Category Archives: Central Asia & South Caucasus News

Kyrgyzstan to transfer Chinese factories

MAY 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s foreign minister Yerlan Abdyldayev said he is negotiating the transfer of several Chinese factories to the Central Asian country over the next few years. Mr Abyldayev sees this development as a potential boost for Kyrgyzstan’s industrialisation. Kyrgyzstan’s economy is heavily reliant on remittances from abroad, which have shrunk in the past 18 months due to a recession in Russia.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)

Editorial: Georgia’s election

MAY 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Fighting broke out outside a polling station in rural Georgia this week as people prepared to vote in local government by-elections. The fighting was direct and brutal and was also captured by onlookers on their mobile phones.

Videos from the fighting give a clear insight into the vicious divide in Georgian society between those people supporting the Georgian Dream Coalition, bankrolled by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, and those supporting the United National Movement, the party of former president Mikheil Saakashvili.

Just as Mr Ivanishvili and Mr Saakashvili hate each other, so do supporters of either party. If the parliamentary election of 2012 was considered nasty, it’ll be nothing compared to this year’s issue.

And it is expected to be close. Opinion polls haven’t been able to give any side a clear advantage. They have also introduced the possibility of third party muscling in on the two main rivals.

Expect a bumpy, passionate ride through to October.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)

Azerbaijan’s oil company cuts costs

MAY 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil company SOCAR said it had closed three of its representative offices abroad, in an attempt to cut costs during a period of sustained low oil prices. Rovnag Abdullayev, SOCAR’s CEO said the company shut offices in Switzerland, Belgium and Germany. Importantly, these are just the representative offices, the offices of SOCAR’s subsidiaries will remain open. SOCAR is one of Azerbaijan’s biggest brands. For it to close offices means that the government is feeling the pinch economically.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)

Azerbaijan’s oil company to build new refinery

MAY 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil company, said it will build a new oil refinery in Kulevi, on Georgia’s Black Sea coast, near its existing oil terminal. SOCAR said it has agreed with Georgian authorties to build the plant by the end of 2019. The refinery will cost $120m to build and will have a capacity of 2m tonnes/year.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)

Armenia to receive arms from Russia

MAY 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Hovik Abrahamyan, Armenia’s PM, said Russia had started delivering arms as part of a deal worth $200m. The arms deal was announced a few days after Armenian leader Serzh Sargsyan and Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev met for the first time since fighting broke out between the two neighbours around the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh in April.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)

Tajikistan bans flag import

MAY 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikstandard, a government agency, proposed a ban on imports of Tajik flags made in Turkey or China. Abdukakhor Mavlonzoda, the head of Tajikstandard, told US-funded RFE/RL that foreign-made flags carry an important mistake in the way the crown at the centre of the flag is displayed. The ban could come in handy for the government’s nation building agenda.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)

Batumi’s other poorer and dislocated side

BATUMI/Georgia, MAY 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — With its palm tree-lined boulevards, this city on the Black Sea coast is Georgia’s best known tourist destination.

It has boomed over the past decade and will soon host the world’s sixth largest hotel in the form of the 45-storey Twin Tower.

But there is a darker side.

On the outskirts of Batumi, several thousand people live in dilapidated barracks. Since October 2012, migrants and socially deprived people have been living in an abandoned Russian military base, now one of the biggest shantytowns in Georgia.

Its dwellers call it Ocnebis Kalaki. In English, this means Dream Town. It is a joke, a dark joke.

Water is available for only a few hours a day, there are frequent power cuts, gas is not provided and a rudimental sewage system increases the risk of infections and diseases.

Most of the families live in very small, poorly-built rooms. A family of eight share a two-room shack made out of wood, cement-asbestos, metal sheets and cardboard.

These people live on the fringe of Georgian society.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)

Georgia accuses Russia of killing man

MAY 20 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s government accused Russian soldiers patrolling along the border of the breakaway region of Abkhazia of shooting dead one of its citizens.

The foreign ministry issued a statement which said that Giga Otkhozoria, 31, had been shot six times while he had been on the Georgian side of the border.

“This criminal act once again demonstrates the highly alarming situation in the occupied region of Abkhazia, Georgia and the full responsibility for it lies with the Russian Federation as it is effectively in control of the region,” Georgia’s foreign ministry said.

Russia denied the allegations.

“The Georgian MFA used this case for its usual propaganda exercise,” the Russian foreign ministry said.

Relations between Georgia and Russia have been improving since Mikheil Saakashvili lost power in Georgia in 2013. Under his presidency, Georgia had fought a brief war with Russia in August 2008 for control of South Ossetia.

Russia defeated Georgia and strengthened its military support to South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Over the last three years, relations between Russia and Georgia have improved although border incidents expose the unease between the two neighbours.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)

Turkmenistan discusses TAPI financing

MAY 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Turkmen government said it has started negotiations with the Islamic Development Bank and other international financial institutions to open credit lines for funding the TAPI gas pipeline, which will pump gas to Pakistan and India through Afghanistan. Among potential backers, Turkmenistan has targeted Saudi Arabia and Japan. The pipeline, which will cost $10b and have a capacity of 33b cubic metres per year, is scheduled for completion in 2019.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)

Tajik university staff face salary problems

MAY 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Staff at the Kulob State University, in southern Tajikistan, said they are preparing a lawsuit against Tojiksodirotbonk (TSB), the country’s second largest lender, for failing to pay wages in Jan.-Feb. 2016. Tajikistan’s Central Bank placed TSB under a caretaker administration last week. Days after the teacher’s protest, TSB said it had resumed paying out salaries owed to its clients. The wages arrears is more evidence of the liquidity problem in Tajik banks.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)