Tag Archives: Tajikistan

A ‘Potatogate’ invests Tajikistan

MAY 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Would it go too far to dub it “Potatogate”? Possibly not.

Last year Tajikistan’s agriculture ministry boasted of the republic’s first-ever million tonne harvest but now Tajik media are claiming locally-grown potatoes have disappeared from the country’s bazaars and have been replaced by a more expensive variety from Pakistan.

Confused? Many Tajiks are.

Earlier in the year, the ministry declined requests from the news agency Avesta.tj for comment on the whereabouts of last year’s potato bounty but on May 5 agriculture minister Kosim Rokhbar finally relented.

Mr Rokhbar said that part of the harvest had been exported and the rest had spoiled in the country’s obsolete storage units.

In other words 2013’s million tonne potato harvest had disappeared.

And prices reflect this. The price of 1kg of potatoes has jumped 20% to 80 cents since March.

It appears that, possibly, a mix of corruption and incompetence has destroyed Tajikistan’s bumper potato harvest forcing normal people to suffer.

ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 183, published on May 7 2014)

Tajikistan hosts energy talks with Turkmenistan

MAY 6 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon hosted talks with his Turkmen counterpart President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov for the first time in four years. Various deals and documents were signed by both sides, including the start of work on a new gas pipeline.

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(News report from Issue No. 183, published on May 7 2014)

Tension rises at the Tajik-Kyrgyz border

MAY 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tension between border guards from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan once again closed the border for two days, media reported. Reports said that villages from both countries along their shared southern border blocked the road. Earlier this year a shootout between security forces killed several people.

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(News report from Issue No. 183, published on May 7 2014)

Elites try to seize two Tajik bazaars

APRIL 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — For Western tourists bazaars in Central Asia are often quaint relics of bygone economies but for the local power elite they are strategic objects of political influence and profit.

This month, Tajik media reported efforts by state organs and affiliates of the ruling Rakhmon family to seize two large markets.

The larger of the two bazaars, just outside Dushanbe, was confiscated by a provincial court on April 21 following an investigation by anti-corruption authorities. It belonged to Muhiddin Kabiri, head of Tajikistan’s largest opposition party the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan.

A second bazaar, based in the country’s south-west Shahrtuz region, belonged to a local businessman.

Both bazaars employ over a thousand people. Moreover, Tajikistan’s bazaars are likely to grow in size and importance now the country is a member of the World Trade Organization — making them increasingly important strategic objectives.

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(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)

China looks to Tajikistan for gold

APRIL 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Officials from Chinese gold miners flew to Dushanbe to discuss deals with their Tajik counterparts, media reported. China has been boosting its presence in Tajikistan significantly over the past few years. Tajikistan needs expertise to develop its gold deposits.

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(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)

Opposition politician attacked in Tajikistan

APRIL 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The deputy head of Tajikistan’s main opposition party, Islamic Renaissance Party, said that 15 men beat up him and his son in the south-east region of Gorno-Badakhshan, media reported. The alleged attack on Saidumar Husaini could not be independently verified. Tajikistan has a poor freedom of speech record.

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(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)

The Tajik somoni slips against the dollar

APRIL 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan’s somoni currency fell against the dollar, media reported, continuing its general depreciation. Like other currencies across the region, the somoni has been under pressure because of a decline in the value of the Russian rouble. Kazakhstan devalued its tenge by 20% in February.

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(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)

Terrorists threaten Tajik smelter TALCO

APRIL 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Security forces in Tajikistan said they had prevented a terrorist attack on TALCO, the aluminium smelter that forms the backbone of Tajikistan’s economy, media reported. According to a Tajik government spokesman, criminals had planned to detonate bombs at the plant.

(News report from Issue No. 180, published on April 16 2014)

Tajikistan watches Afghan vote

APRIL 15 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan is watching the ongoing presidential election in Afghanistan with interest.

If ethnic Tajik former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah defeats his main Pashtun rival, the former finance minister Ashraf Ghani, genuinely closer relations between the two neighbours may flourish.

Alexander Sodiqov an analyst and author of the Tajikistan Monitor blog said aside from being an ethnic Tajik there are other reasons why Dushanbe thinks a victory for Mr Abdullah would boost Tajik-Afghan relations.

“Abdullah had been very close to Ahmad Shah Massoud at the time when Tajikistan provided military and material support for the Northern Alliance. Dushanbe expects that Abdullah has not forgotten that support,” he said referring to the main anti-Taliban commander who was assassinated in 2001.

There is another important security question at stake.

“Abdullah’s main constituency base is in northern Afghanistan, and he fought against Taliban for a long time,” said Mr Sodiqov. “Dushanbe sees Abdullah’s possible presidency as an additional guarantee that Taliban militants would not threaten its porous southern border.”

The Tajik government has complained for a while that the withdrawal of NATO forces in 2014 will leave a security vacuum in Afghanistan. Trade has been growing between Tajikistan and Afghanistan, now worth over $100 million, but the West is hoping that relations grow closer still.

(News report from Issue No. 180, published on April 16 2014)

Mudslide kills 6 in Tajikistan

APRIL 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — A mud slide hit a village 220km south of Dushanbe on April 12 killing at least six children, media reported. The deaths highlight the perilous state of many villages in Tajikistan. Poverty and poor infrastructure still mark much of the Tajik countryside.

(News report from Issue No. 180, published on April 16 2014)