NOV. 15 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – On a trip to Islamabad, Turkmenistan’s President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov agreed a deal with Pakistan for the price of gas for a proposed pipeline running from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan, Pakistan and on to India, Turkmenistan’s state newspaper reported. The deal is seen as vital for pushing the so-called TAPI pipeline forward.
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(News report from Issue No. 65, published on Nov. 16 2011)
NOV. 3 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – At a conference in Ashgabat, Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said he supported building a pipeline from the Caspian Sea to Europe, media reported. Mr Berdymukhamedov’s statement is a boost for the EU-back Nabucco pipeline which wants to secure gas from Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan.
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(News report from Issue No. 64, published on Nov. 8 2011)
OCT. 26 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Turkmen authorities released a local Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reporter after one month of a five-year sentence under an amnesty to mark 20 years of independence. Dovletmyrat Yazkuliyev was jailed in October for encouraging a family member to attempt suicide. His supporters said the charges were fabricated.
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(News report from Issue No. 63, published on Nov. 1 2011)
OCT. 25 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov accepted the title of Hero of the Nation from the Council of Elders, more evidence, perhaps, another personality cult is flourishing. Mr Berdymukhamedov’s predecessor, Saparmurat Niyazov, had called himself Turkmenbashi — father of the Turkmen.
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(News report from Issue No. 62, published on Oct. 25 2011)
OCT. 13 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Continuing the EU’s diplomatic drive to win Turkmenistan’s support for its proposed Nabucco pipeline project, Austrian President Heinz Fischer visited Ashgabat. He hinted the EU would pay more than Russia or China for Turkmen gas that Nabucco considers essential for its success.
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(News report from Issue No. 61, published on Oct. 18 2011)
OCT. 11 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Auditors confirmed that Turkmenistan holds the world’s second largest gas field, cementing its place as a global energy supplier. The South Yolotan field holds between 13 trillion and 21 trillion cubic metres of gas, second only to Iran’s South Pars.
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(News report from Issue No. 60, published on Oct. 11 2011)
OCT. 5 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Turkmenistan jailed for five years a local reporter working for the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty for driving a family member to attempt suicide. In July, Dovletmyrat Yazkuliyev had been one of a handful of reporters to expose a government cover-up over blasts at a military depot near Ashgabat.
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(News report from Issue No. 60, published on Oct. 11 2011)
OCT. 3 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – A reporter for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) in Turkmenistan went on trial accused of driving a family member to suicide, the media group said. In July, Dovletmyrat Yazkuliyev reported on explosions at a town near Ashgabat that the government had tried to cover up. RFE/RL said the charges against him were politically motivated.
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(News report from Issue No. 59, published on Oct. 4 2011)
OCT. 4 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – So it’s finally official. The Kremlin sees the Russia-Belarus-Kazakhstan Customs Union as a tool for further integration.
In an article for the newspaper Izvestiya on Oct. 4, Russian PM Vladimir Putin wrote of his vision for a Eurasian Union based around Moscow’s leadership emerging from the customs union. The timing of this article underlined its importance. This was Mr Putin’s first major policy statement since Sept. 24, 2011 when he said he would return as Russian president.
For Central Asia, but not yet for the South Caucasus, the customs union is already important. Kazakhstan is an enthusiastic member, Kyrgyzstan has officially applied to join and Tajikistan is thinking about it.
Russia uses the customs union as a bulwark against the growing influence of China and the West in Central Asia, a region it considers to be its natural sphere of influence.
Although Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan may be able to afford to resist, for Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan it has become politically and economically important to join the customs union.
Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev can also claim to have been the first to float the idea of a Eurasian Union. He mentioned the concept during a speech at a Moscow university in 1994.
Now, 17 years later, this Eurasian Union is gaining momentum.
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(News report from Issue No. 59, published on Oct. 4 2011)
SEPT. 27 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Silk Road is back in vogue, at least at the UN’s General Assembly last week.
On the sidelines of the meeting, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and foreign ministers from Europe, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia were busy plotting a revival of the ancient trading route.
Media reports said the US sees the Silk Road as a way of boosting economic activity in Afghanistan from 2014 when NATO forces pull out of the country.
But if the Silk Road, which has always been a concept rather than a single physical route, is going to return to its glory days it requires a stable, prosperous and open Central Asia through which trade can flow.
Kazakhstan, with its anticipated economic growth of around 7% a year and increasingly open markets, is perhaps the only Central Asian state which fits that description. Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are relatively closed and instability plagues Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
Of course, a modern day trading system already straddles Central Asia. Lorries carry goods from China to Russia and on to Europe and pipelines pump oil from the Caspian to Western markets. It may not be the Silk Road with Afghanistan at its core that the US envisages, but it is a start.
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(News report from Issue No. 058, published on Sept. 27 2011)