MAY 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan’s parliament, the Majilis, approved a decree on the delimitation of the Caspian Sea bed with Kazakhstan an important step, to smoothing out the ongoing row between the countries which ring the Caspian Sea on how to divide up its potential hydrocarbon riches.
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(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)
MAY 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The growth of the consumer loan market in Kazakhstan has stalled, media reported quoting a rankings website, another sign of the economic slowdown. Data from ranking.kz showed that year-on-year consumer credit grew by 7% to end-March, down from 45% the year before and 48% the year before that.
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(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)
MAY 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – At an EU summit in Riga which included former Soviet states in the South Caucasus, Armenia signed a declaration supporting improved cooperation with Brussels. The Armenian delegation, though, declined to support a communique that was negative of Russia’s interference in Ukraine.
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(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)
MAY 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a boost for EU aspirations to pump gas from Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan said that although the countries which ring the Caspian Sea still argue over ownership, it didn’t see any problems building a pipeline across it, media reported. The EU is keen to diversify its gas supplies away from Russia.
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(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)
MAY 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Wearing a black scarf wrapped around his head and cradling a sniper rifle, Colonel Gulmurod Khalimov, Tajikistan’s paramilitary police chief, appeared in a video for IS to confirm that he had defected to the extremist group.
Colonel Khalimov’s defection is a major blow to Tajikistan and a major victory for IS. It has targeted Central Asia as a prime recruiting ground and has released videos showing Central Asian recruits training and also of a Kazakh boy shooting dead Russian captives.
In the slickly-made 12 minute video, 40-year-old Colonel Khalimov explained that he had defected from Tajikistan because of the authorities’ crackdown on Islamic dress and prayers.
He called on other Tajiks to join him in Syria and described Americans as pigs.
“Listen, you dogs, President and ministers, if only you knew how many of our boys, our brothers are here, waiting, eager to return to Tajikistan to establish sharia law,” he said.
At the end of the video, Colonel Khalimov shows off his skills as a trained sniper by shooting a ripe tomato.
Colonel Khalimov has been missing since late April and rumours had been flying around Dushanbe that he had headed to Syria to join IS.
And he is high-profile recruit for IS. As head of Tajikistan’s paramilitary police force, Colonel Khalimov wielded large powers and responsibilities.
His defection poses more problems for Central Asian states which say they are already struggling to fight against the IS recruitment drive.
The International Crisis Group has estimated that there are 4,000 men from Central Asia fighting for IS in Syria.
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(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)
MAY 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s gold and currency reserves have dropped to $1.8b, down from 2.1b in March 2014, media reported quoting the Central Bank chief Tolkunbek Abdygulov. The drop is due to Kyrgyzstan selling gold and cash to prop up its currency. Like its neighbours, Kyrgyzstan has been struggling to deal with a steep decline in the Russian rouble and the Russian economy.
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(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)
MAY 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Officials in Kazakhstan said 127,000 saiga antelopes out of a herd of 300,000 had now died from an outbreak of a respiratory disease. Kazakhstan has the largest herd of the endangered saiga antelopes.
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(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)
MAY 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – To rapturous applause from watching Turkmens, officials in Turkmenistan unveiled a golden statue of President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov riding a horse on a 21m high white marble plinth.
When Mr Berdymukhamedov came to power in 2007 he set out deriding his predecessor’s personality cult and opening the country up to the world. Over the past few years, though, his own brand of cult has mushroomed.
According to media reports hundreds of people sang and chanted as they watched the statue being unveiled in a central square in Ashgabat.
Britain’s Independent newspa- per quoted a man saying: “Arkadag works for the glory of our people from dawn to dusk.”
Arkadag means protector and is the people’s nickname for Mr Berdymukhamedov. Reports over the past few years, from winning horse races against obviously planted opponents to shouting at officials on TV, have painted Mr Berdymukhamedov as an increasingly autocratic and eccentric leader.
Europe, China and countries in the Middle East are trying to woo Turkmenistan and persuade it to sign various gas supply deals. Turkmenistan holds the world’s fourth largest gas reserves.
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(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)
MAY 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Sales of new apartments in Georgia have slumped because of the worsening economic conditions, media reported quoting developers. Specifically, sales of luxury apartments are down 70% and sales of more basic apartments have dropped by 10%.
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(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)
MAY 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Rupert Colville, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that Kyrgyzstan should drop a draft law that will make cooperation between local and foreign NGOs more complicated. “This vague wording may put at risk numerous organisations working to deliver services or conduct human rights advocacy,” he said.
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(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)
