SEPT. 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Uzbekistan have passed a law restricting articles that bloggers can publish online. The US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported bloggers cannot publish stories that defame the honour of individuals. Uzbekistan has one of the world’s tightest media laws.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 199, published on Sept. 10 2014)
SEPT. 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – In an email interview with the US-funded Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe, the Council of Europe’s human rights chief, Nils Muiznieks, said the recent arrests of journalists and rights workers were unacceptable.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 199, published on Sept. 10 2014)
BAKU/Azerbaijan, SEPT. 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – — People hailing a taxi Baku, Azerbaijan’s increasingly glitzy capital, will be forgiven for not realising the link with Coventry, an industrial city in the middle of England.
Coventry is the headquarters of the London Taxi Company which makes the world famous London black cabs. Azerbaijan ordered 1,000 of the cabs ahead of Eurovision song contest in 2012. Today, the purple, rather than black cabs, can be seen lining Baku’s smarter streets.
In a country where corruption is rife, the London cabs — which run on a reliable meter just like in the UK — are proving popular.
Transparent clear pricing is key in a market where unlicensed cabs charge on a whim. Baku Taxi Company who look after the taxis, is also obtaining advice on driver training.
Outside Baku’s new luxury hotels, these purple — this was apparently Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev’s colour choice — cabs line up for custom, nearly all of them carrying the flame and wing emblem of Baku’s 2015 European Games on their sides.
The inaugural European Games is another ploy by the Azerbaijani authorities to rebrand and attract international attention for the right reasons.
Whereas locals know how to barter with local, unlicensed cabs, visitors and international guests staying in the more upmarket hotels don’t, or at least they prefer not to.
Instead the familiar surroundings of the London cabs suits them better. For locals with the cash, there is prestige in hailing a cab and arriving in these smart novelty taxis.
Others, though, are sceptical. The bellboy at the JW Marriott hotel implied it was simply tokenism that appealed most.
“They are unique here and are just not something that have ever been offered in Baku before,” he said. Perhaps, but they still appear both popular and here to stay.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 199, published on Sept. 10 2014)
SEPT. 4 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – China pledged to invest $16m in Kyrgyzstan’s, a move to shore up its support in Bishkek, media reported. Much of the cash will be used to build officers’ quarters in Bishkek. China has invested heavily in militaries around Central Asia over the past few years.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 199, published on Sept. 10 2014)
SEPT. 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s military has chosen 20 soldiers to travel to Haiti, Western Sahara, Ivory Coast and Liberia on UN missions, media reported. These are the first UN missions that Kazakhstan has supported. They are designed to support its candidature to win a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 199, published on Sept. 10 2014)
SEPT. 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s jewellery output fell by over 41% in the first six months of the year, the national statistics agency reported, underlining the problems facing the economy. Jewellery processing is one of Armenia’s most important industries. Sanctions on Russia have severally dented Armenian economic growth this year.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 199, published on Sept. 10 2014)
SEPT. 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – ran and Kazakhstan have signed deals worth $500m at a joint business forum in Astana, media reported quoting the Kazakh ministry of investment and development. Trade between the two countries is booming, with transport links improving.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 199, published on Sept. 10 2014)
I
SEPT. 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Chuck Hagel, the US defence secretary, flew into Tbilisi for a high profile visit to pledge support for Georgia and its NATO ambitions. Mr Hagel’s trip was designed as much to send a message to Russia as it was to bolster Georgian morale. He also discussed selling US Blackhawk helicopters to Georgia.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 199, published on Sept. 10 2014)
SEPT. 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan may be about to play an unforeseen, but important, role in Ukraine’s civil war.
Virtually unnoticed by the media, Ukraine’s coal and energy minister, Yuriy Proban, visited Baku for an unofficial meeting with his Azerbaijani counterpart. He was, basically, asking for help from Azerbaijan.
Ukraine’s economy is a mess. It had been reliant on coal mining from the Donbass region but with the civil war centred on Donbass, it is now limping along.
It had also earned a substantial fee for being a transit country for oil and gas supplies from Russia to Europe. That too has dried up, meaning that it both has to generate cash from elsewhere and also buy in oil and petrol.
According to analysts, only about 20% of Ukraine’s refining capacity is currently in use.
And this where Azerbaijan, could in theory, come in.
Mr Probin said that he was in Baku partially to ask for Azerbaijan to halp make up the shortfall.
“We could quite quickly increase the processed amounts if Azerbaijan has the available resources,” Russian news agency ITAR-Tass quoted him as saying, referring to the volumes of refined oil produced in Ukraine.
For Azerbaijan, there are two main issues to consider before potentially increasing supplies to Ukraine. Firstly, how to get any oil shipments there, possibly via Georgia’s Black Sea port of Batumi, and secondly how would Russia react? Azerbaijan-Russia relations are already strained. Supplying Ukraine with oil, may strain them further.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 199, published on Sept. 10 2014)
SEPT. 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s efforts to introduce biometric data are gaining momentum.
From 2015 many of the world’s most developed countries will not admit holders of non-biometric passports into their territories. It is highly unlikely that Kyrgyzstan will meet that deadline, officials say, but frequent travellers will be able to get theirs early.
Building a biometric database would also help Kyrgyzstan combat terrorism; drug and human trafficking.
But not everyone is keen on empowering the police. Dinara Oshurahunova, head of the Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society, an NGO that promotes citizens’ rights said that the police would use the data to blackmail ordinary people.
“Biometric data is undoubtedly necessary but considering our law enforcement structures are unreformed and almost completely criminalised, I would not want them to have access to this data,” she said.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 199, published on Sept. 10 2014)
