Tag Archives: Tajikistan

Tajik labourers say that Chinese firms abuse them

DUSHANBE/MARCH 5 (The Bulletin) — Tajik labourers working for a Chinese firm constructing a  new government building in Dushanbe have complained of poor conditions and harassment, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported (March 5).

The Tajik workers refused to give their names to reporters because they said that if they were caught complaining, they would be fired. “All heavy and manual work in construction is done by Tajiks, and local workers wear yellow helmets and Chinese wear red hats. Most of them are employers, engineers and office workers,” one worker told RFE/RL.

Tajikistan is heavily in debt to China which has given dozens of soft loans to build roads, new government buildings and beautify Dushanbe and other cities.

Activists have said that Chinese companies’ attitude towards different workers has been made worse by the coronavirus pandemic.

“Most of the workers here are former migrants who can’t go to Russia because the border is closed,” said another person working on the site. Remittances from migrant workers typically make up around half of Tajikistan’s GDP.

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— This story was published in issue 475 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on March 15 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Tajik president calls for “Year of the Glacier” to highlight Global Warming

MARCH 3 2021 (The Bulletin) — Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rakhmon said that a “Year of the Glacier” was needed to draw attention to the impact of global warming on glaciers. The Pamir Mountains dominate Tajikistan and hold world-renowned glaciers. One of them is the 75km-long Fedchenko Glacier, the longest glacier in the world outside the Polar regions, which Mr Rakhmon said had retreated by 1km.

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— This story was published in issue 474 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on March 5 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Tajik court imprisons son of opposition leader

MARCH 1 2021 (The Bulletin) — A court in Tajikistan sentenced Shaikhmuslihiddin Rizoev, son of imprisoned opposition leader Mahmurod Odinaev, to six years in prison for hooliganism and rape, the US-funded RFE/RL reported.  Supporters of Rizoev have said that his sentence is being used to pressure his father and that he was attacked by unknown men and was defending himself during the alleged fight. His trial was held in secret.

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— This story was published in issue 474 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on March 5 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Tajikistan says it has beaten the coronavirus

FEB. 1 2021 (The Bulletin) — Tajikistan’s government said that it has defeated the coronavirus as there hadn’t been any recorded cases of the virus for three weeks. It immediately ordered the reopening of mosques which had been closed since April as a lockdown precaution. Tajikistan has recorded 90 Covid-19-linked deaths. Analysts said that the real figure was likely to be far higher.

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— This story was first published in issue 471 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Comment — Vaccine programmes show geo-political bent

JAN. 22 2021 (The Bulletin) — Governments in the region are taking different approaches to vaccinating their populations against Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. And it makes for instructive analysis.

In Georgia, the most pro-Western country in the region, the government has said it intends to start inoculating its population next month with the Pfizer vaccine. Sputnik-V, the Russian Covid-19 vaccine, doesn’t even feature in the thinking of the EU-dreaming, NATO-aiming Georgian government. 

In Armenia, though, Sputnik-V is at the top of the list, although its inoculation ambitions are more limited. Economically, Armenia has been hit the hardest by the coronavirus pandemic and it plans to inoculate just the 10% of the population that it considers to be most at risk.

You may have expected Azerbaijan to also prioritise using Sputnik-V to get on top of the coronavirus but, instead, it has placed its cornerstone order with China and its vaccine Sinovac. This reflects growing tension, and possibly even rivalry, between Azerbaijan and Russia. Azerbaijan heavily leaned on Turkey to defeat Armenia in a six-week war for control of the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh and in the process appears to have secured Turkey a foothold in the South Caucasus, irritating the Kremlin. Azerbaijan has also completed construction of a gas pipeline running from the Caspian Sea to Europe and will come into direct competition with Russia.

Azerbaijan hasn’t ignored Sputnik-V altogether and has put in an order, spreading its bets, a tactic it uses, some would say, in its foreign policy.

On the other side of the Caspian Sea, it’s a more opaque, or should that be confused, outlook for vaccine orders. Turkmenistan, which officially denies that it has ever had a case of Covid-19 within its borders was the first country in the region to approve the use of Sputnik-V. Why? 

In Kazakhstan, the authorities have said that they will use the Sputnik-V vaccine to inoculate a third of the population by the end of the year and in Uzbekistan, one of the test centres for Sinovac, the government there has said it will deploy a mix of the Russian and Chinese vaccines to inoculate its population. Uzbekistan, with a population double the size of Kazakhstan’s, has the biggest inoculation logistics challenge.

Bottom of the list are Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Reflecting their far poorer status, both countries are relying on donations from Russia and China as well as the UN’s COVAX scheme for their inoculation cover. Officials in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have said that the coronavirus pandemic has largely passed. This is, like their vaccine rollout plans, largely wishful thinking.

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— This story was first published in issue 469 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Exports from Central Asia to China fall

JAN. 22 2021 (The Bulletin) — Exports from Central Asia to China plummeted in 2020, Chinese data showed, because of a drop in demand for products and the closure of borders as countries tried to stall the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. The data showed that exports from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan dropped by around 47% and from Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan by around 30%. 

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— This story was first published in issue 469 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Fuel prices rising in Tajikistan

JAN. 18 2021 (The Bulletin) — Fuel prices are rising in Tajikistan, media reported by quoting local taxi drivers who said that there had been a 10% increase in the past week. Analysts said that the fuel price increase is linked to a drop in imports of fuel from Russia and Kazakhstan. Tajikistan does not have its own oil refinery and is reliant on imports.

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— This story was first published in issue 469 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Flour prices rise again in Tajikistan

JAN. 6 2021 (The Bulletin) — Flour prices in Tajikistan, which are managed by the state, have continued to rise, media reported. Reports said that a bag of flour rose  in price by 4% in December. Inflation is rising across Central Asia. Media in Kyrgyzstan has reported that the price of meat had risen by a third in the second half of 2020.

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— This story was first published in issue 467 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Tashkent-Dushanbe flight starts up again

JAN. 5 2021 (The Bulletin) — Uzbekistan Airways flew the first charter flight between Tashkent and Dushanbe since March when flights were suspended because of the intensifying coronavirus pandemic. The return of the Tashkent – Dushanbe route is an important signifier that internal routes in Central Asia are beginning to return to normal.

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— This story was first published in issue 467 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

ADB funds road-building in Tajikistan

DEC. 29 2020 (The Bulletin) — The Asian Development Bank agreed a $67m grant with Tajikistan to build two sections of road in Khatlon, a region south of Dushanbe. Media said that the roads currently carry 4,000 vehicles per day. Infrastructure improvement has been a major feature of development in Tajikistan, with China funding much of the work. 

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— This story was first published in issue 467 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021