JULY 25 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan confirmed it would host a Formula 1 Grand Prix race in 2016. Hosting an F1 race is a huge PR success for Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev who has been looking for ways to promote the country. Next year, Azerbaijan hosts the inaugural European Games.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 193, published on July 30 2014)
JULY 26 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – There was a very strong sense of déjà vu around an official Turkmen government announcement this month. Media reported that the Turkmen government had announced that it would build a statue to the current president, Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov.
When he took over the presidency in 2007 from Saparmurat Niyazov, the first president of post-Soviet Turkmenistan, one of his first stated actions with to dismantle the personality cult his predecessor had built up. This included a gold statue of Niyazov built on an enormous plinth in the centre of Ashgabat.
International observers also cheered when he started to open Turkmenistan up to foreign investment. It is now one of the region’s major gas producers, a position it should strengthen further over the next few years.
There have, though, been increasingly strong signals that Mr Berdymukhamedov also wants to build up a personality cult of his own and that worried observers.
He has been shown on state television berating hapless officials, he makes sure that he wins Turkmenistan’s most important horse race each year and now, it appears, he has authorised a statue of himself.
Foreign minister Kasymkuly Babayev was shown on state television giving a tour of the construction site to Mr Berdymukahmedov. He addressed Mr Berdymukhamedov by his preferred moniker of Arkadag, or Protector.
“In the name of the people of the country, of the leaders of (state) structures, (we) appeal to the head of state to decide to establish on one of the beautiful corners of Turkmenistan’s capital, a monument to President Arkadag,” media quoted him as saying. This all sounds very familiar.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 193, published on July 30 2014)
JULY 6 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan has, arguably, the world’s most experienced football referee. Ravshan Irmatov, 36, made history by taking charge of his ninth World Cup game, a record, at the quarter-final between the Netherlands and Costa Rica. Uzbekistan’s national football team has never qualified for the World Cup finals.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 193, published on July 30 2014)
JULY 1-6 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan turned itself into an international windsurfing destination for a week when the world’s top racers converged on the Caspian Sea. Like other former Soviet states, Turkmenistan is looking to promote itself. Earlier this year it announced that it had secured a stage of the global windsurfing series.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 193, published on July 30 2014)
JULY 16 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Police in Moscow arrested one of Armenia’s richest men as he returned from Monaco and charged him with links to Russian mafia, media reported.
The arrest of Levon Hayrapetian, 65, and the subsequent trial, may shed light on murky connections between some of Armenia’s rich and organised crime. It also drew anger from Nagorno-Karabakh, where Mr Hayrapetian has supported Armenian rebels against Azerbaijani forces. Mr Hayrapetian is a native of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Bizarrely, 674 couples that Mr Hayrapetian organised a mass marriage ceremony for in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2008 called for his release.
“Thanks to Hayrapetian’s sponsorship of the mass wedding, hundreds of families were formed in Artsakh, and in the last six years, around 1,200 children have been born,” they said in a joint statement quoted by the media.
“Being well aware of Levon Hayrapetian’s high human values, we are convinced that the accusations against him are groundless.”
Artsakh is the Armenian name for Nagorno-Karabakh.
Mr Hayrapetian is accused of having links to the Russian crime boss Sergei Finagin. He was charged with money laundering and embezzlement on July 24.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 193, published on July 30 2014)
JULY 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Italian cyclist Vincenzo Nibali won the Tour de France, cycling’s greatest prize, for the Kazakhstan- sponsored Team Astana. By winning the Tour de France, Mr Nibali has guaranteed Kazakhstan major publicity. Kazakhstan has now said it wants to host the start of the Tour de France before 2020.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 193, published on July 30 2014)
JULY 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Concerned about possible unrest connected with electricity price increases, Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan has ordered his policy chiefs to investigate whether it can soften the price rises for less well-off families, media reported.
Last month Armenia announced that it would increase the price for electricity by 10% form Aug. 1, its first price increase in two years.
Opposition politicians have said that the price increase will trigger inflation across the country and that this is just the first of several price planned price rises.
Armenia’s government has already had to negotiate through a difficult year.
A government resigned because of public unhappiness over its pension reform plans, economic growth estimates have been downgraded because of sanctions on Russia and now an electricity price increase threatens to erode the government’s popularity further.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)
JULY 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgia’s richest man and leader of the coalition that defeated former president Mikheil Saakashvili in three consecutive elections, will host a talk show, media reported. This is important as it gives Mr Bidzina, who is a former Georgian PM, a direct voice to ordinary Georgians.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)
JULY 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan, or Almaty to be precise, has made it into the final round of three to host the 2022 Winter Olympics.
This in itself is an achievement. The other two finalists have long Olympic pedigree. Beijing hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 2008 and Oslo has already hosted the Winter Games in 1952. In 1994, Lillehammer, in central Norway, also hosted the Winter Olympic Games.
In the last Winter Olympic Games in Sochi earlier this year Norway won 11 gold medals and China won three. Kazakhstan, by comparison, won just one bronze medal in ice skating.
Almaty may be a rank outsider in terms of Olympic pedigree but it is still an attractive option for the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The IOC wants to break into new territories for its Winter Games. The options are slightly limited by the weather and the expensive, exclusive nature of winter sports.
Almaty ticks a good number of boxes. It is keen, can pay for the facilities and has plenty of snow.
Of course there are pitfalls too. Kazakhstan’s human rights record and commitment to democracy is patchy and many of the facilities needed to host the Winter Olympics are unbuilt. Also, with the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, the IOC may decide that having another one so soon in the former Soviet Union is just too much for everybody.
The IOC decides on its 2022 winter venue on July 31 2015. Almaty has just over a year to put together a bid that could finally bring the Olympics to Kazakhstan.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)
JULY 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Prisoners in a jail in western Kazakhstan rioted over conditions, media reported. Human rights groups regularly complain to Kazakhstan about conditions that it keeps prisoners in. An official told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that the riot had been quashed by law enforcement officers.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)