Tag Archives: Tajikistan

Tajik students want opposition extradited

OCT. 26 2015, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) — A group of students at the Tajik National University appealed to the US, the EU and Germany to extradite opposition members, raising immediate concerns that the authorities may be coercing sectors of the population to pursue its agenda.

Civic activism is stunted in Tajikistan and this apparent support for the government worried analysts.

A Dushanbe-based analyst who spoke to a Bulletin correspondent said: “The government knows that the Western states will not extradite opposition leaders to Tajikistan. Thus, they control the students and organise similar appeals and demonstrations to show the world that Tajik youth are politically active and there is democracy in Tajikistan.”

The government has stepped up its persecution of opposition groups this year, banning them and arresting activists. It wants opposition leaders extradited from Europe.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)

Tajikistan gives weapons to Taliban

OCT. 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan gave weapons to the Taliban in Afghanistan in exchange for freeing four Tajik soldiers, a senior Taliban leader interviewed by The Daily Beast said. The soldiers, captured in December 2014, were released in June. A Taliban leader allegedly travelled to Dushanbe for the deal. The Tajik government has not commented.

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(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)

Tajiistan rations electricity

OCT. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan’s state-owned utility Barqi Tojik said it imposed seasonal rationing of electricity on rural areas on Oct. 18. Tajikistan wants to become a regional exporter of electricity but issues with its own power grid and growing consumption have curbed its ambitions.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Tajik capital demolition angers many

OCT. 23 2015, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Tajikistan plan to demolish some of Dushanbe’s most striking buildings to make way for new developments, infuriating many people.

Specifically, city planners are eyeing up the Rohat teahouse — a tourist destination — two theatres, the former presidential administration and the current parliament building for demolition. All of the buildings lie on prime real estate in the city centre and were built during the early Soviet period.

Nurali Saidzoda, deputy head of architecture and construction committee, told Tajik media last week that the buildings selected for demolition are not unique.

“If you had seen the blueprints of what will be built in their places, you would say the same,” he said.

The Tajik authorities appear to have something of a fad for large construction projects and grandiose design. Over the past few years they have built the biggest library, biggest teahouse, and biggest mosque in the region.

But not everybody was happy. Grassroots activism is rare in Tajikistan but, even so, hundreds of people signed an online petition calling for the demolition to be scrapped.

Fotima, an old woman walking in central Dushanbe, said she was concerned about the future of the city.

“The buildings to be demolished carry the spirit of the city. The city will not be as the same as I remember it anymore,” she said.

Abdulfattoh Shafiev, a Dushanbe- based analyst, said the demolition plans was linked to business.

“Demolition of old Stalinist buildings in the Tajik capital is completely unrelated to any ideology and is simply a business idea to build new and bigger skyscrapers in the most valuable part of Dushanbe, down- town,” he said.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Tajik baby dies in Russia

OCT. 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Russian authorities declined to take responsibility for the death of Umarali Nazarov, a five-month old Tajik boy who died in police custody in St. Petersburg nine days earlier. Nazarov had been separated from his parents who were also detained. Tajikistan has lodged an official complaint about Nazarov’s death.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Japanese PM begins Grand Tour of Central Asia with stopover in Turkmenistan

OCT. 23 2015, BISHKEK (The Conway Bulletin) — Japanese PM Shinzo Abe began a tour of the five Central Asian Stans designed to boost links with the region.

The trip started in Turkmenistan, where Mr Abe signed deals worth over $18b in the chemical and power sectors.

This was the first official visit by a Japanese PM to Turkmenistan, proof of the country’s growing status as a global energy exporter.

Stopovers in Dushanbe and Bishkek will also mark the first official visits to Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan for a Japanese leader.

Central Asia has been attracting high-profile interest from Asian leaders over the past few years. In 2013, China’s President Xi Jinping completed a similar Grand Tour of the region and this year Indian PM Narendra Modi also visited all five Stans.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

VimpelCom sells kit in Kazakhstan, Armenia

OCT. 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russian telecoms company VimpelCom said it is selling 50,000 phone towers across the former Soviet Union for $5b. VimpelCom, headquartered in the Netherlands, hired several banks to broker the deal. Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are among the countries involved in the deal.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Russia wants to patrol Tajik-Afghan border

OCT. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia’s deputy minister of defence, General Yuri Borisov, said that Russian President Vladimir Putin was in talks with Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rakhmon to station soldiers on the Tajik-Afghan border to fight off any potential threat from the Taliban. Russia and Central Asian leaders have grown increasingly wary of the push north of the Taliban.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct.16 2015)

Russia sends attack helicopters to Tajikistan

OCT. 6 2015, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia said it will station attack helicopters at its base in Tajikistan, a strong sign the Kremlin believes the threat from the Taliban in Afghanistan to Central Asia is heightening.

A Russian Defence Ministry spokesman said Mi-24P gunships, heavily used during the Soviet Union’s war in Afghanistan in the 1980s, and Mi-8 MTV transport-combat helicopters will be stationed at the Ayni airbase, 30km outside Dushanbe.

Over the past week, the Taliban and US-backed forces belonging to the Afghan central government have been fighting for control of Kunduz on the Tajik-Afghan border. And this has worried Central Asian governments throughout the year.

A Dushanbe-based analyst who wished not to be named said: “The occupation of Kunduz by the Taliban has shaken Dushanbe. Tajik authorities know that they cannot handle any threat, be it domestic or external, without the help of Russia. For Rakhmon, the Kremlin is the guarantee of stability in Tajikistan.”

Tajik President Emmomli Rakhmon had been in Moscow the day before the Kremlin said it would send attack helicopters to Tajikistan.

And most people in Dushanbe welcomed Moscow’s help. Olim Shirinov, a Dushanbe resident, said: “Every new unit of Russian military equipment on Tajik soil is one more brick in the wall that guarantees stability in the country.”

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(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

China builds power plant in Tajikistan

OCT. 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — NORINCO International, a Chinese engineering contractor, will build a coal-fired power plant in the Basht district, about 100km to the east of Dushanbe, helping the country increase its power generation capacity. The new plant will have a 350MW capacity. TBEA, another Chinese company, is currently building a similar power plant in Dushanbe, highlighting China’s growing role in Tajikistan.

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(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)