Tag Archives: sport

Turkmenistan’s football dipped further

JUNE 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Football, or soccer as Americans prefer to call the sport, is not Turkmenistan’s strong point.

It is currently ranked 173rd in the world, out of 209 teams. In Central Asia, only Kyrgyzstan is rated worse in 177th position.

But Turkmenistan’s status in the football world has just dipped further after it lost to the US protectorate of Guam 1-0.

This was Guam’s first ever World Cup qualifier victory.

Guam has a population of 200,000 and is not noted as a football powerhouse either. It last played a World Cup qualifier in 2000, losing 16-0 to Tajikistan.

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(News report from Issue No. 235, published on June 11 2015)

Armenian wrestlers pull out of Games

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)

UN criticises Azerbaijan ahead of Games

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)

Armenia to send team to Baku

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)

Azerbaijani capital tears down panelling after fire

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

Kazakhstan’s Court blocks anti-gay laws

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)

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.”

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

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

Costs of Games rises in Azerbaijan

APRIL 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan is covertly cutting salaries for state employees to try and pay for the rising cost of the European Games which are scheduled to be held next month, the Eurasinet website reported.

It quoted unnamed employees of Azerbaijan’s State Customs Committee saying that they had had their bonuses scrapped because of the Games.

Eurasianet said the State Customs Committee declined to comment and that the ministry of taxes denied the allegations.

The 16-day European Games, which starts on June 12, is a major set-piece event for Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev. He wants to use sport to promote the country and to distract from criticism of his human rights record.

The problem is that, although Azerbaijan has enough oil- generated wealth to survive a regional downturn in economics, cash is getting tighter and paying for the multi-billion- dollar European Games is getting harder.

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(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)

Kazakh Astana cycling retains licence

APRIL 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Cycling’s Astana Pro Team, a Kazakhstan-backed franchise, will retain its World Tour Licence despite allegations of mass doping (April 24).

The International Cycling Union’s Licence Commission’s decision surprised many who had been urging it to take strong action to clean up the sport.

The International Cycling Union suggested in February that Astana Pro Team would lose its licence over what it described as “compelling grounds” that it had doped.

This would have embarrassed Kazakhstan. Last year an Astana Pro Team rider, Vincenzo Nibali, won the Tour de France.

Some online stories suggested that the International Cycling Union wanted to avoid a legal case with Astana Pro Team and so dodged scrapping its licence. Instead it said Astana Pro Team would be subject to special conditions next season.

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(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)