Category Archives: Uncategorised

Azerbaijan orders OSCE to close office in Baku

JUNE 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Azerbaijan ordered the OSCE to close its office in Baku and barred Amnesty from visiting the city, triggering fresh criticism of its civil rights record shortly before President Ilham Aliyev opens the inaugural European Games.

Azerbaijan and the West have been locked in an acrimonious row over civil rights which has threatened to damage their fragile relationship.

Now the OSCE, as the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe is more commonly known, said that the Azerbaijani authorities had ordered it to close its Baku office.

“The government of Azerbaijan has notified the OSCE of its intention to close the organisation’s office in Baku,” AFP quoted the spokesman for the OSCE Baku office, Rashad Huseynov, as saying.

This takes relations between Europe and Azerbaijan to a new low. Among other roles, the OSCE is Europe’s democracy watchdog. It evaluates elections against European democratic standards.

Azerbaijan already has form, though. At the end of last year it raided and closed the office of the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

London-based Amnesty also said it had cancelled a trip to Baku after the Azerbaijani authorities said that its delegation was not welcome to visit until after the European Games.

It’s a delicate relationship between Europe and Azerbaijan. While it may not like Azerbaijan’s attitude towards dissenters, Europe wants to buy its gas.

For Mr Aliyev, these are frustrating times.

He wants to increase the profile of Azerbaijan through sport and had hoped that the European Games, set to open on June 12, would act as the perfect launch.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 235, published on June 11 2015)

Kazakh President said: China fears unfounded

MAY 31 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – In an interview with TV channel Russia-24, Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev said fears that China has excessive influence over Kazakhstan were unfounded. Mr Nazarbayev also said Kazakhstan and China were about to sign more bilateral deals. China has extended its foothold across Central Asia in the last decade.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)

Armenia ants close EU deal

MAY 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s deputy economy minister, Garegin Melkonyan, said that although Armenia was a member of the Kremlin-led Eurasian Economic Union, it wanted a deal with the EU that was as close as possible to an Association Agreement.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)

Armenia’s CBank shifts research unit to spa town

DILIJAN/Armenia, JUNE 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Once best known as a spa resort in the north-eastern mountains of Armenia, for the past couple of years Dilijan has also been a base for the Central Bank.

As part of a government plan to redistribute wealth around the country, the Central Bank moved 100 employees in the Central Bank’s research department and their families to this quiet, gentle mountain town of around 20,000 people.

“Central Bank’s move to Dilijan has had multiple effects,” the Armenian Central Bank chairman, Artur Javadyan, told the Bulletin on a trip to Dilijan.

“Our staff’s first concern was whether their children would have appropriate education and other facilities for permanent residence. This encouraged the Central Bank to create new and high quality infrastructures.”

It’s an ambitious project for the Central Bank to tackle. It had to build new infrastructure for its employees, such as schools, sports centres and apartment blocks, investments which have had positive drip-down effects on the local population, their shops and businesses.

And it appears to be paying off. The Central Bank employees who have moved to Dilijan, which lies in a national park, said they were enjoying the experience.

“It is great in here,” one said as birdsong floated across the air. “After a hard working day we go to play football, have some beer and rest.”

Nearby, a supermarket has experienced a boost in demand for products generated by the workers.

And Armenia’s newest financial hub — even if it is a small, embryonic one — is also a magnet for tourists interested in nature. Surrounded by forested mountains, Dilijan is famous for its natural springs which have attracted tourists from around the world.

“We’re so happy to see our city developing, where you can see the contrast of old and new,” said a Dilijan resident.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)

Uzbekistan to boost cargo levels

JUNE 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – As part of its ambition to become a more important transit country, Uzbekistan plans to increase the amount of cargo it moves through to Europe, media reported. A government official said that Uzbekistan wanted to increase cargo levels by 400% over the next few years.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)

Georgia’s President opposes new banking law

MAY 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s President Giorgi Margvelashvili said that he opposed stripping the Central Bank of its supervisory duties over the country’s commercial banks. As reported in last week’s Bulletin, reformers suggested that these powers should be given to an independent body.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)

UN criticises Azerbaijan ahead of Games

JUNE 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Games, due to start in Baku on June 12, may turn out to be more of curse for Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev than a blessing.

The Games have shone a spotlight on Azerbaijan and it is not a pretty sight, according to many Western politicians and activists.

The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, Michael Frost, was the latest high profile figure to criticise Azerbaijan on its civil rights record.

“As preparations are in full swing for the Baku Games, the Azerbaijani authorities stepped up their efforts to harass, jail, and surveil human rights defenders, as well as ban them from travel and freeze their assets,” he said, according to the UN website.

Many of the journalists and activists arrested over the past couple of years have been sent to prison on drugs and arms related charges. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has been chased out of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijani officials dismissed Mr Frost’s statement as part of the anti-Azerbaijan narrative that has been put forward over the last few years.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)

Kyrgyzstan bans RHD cars

JUNE 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A law in Kyrgyzstan banning the import, registration and maintenance of righthand-drive cars came into force. The bill was signed into law earlier this year. Traffic experts in Kyrgyzstan have said that righthand drive cars are involved in more accidents than lefthand drive cars.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)

Azerbaijan looking for plant investor

JUNE 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan is looking for foreign partners to invest in the $16.5b oil, gas and petrochemicals processing plant it plans to build near Baku, a senior executive at the plant told Reuters. Azerbaijan has delayed completing the plant because of a lack of funds.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)

Kazakhstan looks for Caspian Sea oil partners

JUNE 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Seemingly undeterred by the fall in global oil prices over the past 12 months, Kazakhstan announced a new project to explore the Caspian Sea for more oil and gas deposits that it may be able to tap into.

Vladimir Shkolnik, Kazakhstan’s energy minister was talking to the Kazakh parliament when he made the announcement.

“Based on studies by international experts, the Caspian Depression is estimated to hold giant hydrocarbon reserves of some 60 billion tonnes of oil. This is why we are starting to implement the Eurasia project with the use of innovative geological technologies,” he said.

“Five of the world’s leading oil and gas companies have displayed interest in this project and we are now forming a consortium.”

If, though, Mr Shkolnik was high on grand gestures, he was weaker on the detail.

Mr Shkolnik may have said that five international companies were looking at joining the Kazakh government in a consortium, but he didn’t say which ones. Currently, with oil prices hovering per barrel, down from around $100 in the summer, exploring the Caspian Sea may not be an enticing prospect.

And there is also the small matter of Kashagan too. Kazakhstan and its partners have poured billions of dollars into this Caspian Sea oil field and yet it is still to produce significant quantities of oil.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)