JULY 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia’s power generation company Hydro Corporation said it will invest 8.9b drams ($4.2) to rebuild its small hydropower station on the Argichi river in the east of the country. The hydropower station was built in 2013 and financed through a loan from Germany’s development bank KfW.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 290, published on July 22 2016)
JULY 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s Statistics Committee said that the country’s GDP grew by 7.8% in H1 2016, compared to the same period last year. Growth was slightly slower than in the first half of 2015, when GDP grew by 8.1%. Official statistics in Uzbekistan come with a health warning as they are often manipulated by the government.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 290, published on July 22 2016)
JULY 17-21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenian police and and anti-government supporters clashed sporadically throughout the week outside a police station in Yerevan that was captured on Sunday by gunmen calling for the release of a jailed opposition leader.
The clashes were the worst in Yerevan since demonstrators fought police over plans to increase electricity prices in July and August 2015.
Most of the fighting between protesters and police was small-scale but on Wednesday night riot police fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse protesters. The protesters responded by throwing stones and charging the police. Media reported that 51 people, including 28 policemen, were injured. Police made three arrests.
PM Hovik Abrahamyan dismissed both the protesters and hostage-takers.
“What happened in the police precinct is inadmissible and should be condemned, since real changes cannot be achieved through violence,” he told the media.
As Armenia’s economy stagnates, frustration is rising making flash- points, more common.
Now, mainly angry young Armenians, have latched on to the arrest of Zhirair Sefilyan, the leader of a little- known opposition group, called the Founding Parliament movement, as a cause through which to vent their frustration.
Sefilyan was arrested last month for plotting a coup. His supporters have said the charges are false and have been spread to undermine the former military commander.
One policeman was killed during the attack on the police station. The stand-off around the police station continues.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 290, published on July 22 2016)
JULY 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The proportion of overdue loans held by Kazakh banks in their combined portfolio shrank from 22.8% to 8.6% at the end of May 2016, compared to a year earlier, Central Bank data showed. The main reason behind the sharp decrease, though, is that Kazkommertsbank, Kazakhstan’s biggest lender, wrote off most of its bad debt.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 290, published on July 22 2016)
JULY 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan’s President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov signed a bill to increase the salaries of state workers by 10% from January 2017, continuing the tradition of salary increases at the beginning of the year, official media reported. The minimum salary in Turkmenistan amounts to 650 manat (around $186 at the official exchange rate).
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 290, published on July 22 2016)
JULY 20 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s flagship company Air Astana reported a loss of $6.6m in H1 2016, compared to a $8.3m profit in the same period last year. Importantly, passenger numbers decreased by 7% to 1.7m. Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna (51%) and Britain’s BAE Systems (49%) own Air Astana.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 290, published on July 22 2016)
JULY 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Azerbaijan suspended the Azerbaijani News Service (ANS), a popular privately owned TV station, after it said it would broadcast an interview it had taken in the US with Fathullah Gulen, an Islamic cleric whom Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused of masterminding a coup attempt.
Azerbaijan’s National Council for Television and Radio called the interview “propaganda” aimed at “undermining the strategic partnership between Azerbaijan and Turkey”. It immediately suspended ANS’s licence for one month and also took action to rescind it permanently.
Western governments have previously accused the Azerbaijani authorities of cracking down on any media considered even vaguely awkward. In 2015, it expelled the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Seen as mildly pro-government, over the past few years ANS has exercised a degree of independence and, until now, it was not affected by the government-led crackdown against dissenting media outlets.
Kenan Aliyev, an Azerbaijani journalist and former director of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Azerbaijani Service, called ANS’s closure despicable.
“ANS will suffer for a month and later they will be allowed to work but with less independence and more self-censorship,” Mr Aliyev told The Conway Bulletin. “There is no free press under the current regime.”
Mr Gulen is a former ally of Mr Erdogan. He has denied any link to the July 15 failed coup attempt. Azerbaijan and Turkey are close allies and, following Turkey’s lead, Azerbaijan has cracked down on institutions and officials with Gulen links, including stripping the Qafkas University in Baku of its independence.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 290, published on July 22 2016)
JULY 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — In his capacity as head of the Baiterek state holding, Yerbolat Dossayev, former Kazakh minister of economy, was named chairman of Zhilstroisberbank, a top-15 bank in Kazakhstan and subsidiary of Baiterek. A few days later Mr Dossayev was also named head of KazExportGarant, an export credit agency, and chairman of Kazakhstan’s Investment Fund, which are both managed by Baiterek.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 289, published on July 15 2016)
JULY 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbek PM Shavkat Mirziyoyev said that Uzbekistan aims to double production of fruits and vegetables by the end of 2020. Mr Mirziyoyev said that the country currently produces around 16m tonnes of produce and the government aims to boost output to at least 32m tonnes in the next three years. A word of caution, however. Statistics in Uzbekistan can be easily manipulated for political reasons.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 289, published on July 15 2016)
JULY 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Makhmadamin Makhmadaminov, Tajikistan’s Permanent Representatives to the United Nations, signed an agreement with his Ecuadorian counterpart to establish relations between the two countries. Establishing diplomatic relations with distant countries is a window- dressing exercise for Central Asian and South Caucasus leaders.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 289, published on July 15 2016)
