JUNE 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The US embassy in Dushanbe issued a statement criticising the Tajik government for block- ing access to various websites. It said that Tajikistan should lift restrictions on the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Facebook websites. These have been inaccessible since May 28.
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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)
JUNE 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan’s prosecutor-general issued an arrest warrant for Gulmurod Khalimov, the paramilitary police chief who defected to IS in Syria.
Mr Khalimov was also formally stripped of his military title. He had been a colonel.
He appeared at the end of May in a video from Syria in which he cradled a sniper rifle and pledged to ferment revolution in Tajikistan.
Mr Khalimov had left his home in April, telling his wife that he was going away on a business trip for a few days.
Instead he became IS’ most high-profile recruit from Central Asia.
Central Asian countries are increasingly worried about the ability of IS to recruit disenfranchised and poor young men from the region. With his glamour and seniority, Mr Khalimov’s recruitment has added extra weight to the IS propaganda programme.
Mr Khalimov had led Tajikistan’s paramilitary OMON unit and had been trained by special forces in the United States and in Russia.
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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)
JUNE 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Defence minister from CSTO member states flew into Dushanbe for their annual meeting, set to begin on June 4. The Collective Security Treaty Organisation includes Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)
MAY 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan’s parliament unanimously approved a Tajik-China extradition law. China is increasing its influence across Central Asia, a region it considers to be its backyard.
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(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)
MAY 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a new report, the World Bank said remittances from Tajik migrant workers to their relatives might drop by 40% this year.
Remittances in 2014 from Tajiks working in Russia made up over 42% of Tajikistan’s GDP keeping the country at the top of the world’s most remittance- dependent ranking.
The World Bank’s forecast, therefore, makes for grim reading.
According to the World Bank the Tajik economy will experience a much slower growth than in the past few years. The country’s GDP in 2015 will grow at 3.2%, less than half its 2014 figure of 6.7%.
The World Bank forecasts the growth to return above 5% only in 2017. It also said that inflation would rise steadily over the next two years to around 10%.
The data presented by the World Bank paints a dark picture for Tajikistan’s short term future.
The World Bank has given similar pessimistic forecasts for Kyrgyzstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)
MAY 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia’s military said it had started drills with drones in Tajikistan’s mountains aimed at potentially stopping Taliban forces, media reported. Russia and Central Asian countries are increasingly concerned about the threat from the Taliban.
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(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)
MAY 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajik bank Bonki Rushdi Tojikiston (BRT) will switch to Islamic banking rules after striking a deal with the Saudi Arabia- based Islamic Development Bank, media reported.
BRT will be the first Islamic Bank in Tajikistan. Its conversion shows the increasing appeal of Islamic banking, after banks in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan agreed to switch.
BRT aims to complete the conversion by mid-2015.
“This will open the door to numerous other operators iden- tifying the opportunities inherent in the sharia compli- ant financial system,” Khaled Al-Aboodi, head of the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector was quoted as saying. Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector is the unit within the Islamic Development Bank which helps banks convert to Islamic banking rules.
Reuters reported that Islamic banking has grown more popular across the world but has been slower in taking off in Muslim dominated countries that are officially secular. The popularity of finance raised through a sukuk, an instrument that adheres to Islamic banking rules, has also grown in popularity in the region. Earlier this year, the part state-owned International Bank of Azerbaijan said it wanted to issue a sukuk worth $200m to $300m.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Online reports have said that one of Tajikistan’s most senior police chiefs Gulmurod Halimov, who has been missing since April, has tried to cross into Syria to fight for the extremist group IS. These reports cannot be confirmed but, if they are true, it will embarrass the Tajik government.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has signed a deal with the Tajik government to help it update and modernise its power network. The agreement is part of general modernisation linked to the CASA-1000 deal that will see Tajikistan export electricity to Pakistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Tajik government has stopped issuing tourist visas to its southern Badakhshan Province because of increased fighting along its border with Afghanistan, the Dushanbe-based ASIA-Plus website reported. Badakhshan has been the scene of intermittent anti- government protests.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)