Category Archives: Uncategorised

Azerbaijani security forces arrest 19 men

DEC. 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijani security forces arrested 19 people during an operation in a Baku suburb which they said was designed to root out terrorists.

Tension is running high in the suburb of Nardaran. Last week six people died, two policemen and four gang members, during a shoot-out between the security forces and a group they said had been plotting a series of attacks.

Witnesses to the operation this week said that armed police surrounded Nardaran and moved in with armoured cars. Photos also showed Nardaran residents burning tyres and stockpiling stones ahead of the police operation. There were no reports, though, of fighting.

Azerbaijan is formally a secular country although the majority of the population are Shia Muslims. Nard- aran is one of the most conservative areas in the country, a place where most women wear head scarves. Head scarves have been banned at schools in Azerbaijan but they are still a common sight in Nardaran.

Azerbaijan’s pious Shia community often turns to Iran for support and state-linked media in Tehran has been reporting on the Azerbaijani security forces’ operations in Nardaran. It described the operation as the start of another crackdown on the Shia community.

Relations between Azerbaijan and Iran have been improving over the past few years. The security force’s action in Nardaran this week and the violence last week threatens to undo some of this improvement.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Auchan imports Tajik products

DEC. 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Russian branch of French retailer Auchan said it would import goods from Tajikistan, Morocco and China to make up for the decline in imports from Turkey, which will be subjected to an import ban imposed by Russia after a Turkish plane shot down a Russian fighter-jet over Syria. Auchan will open a supermarket in Dushanbe in 2016. Auchan already operates a Russia-Tajikistan distribution line.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Fire breaks out on Azerbaijani oil rig

DEC. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – At least one person has died and another 29 people are missing after an oil platform in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea caught fire.The platform is part of the Gunehsli field which is operated by BP.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Georgia’s Vita Product opens new factory

NOV. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Vita Product, a Georgian dairy company, opened a processing plant in Tsalka, 90km west of Tbilisi. The plant, co-financed by the state under the programme Agro Processing Enterprises, will process more than 3,000 tonnes of raw materials and produce cheese and butter.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Armenians prepare to vote in constitutional referendum

DEC. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia prepared to vote in a referendum which would change the constitution to give the PM more authority in a move that opposition groups have said is designed to strengthen President Serzh Sargsyan’s grip on power.

The debate over the constitution has triggered mass public protests with an estimated 3,000 people marching through Yerevan on Dec. 1 to protest against the referendum set for Dec. 6

The demonstrators said that the proposed changes were a scam to hand Mr Sargsyan more power when he leaves the presidency at the end of his final two year term in 2018.

Mr Sargsyan and his party have said that he has no plans to become PM once he quits as president.

Instead he has argued that the current system of split responsibilities between the PM and the president could create a weakness in emergencies.

Opinion polls in the run-up to the vote said it would be close with, perhaps, those who said they would vote for the changes marginally ahead.

Georgia and Kyrgyzstan have already shifted power away from their presidents to parliament and the PM. Each said the changes were needed to modernise their political systems.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Turkmenistan strengthens border

DEC. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Turkmen military has been fortifying the country’s southern border with Afghanistan, the official government website said. Turkmenistan is increasingly worried about the move north of the Taliban.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Kazakh businessman buys SAT shares

NOV. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kenes Rakishev, an increasingly prominent businessman in Kazakhstan, bought a stake in the Kazakh industrial conglomerate SAT &Co owned by former CEO Rollan Mussinov for an undisclosed amount. Now, Mr Rakishev, son-in-law of defence minister Imangali Tasmagambetov, and the owner of large chunks of Kazakhstan’s biggest companies owns 75.6% of SAT & Co, up from 52.4%.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Erdogan to visit Turkmenistan

DEC. 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan will travel to Turkmenistan on Dec. 11/12 to meet with Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, his press office said. Mr Erdogan cancelled a meeting to Ashgabat in October after a bomb attack in Ankara but this trip will take on added significance as it will be his first visit to the former Soviet Union since a row broke out with Russia over the shooting down of a fighter-jet over Syria last month.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Business comment: Transit rush in Eurasia

DEC. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — From Iran to Lithuania, several countries have tried to impose their agenda to lay out transit routes across the South Caucasus and Central Asia.

Iran, which will soon be no longer cut off from international trade by Western sanctions, said it wants to become a road and rail transport link between Pakistan and the South Caucasus.

The link, which would run through Afghanistan and Tajikistan, would also connect Central Asia to Azerbaijan, said Iranian minister of roads and urban development Abbas Akhoundi.

In Klaipeda, Lithuania, thousands of kilometres away from the region, representatives from Lithuanian, Kazakh and Georgian railway and maritime companies met with large transport companies — among which were Britain-based DBSchenker and Germany-based InterRail Logistics — to design a China-Europe Trans-Caspian International Transport Route.

Georgia and Turkey also want to be included in the project, which could compete with the EU- sponsored TRACECA corridors spanning from Central Asia to Europe and the Beijing-funded One

Belt One Road project from Eastern China to Western Europe.

In addition, because of the recent diplomatic row between Russia and Turkey, Azerbaijan has come forward and said it wants to become the transport hub for Turkish goods to Central Asia.

The growing links across the region will improve connectivity and cut back on transport times for westbound goods from China, South and Central Asia.

And its worth keeping in mind that stresses caused by the Russia- Turkey row may create opportunities for new trade routes.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Uzbekistan boosts solar sector

DEC. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Uzbek government has signed a decree that will allow people and small businesses to sell electricity they generate via solar panels to the state for the first time, media reported.

Potentially this edict is a small scale way of giving private entrepre- neurship a boost. As the website norma.uz reported earlier this year, there are a number of small businesses producing solar power electricity in Uzbekistan.

With its long, hot, cloudless summers, Uzbekistan is ripe for solar power.

Earlier this year, Uzbekistan launched a $700m project to build three solar panel farms to generate electricity.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)