporter Khadija Ismayilova, media reported. Ms Ismayilova, a critic of the government, is in pre-trial detention for coaxing a journalist into a suicide attempt. She will now also face charges of tax evasion and embezzlement.
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(News report from Issue No. 219, published on Feb. 18 2015)
FEB. 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s energy minister, Kubanychbek Turdubayev, has accused Russia of working too slowly on upgrades to hydropower projects, eurasianet.org reported. Upgrades to the Kambar-Ata 1 dam and the Upper-Naryn Cascade were part of a 2012 deal that saw Moscow secure an extension to leases on military bases in Kyrgyzstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 219, published on Feb. 18 2015)
>>Releases linked to election in March>>
FEB. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Uzbekistan unexpectedly released Khayrulla Khamidov a sports commentator imprisoned in 2010.
As well as being a soccer commentator, Mr Khamidov was a popular religious speaker who had a large following. He produced CDs and spoke at weddings on social issues.
When he was arrested, on charges of setting up an illegal religious organisation, his supporters said it was an attempt by the authorities to dampen a popular social commentator who they considered was a growing threat to stability. He was imprisoned for six years.
Mr Khamidov’s release, then, appears to be a large concession. Human rights groups have long criticised Uzbekistan for its harsh record against religion. Perhaps, though, this is beginning to change.
The Tashkent-based Initiative Group of Independent Human Rights Advocates of Uzbekistan has said 16 other religious prisoners were released alongside Mr Khamidov.
No official reason for the release has been given although ordinary Uzbeks believe it is linked to a presidential election set for March 29.
Uzbekistan is in flux at the moment. Islam Karimov, who has ruled over the country since the end of the Soviet Union in 1991, is increasingly frail. The election in March and what goes before and after it are increasingly important to monitor.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 219, published on Feb. 18 2015)
>>A row over a blog discussing Almaty’s architecture hits a sensitive nerve>>
ALMATY, FEB. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — “This is sick,” one commentator wrote. “You’re a monster,” wrote another.”
The offending photograph showed an old cottage here in Almaty decked in fine Russian vernacular architecture: carved eaves called karnizy, ornate window frames called nalichniki.
The picture had been, for full-disclosure, run through a muddy Instagram filter, and the house wasn’t in the best of shape. Yet the dissenting faction, trolls or otherwise, couldn’t find anything to admire.
“Why don’t you show our Al-Farabi Boulevard instead?” one user offered. “We’ve got all the fanciest cars!”
I never thought a site about Almaty’s overlooked architecture would be so divisive. Yet the project, Walking Almaty, has revealed a certain fault line in the attitudes of local denizens.
For those born after the fall of the USSR in 1991, the Soviet stuff I celebrated was something of an embarrassment and anything old acted as a painful, rusty reminder. Al Farabi Boulevard at the southern end of town, with its Prada store and glass and steel feel, is the aspirational icon of this crowd.
Meanwhile, old-timers who still call the city by its Russian name of Alma-Ata converse through online forums. For them, the past is something lived, not something to be shirked, and as facades of faux-granite rise, they feel as disrespected as the haters I witnessed on Instagram.
One youthful user recently posted online a picture of a rebuilt cottage, its wooden fretwork ripped off, its new paint job unsubtle. The old-timers responded in chorus. “This is sick.”
By Dennis Keen, an Almaty-based American blogger and writer
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 219, published on Feb. 18 2015)
FEB. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan’s last official census, researched in 2012, showed that only 5% of its 6m population is ethnic Russian, the chrono-tm.org website reported. Quoting the 2012 census, the website also said 60% of young families, under 30-years-old, do not own their own homes. The census had been kept out of the public domain.
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(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)
FEB. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Measles in Kyrgyzstan is on the rise because parents are opting their children out of the vaccination for religious reasons, media reported quoting government doctors. Figures quoted by the media said that the number of confirmed measles cases in Kyrgyzstan rose to 3,400 this year from 200 last year.
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(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)
>>Clashes breakout after Tajik is accused of murder>>
FEB. 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — A group of Kazakhs attacked Tajik homes in a village near Kazakhstan’s border with Uzbekistan.
The police had earlier accused Navmidin Narmetov, a Tajik, of killing Bakytzhan Artykov, a Kazakh in the village of Bostandyk, 150km south of the regional capital, Shymkent.
Friends and family members of the victim converged on the Tajiks’ homes, burning cars, attacking the Tajik-language school and shouting: “Go home!”.
A state of emergency was briefly proclaimed by the ministry of interior. In the southern region, internet connections and cell phone reception were frozen for days after the attacks. Online news reports, both in Russian and in English were censored across the country.
The alleged murderer was caught in Uzbekistan.
Inter-ethnic harmony is a particularly sensitive issue in Kazakhstan. President Nursultan Nazarbayev has often spoken on the topic and in 2011, rioting oil workers in west Kazakhstan clashed with police. Several people died triggering the most serious crisis of Mr Nazarbayev’s presidency.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)
FEB. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Despite protests, Armenia’s parliament passed a law that will reduce tax imposed on small businesses to 1% of sales from 3.5%. The proposed law has angered businesses because it will mean that they have to provide more paperwork. Armenian PM Armen Rustamyan said the law would be introduced in July, a delay of six months.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)
FEB. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tribesmen in Yemen have released a Tajik doctor they kidnapped in October, media reported. Gulrukhsor Rofieyva, 36, was working for a Russian company when she was kidnapped. It’s unclear why her captors released her but they had demanded the release of tribesmen held by the government.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)
FEB. 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — A handful of residents in Almaty staged another protest against the falling value of the Kazakh tenge. According to a Radio Free Europe report the protesters said they had taken out mortgages when $1 equalled 107 tenge. Now $1 equalled 186 tenge. Protests are rare in Kazakhstan but pressure on the tenge has angered people.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)