JAN. 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Iran arrested Babak Zanjani, one of Tajikistan’s most prominent businessmen, for money laundering, media reported. Mr Zanjani, an associate of Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon, is a native Iranian but had invested millions into Tajikistan, raising concern that he was laundering cash through the country.
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(News report from Issue No. 166, published on Jan. 8 2014)
DEC. 9 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Asian Development Bank, based in Manila, has agreed to give Tajikistan $136m to upgrade one of its biggest hydropower plants, media reported. This is the largest single ADB loan to Tajikistan. Tajikistan is heavily reliant on hydropower for its electricity. There are frequent shortages during winter.
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(News report from Issue No. 164, published on Dec. 11 2013)
NOV. 30 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon continued his cabinet re-shuffle after winning an election last month by replacing the foreign minister, finance minister and transport minister. Media also reported that Mr Rakhmon had promoted his son to head the Customs Committee, a lucrative post in corruption-rife Tajikistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 163, published on Dec. 4 2013)
NOV. 20 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rakhmon replaced his long-serving defence minister Sherali Khairulloyev less than a year before NATO withdraws from neighbouring Afghanistan.
The West and Russia are relying on Tajikistan to buffer the spread north of the Taliban after US-led forces leave Afghanistan and the dismissal of Mr Khairulloyev may concern them.
Russia is particularly worried about Taliban encroachment into Central Asia and has boosted its military contingent in Tajikistan. The 65-year-old Mr Khairulloyev had been defence minister in Tajikistan since 1995. Sherali Mirzo, head of Tajikistan’s Border Guards Service and 20 years his junior, will replace him. No reason was given for the change.
Mr Khairulloyev’s notoriety is not limited to being Tajikistan’s defence minister. He shot to fame in 2010 as the star of one of the more entertaining US diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks. A 2006 memo written by the then US ambassador to Dushanbe described a drinking session with Mr Khairulloyev.
“By the end of the alcohol-sodden lunch, the minister (Mr Khairulloyev) was slurring and unsteady on his feet,” the memo read. The memo importantly recorded that even in 2006 Mr Khairulloyev said he expected to be fired by Mr Rakhmon at any moment.
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(News report from Issue No. 162, published on Nov. 27 2013)
NOV. 18 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Tajikistan have confiscated religious literature from Muslims, Protestants and Jehovah Witnesses this year, the Forum 18 news agency reported. It said that many of the people who carried the literature were fined for carrying banned religious texts.
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(News report from Issue No. 161, published on Nov. 20 2013)
NOV. 13 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia will upgrade and strengthen its military base in Tajikistan to coincide with the withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan, media reported quoting Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s defence minister. Russia has said it is worried about the spread north of the Taliban once US-led forces leave Afghanistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 161, published on Nov. 20 2013)
NOV. 16 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Emomali Rakhmon was sworn in as Tajikistan’s president for the fourth time after winning an election on Nov. 6 with 83% of the vote. He will serve for another seven years as president. Observers said the election was unfair and undemocratic.
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(News report from Issue No. 161, published on Nov. 20 2013)
NOV. 7 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Incumbent Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon won re-election with 83.1% of the vote in a presidential election. Mr Rakhmon didn’t face any genuine opposition in the election which observers have described as a sham. Mr Rakhmon, who consolidated his power in the mid-1990s after a civil war, will now rule until 2020.
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(News report from Issue No. 160, published on Nov. 13 2013)
NOV. 6 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Nobody is in any doubt what the result of a presidential election in Tajikistan on Nov. 6 will be. Incumbent president Emomali Rakhmon will win with a thumping majority.
The authorities in Tajikistan have already disqualified Mr Rakhmon’s only serious contender, a female human rights campaigner. He is left to face five loyal candidates who lend only the facade of an opposition movement to the election.
In power since the end of a civil war in the mid-1990s, Mr Rakhmon, 61, does not brook opposition and this election will rubber stamp his grip over Tajikistan for another seven years.
Democracy advocates, human rights campaigners and anti-corruption lobbyists may complain but the realpolitik of the situation is more complex.
When NATO forces withdraw from Afghanistan next year, Tajikistan moves onto the frontline of the fight against militant Islam. What NATO and Russia and China want more than anything else is a strongman in power who is able to impose stability and act as a bulwark against the potential move north of the Taliban.
For them, a clear win for Mr Rakhmon is their preferred option. And they’ll get it.
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(News report from Issue No. 159, published on Nov. 6 2013)
OCT. 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Utter the word Borat to a Kazakh diplomat and he or she may cringe.
It took years to purge the image of Kazakhstan — which wants to be seen as a modern, progressive country — from Borat, the boorish fictional character created by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen for his 2006 film “Borat: Cultural learnings of America make benefit glorious nation of Kazakhstan”.
Now, though, it appears that the BBC has created another comedy to, potentially at least, poke more fun at the Central Asian republics.
The BBC will broadcast the first episode of its new three-part comedy on Oct. 23 called “Ambassadors”. It’s essentially a sideways, tongue-in-cheek look at the British diplomatic service and the challenges of a foreign posting in a little-known and far-away country.
The twist, for Central Asia at least, is that the fictional little-known and far-away country is called Tazbekistan. No prizes for guessing the mish-mash of republics it is based upon.
And there’s more. The pre-broadcasting blurb goes further. The plot is based around an incoming British ambassador’s attempts to get to grips with Tazbekistan’s idiosyncrasies. This includes being oil-rich and having a woeful human rights record.
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(News report from Issue No. 157, published on Oct. 23 2013)