Category Archives: Uncategorised

Armenia’s ex-President receives cancer treatment

JAN. 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s first post-Soviet president, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, had treatment for cancer in a hospital in California, media reported. It had been reported earlier in January that Mr Ter-Petrosyan, 71, had flown to the US for emergency treatment. He had been president from 1991-1998. He was a divisive figure who in 2008, was accused of whipping up anti-government protests that triggered clashes with security forces. At least 16 people died in the clashes when police opened fire on the protesters.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Kyrgyz gov to sue Centerra

FEB. 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyz PM Temir Sariyev said the government is considering suing Centerra Gold over its plans to issue a fresh batch of shares. According to Mr Sariyev, state owned company Kyrgyzaltyn, which owns a 32.7% stake in Centerra, has signed a contract with a law firm to prepare a case. In 2015, Centerra decided to issue new shares. The Kyrgyz government has complained this would dilute its share.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Kazakh mortgage holders protest

FEB. 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Around 50 mortgage holders protested in Almaty because they said it was not possible to repay their debt after a devaluation of the tenge. This was the third protest by mortgage holders against banks this year, a rare sustained level of public discontent in Kazakhstan. The tenge has lost around 50% of its value. Last year, the Kazakh government gave banks $130m to refinance mortgages but protesters have said that more needs to be done. Analysts have said that one of the biggest issues the Kazakh government faces is growing consumer debt.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Editorial: Georgia and religion

FEB. 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia looks set to make insulting religion a crime. This new law needs to be treated with extreme care.

It’s vital in a modern, progressive society to keep the principle of free speech sacrosanct and any move to erode this right should be rejected. And it does feel as if Georgian Dream, who know that they are going to be in a very tough, possibly dirty and definitely personal, battle to win a parliamentary election later this year, are playing politics with the issue.

Winning over traditional voters is vital for Georgian Dream. They have previously gone to great lengths to cosy up to the Orthodox Church and its supporters.

By making insulting religion a crime, they are protecting the Church further and should secure more support from the traditional, conservative section of the electorate.

There is a need to protect religion from slurs and insults, but this draconian law is probably not the answer.

ENDS

(Editorial from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Wizz Air to open base in Georgia

FEB. 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Hungarian low-cost airline company Wizz Air said it will open an operational base at Kutaisi airport in central Georgia. This will be Wizz Air’s first base in the South Caucasus. Wizz Air intends to use Kutaisi as its hub for new regional destinations.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Tajikistan to rename cities

FEB. 1 2016, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rakhmon ordered Parliament to rename a number of cities, regions and a reservoir to give them more of a Tajik flavour.

Since becoming an independent state in 1991, the Tajik government has been keen to build up a back-story for the country. It replaced most of the Russian place names with names mostly derived from the Samanid Empire (819-919), a common tactic in Central Asia which had not been independent countries before 1991.

In 2007 Rakhmon also dropped the Russian suffix ‘ov’ from his name.

His press office said: “The renaming of districts and cities promotes national values and a sense of dignity. It is especially important to educate younger generations about the rich culture of the ancestors of the modern statehood of Tajik people.”

But not everybody thinks it is such a good idea.

Dushanbe taxi driver Odilbek, 38, said it was a waste of money. “These people do not understand what they are doing,” he said. “We have more serious problems and this is a waste of money. People will call the cities by their old names anyway.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Kazakhstan’s Nur Otan packs celebrities onto election list

JAN. 29 2016, ALMATY (The Conway Bulletin) — Nur Otan, the political party of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, has packed its list of candidates for next month’s parliamentary election with sportsmen, singers and other household names — reflecting both its status as the establishment party and also its drive to boost its popular appeal.

Candidates for the 127-seat lower house of parliament include champion boxer Gennady Golovkin, Olympic weighlifting gold medal winner Ilya Ilin, and pop stars Zhanar Dugalova and Kairat Nurtas as well as Dariga Nazarbayeva, Mr Nazarbayev’s daughter, and the ex- mayor of Almaty Akhmetzhan Yesimov.

Kazakh political analyst, Adil Nurmakov, said that although Nur Otan had used this strategy previously, they were employing it particularly heavily for this election.

“It is an attempt by the ruling party to position itself as a popular force among celebrities truly loved by the people. I see it as a primitive electoral technique. It has been used numerous times in the past,” he said.

Last month, Mr Nazarbayev called a parliamentary election for March 20, a year earlier than it had been scheduled for, officially because the current parliament had fulfilled its remit.

Analysts, though, said it was called early to head off civil strife as the economic climate worsens. On the streets of Almaty, reaction to the celebratory packed party list was mixed.

“Sportsmen are also people. If the Parliament has sportsmen there will be more discipline,” said Maksat, a sales distributor.

Others were less impressed.

“A deputy should be a person with special education not just a regular boxer or a singer,” said Zinaida Trinojenko, a PR specialist. “It is a delusion.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Turkmenistan reasserts neutrality

FEB. 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukahmedov wants to tinker with Turkmenistan’s constitution to strengthen its commitment to neutrality, official media reported. Last month, in a similar move, Mr Berdymukhamedov approved a new military doctrine which reasserted Turkmenistan’s neutrality. Turkmenistan’s neutrality has been challenged by a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Editorial: Iranian oil for Tajikistan

FEB. 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Iran is emerging from its economic exile with force and its impact is being felt across Central Asia and the South Caucasus.

The new petrol export deal with Tajikistan, together with recent deals with Kazakhstan’s Air Astana and the negotiations with Armenia and Georgia over gas supplies, is a testimony of the importance that countries in the region give to Iran as a trade partner.

Iran is still a net importer of gasoline but it is now close to opening a new 18m tonnes refinery on the Persian Gulf coast, which officials say “will change the gasoline balance in Iran” and could possibly turn the country into a net exporter.

For countries like Tajikistan this is good news as it means that Iran could become a supplier of oil for both Central Asia and the South Caucasus.

Tajikistan has previously bought all its refined petrol from Russia. With Iran’s re-emergence onto the scene this over-reliance on its former colonial master is reduced, giving Tajikistan a genuine choice on where to buys its petrol.

ENDS

(Editorial from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Kyrgyz business blames EEU for poor outlook

FEB. 5 2016, BISHKEK (The Conway Bulletin) — Frustrated Kyrgyz businessmen and company owners are blaming a worsening economy on joining the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) last year.

The criticism of the EEU, whether it is accurate or not, is a major problem for Kyrgyzstan’s leadership which dragged the country into the trade bloc despite deep-rooted unease from ordinary Kyrgyz. Also in the EEU are Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Armenia.

In Bishkek, Azamat, who was selling cars, said Kyrgyzstan had aligned itself with the wrong countries.

“While we are in the Customs Union we will have nothing to develop,” he said.

The Customs Union is the old name for the EEU, which analysts have said was dreamt up by the Kremlin to extend its political control.

Western sanctions and a collapse in oil prices have tipped Russia’s economy into a recession. It has cancelled overseas projects, including a hydropower plant in Kyrgyzstan, and remittance flows from Kyrgyz workers in Moscow have fallen by around 40%. Inflation is rising in Kyrgyzstan and economic growth rates are being cut – a familiar story across the region.

Emil Umetaliev, a former Kyrgyz economy minister who now owns a travel company, told The Conway Bulletin that the EEU has been a major hindrance to small and medium sized companies, rather than the help that had been promised.

“The Eurasian economic union tends to organise countries’ interdependence on resources,” he said. “It does not encourage small and medium enterprises to develop and does not have a friendly investment climate.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)