Tag Archives: Tajikistan

Tajik leader talks of crisis

AUG. 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon ordered his government to take urgent action to mitigate the impact of the worsening economic crisis hitting Central Asia. In one of his most frank omissions that Tajikistan’s economy is rapidly worsening, Mr Rakhmon told his ministers to adopt import substitution policies. Tajikistan has been hit by the drop in remittances from Russia.

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(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)

Tajik government pressures IRPT

AUG. 28 2015, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) — The Tajik government warned the Islamic Renaissance Party, the last remaining opposition parties, that it is now operating illegally because it was no longer active in enough cities to merit being called a political party.

Analysts said that this was another attempt by the government to disband one of its biggest critics.

In a statement published by the state news agency Khovar, the justice ministry said: “The Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan is no longer a republican party.”

Officials said that according to the law, a republican party must have representative cells in most cities and district.

The statement says that the IRPT has cut its activities in 58 cities and districts, and cannot be considered an all-republican party able to hold a national congress.

The Tajik justice ministry gave IRPT 10 days to respond to the statement.

IRPT plans to hold a congress on Sept. 15 to choose new leaders to replace its self-exiled leader.

Mahmadali Hait, the deputy head of IRPT, told local media that the party is going to answer the government’s statement soon.

“Our answer to the justice ministry is almost ready, but we can disclose it only after the ministry receives our answer,” he said.

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(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)

Central Asian leaders head to Beijing

SEPT. 1/3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Highlighting just how important China has become to Central Asia, four out of five of the region’s leaders travelled to Beijing to watch a military parade designed to mark the 70th anniversary of China’s victory over Japan in World War II.

Trips to Beijing have become a regular part of the diplomatic land- scape for the presidents of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. China now regards the region almost as its personal backyard, seemingly striking bilateral deals and agreements through the Shanghai Cooperation OrganisatPion (SCO) at will.

And this week appears to have been no different. Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev flew to Beijing a few days early to sign off on a handful of deals. On his website, akorda.kz, Mr Nazarbayev said that the deals, spanning a range of sectors, had been worth $23b.

“We have actively cooperated with China for more than 20 years, mainly in the energy sector and in extracting other raw materials,” he said.

“Yesterday during our constructive talks with President Xi Jinping we agreed to create 45 joint facilities, and agreements were signed on 25 of them worth a total of $23b.”

The details of these deals were vague but they covered a range of sectors from tourism to hydropower.

Mr Nazarbayev also congratulated Chinese President Xi on winning the 2022 Winter Olympic Games for Beijing in July ahead of Almaty.

Following on a few days behind him were the presidents of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Only Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, Turkmenistan’s president, was missing. Also present were other leaders from neighbouring countries including Russia’s Vladimir Putin and South Korea’s Park Geun-hye.

With an economic downturn linked to Russia and a collapse in the price of oil, China has become an even more important driver of economic development in Central Asia and the SouthCaucasus.

At the end of last month, Kyrgyzstan officially opened a new power line funded by China that will improve electricity transit from the south of the country, where its hydro- power stations are sited, to the north and when Uzbekistan’s president Islam Karimov flew into Beijing its official media said bilateral trade had tripled in six years to around $5b.

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(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)

Tajikistan restricts social media access

AUG. 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan has once again restricted access to Facebook and YouTube, two of the country’s most popular social networking sites, users said. The Tajik government has been cracking down on opposition figures over the past few weeks, a strategy that may be linked to the social media restrictions.

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(News report from Issue No. 245, published on Aug. 28 2015)

Tajikistan asks for opposition extraditions

AUG. 17/19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Officials in Tajikistan appeared to ramp up their crackdown on opposition members by filing extradition requests to Russia and Moldova for people linked to the banned Group 24. Earlier this year the exiled head of Group 24, Umarali Kuvvatov, was shot dead in Istanbul.

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(News report from Issue No. 244, published on Aug. 21 2015)

Tajikistan needs more clean water

AUG. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A senior UN official said that Tajikistan needed to prioritise bringing clean drinking water to more people. Leo Heller, Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation, made the statement after a mission to the country.

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(News report from Issue No. 243, published on Aug. 14 2015)

Tajikistan limits government news

DUSHANBE, JULY 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Tajik government said official news should be sent first to the state news agency Khovar, prompting allegations of a media crackdown.

Bishkek-based Tajik news agency Ozodagon published a scan of the decree.

The decree said: “All official information, meetings of the Government of Tajikistan, the President of Tajikistan’s working visits within the country and abroad, international, republican and sectoral meetings should be provided first to Khovar state information agency, and only after that should be sent by the agency to other media.”

The authorities in Tajikistan have been limiting media freedom over the past few years. The West has accused Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon of increasingly authoritarian tendencies.

The new law is another step towards becoming a fully authoritarian state, said Dr Irshod Sulaymoni, an independent political analyst in Dushanbe.

“The decree essentially contradicts the laws, including the constitution, of Tajikistan and questions the reality of equal access to information given by the law,” he said. “I think that the decree is clearly intended to control the official news.”

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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)

Tajikistan increases electricity exports

JULY 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan increased its electricity exports by 9.4% in the first half of 2015, compared to the same period last year, according to the ministry of energy. Afghanistan receives the majority of Tajik electricity exports. Electricity exports are increasingly important to Tajikistan.

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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)

Tajik court jails opposition member

JULY 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Tajikistan jailed Jaloliddin Mahmudov, a senior official in the opposition Islamic Renaissance party, for illegally handling weapons, media reported. Opposition groups in Tajikistan have said that they are being unfairly targeted by the authorities.

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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)

Mudslides hit rural Tajikistan

JULY 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Landslides in eastern Tajikistan have killed at least seven people and destroyed 50 homes, media reported quoting local officials.

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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)