Category Archives: Uncategorised

Azerbaijani traders grumble about European Games

BAKU/Azerbaijan, MAY 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — For 20 years Sugra, a weather-beaten 72-year-old, has pulled up vegetables, and picked off fruit, that she has grown in her small yard in the village of Sabirabad. She collects them together and brings them to market in Baku, 100km away.

The European Games, set for next month in Baku, will change that, though.

“We were told that vehicles from the regions will be allowed in Baku only from 10pm to 5am during the Games. This makes our work very complicated,” she said. “Why do I even need this Games? How will I sell my stuff? I have to go to Baku, in my town, I can’t sell all these.”

The authorities in Baku have said that they are concerned about traffic jams building up in the city during the European Games. Limiting cars and lorries from the provinces will reduce these jams.

Ziyafet, 44, who sells vegetables in the next door to Sugra Guliyeva said the police officer had already warned her to stay away from the city when the Games are taking place.

“I will lose contacts with my costumers,” she said. “Some want chicken, some want milk. I have to refuse them all.

These insights are important. The government is keen to showcase Azerbaijan through the inaugural European Games but human rights activists have accused it of cracking down on dissenters during the build up to the event.

But it is not only market traders who are grumbling. Taxi driver Akif, 36, said they had been told that they cannot work during the Games.

Only specific taxis, the purple London Cabs, will be allowed in the city.

“When we heard about the games, we were glad that this might give business a boost as many people will visit the city and we will have more costumers,” he said. “Now we are told we won’t be allowed to work. This is a huge loss for us. I don’t know how I will feed my family.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)

Kazakhstan extends ban Russian oil products

MAY 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan extended a ban on the import of higher grade oil- products from Russia until June 20, the ministry of energy said, potentially enflaming a growing trade row between the two neighbours.

This is the second extension to the ban on A92/93 diesel fuel, first imposed for 40 days on March 5 to protect domestic producers against cheap Russian imports.

The Russian rouble has roughly halved in value over the past year, mainly because of the slump in oil prices, while the Kazakh Central Bank has defended its currency vigorously.

This created a large imbal- ance in prices.

This year Moscow and Astana have banned various products under the guise of breaking health regulations. In reality, though, Commentators have said the various ban on foodstuffs has been a low-level trade war.

The irony is that Kazakhstan and Russia are supposed to have reduced trade barriers after the creation of the Eurasian Economic Union which also includes Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan.

Separately, the Kazakh energy ministry also announced it was increasing petrol prices slightly.

The government controls petrol prices. It has previously reduced them.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)

Four Georgian UNM MPs quit

MAY 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Four Georgian MPs quit the main opposition group the United National Movement (UNM), including the party’s executive secretary Zurab Japaridze. The UNM is former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili’s party. About a dozen UNM MPs have quit but Mr Japaridze is the most high profile.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)

Azerbaijan develops a drone

MAY 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s weapons manufacturers have developed a drone, media reported. Azerbaijan, which is still officially at war with Armenia, has been increasing military spending. It has close links with the Russian and Israeli defence sectors.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)

Tajik bank switches to Islamic banking code

MAY 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajik bank Bonki Rushdi Tojikiston (BRT) will switch to Islamic banking rules after striking a deal with the Saudi Arabia- based Islamic Development Bank, media reported.

BRT will be the first Islamic Bank in Tajikistan. Its conversion shows the increasing appeal of Islamic banking, after banks in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan agreed to switch.

BRT aims to complete the conversion by mid-2015.

“This will open the door to numerous other operators iden- tifying the opportunities inherent in the sharia compli- ant financial system,” Khaled Al-Aboodi, head of the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector was quoted as saying. Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector is the unit within the Islamic Development Bank which helps banks convert to Islamic banking rules.

Reuters reported that Islamic banking has grown more popular across the world but has been slower in taking off in Muslim dominated countries that are officially secular. The popularity of finance raised through a sukuk, an instrument that adheres to Islamic banking rules, has also grown in popularity in the region. Earlier this year, the part state-owned International Bank of Azerbaijan said it wanted to issue a sukuk worth $200m to $300m.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)

China to fund Kyrgyzstani road

MAY 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – China’s Export-Import Bank has agreed to give a loan of $185m to Kyrgyzstan to help it build a road and tunnel between the north and south of the country, media reported. China has been funding more and more projects in Kyrgyzstan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)

Tajik police chief tried to cross into Syria

MAY 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Online reports have said that one of Tajikistan’s most senior police chiefs Gulmurod Halimov, who has been missing since April, has tried to cross into Syria to fight for the extremist group IS. These reports cannot be confirmed but, if they are true, it will embarrass the Tajik government.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)

Turkmen President issues 1,200 amnesties

MAY 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – To celebrate Constitution Day on May 18, Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov issued an amnesty to 1,200 people languishing in Turkmenistan’s prisons, the AFP news agency reported. Mr Berdymukhamedov is given to issuing presidential amnesties to mark official holidays.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)

Pakistani PM visits Turkmenistan

MAY 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif flew to Ashgabat to meet with Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and discuss prospective energy projects.

After their meeting, Mr Sharif said Pakistan wanted to speed up regional energy projects, including the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan- India (TAPI) pipeline — a much-discussed project that could deliver Turkmen gas to South Asia.

Mr Sharif’s visit to Ashgabat highlights just how important the TAPI project is to South Asia and also reflects Turkmenistan’s burgeoning status in the region.

Turkmenistan is trying to push the TAPI project forward in order to diversify its export routes. Its main client is China although it is also in talks with the EU to supply gas.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)

Top Muslim position established in Armenia

MAY 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s official Muslim group, the Assembly of Muslims of Armenia, has created the position of chief mufti for the first time, online media reported.

Importantly, it gave the top job to an Iranian trained cleric, Arsen Safaryan.

Regional analyst Paul Goble wrote in his blog that there were a handful of reasons why this was an important development.

The first reason, he said, was that the new job challenges the Baku-based Muslim Special Directorate of the Caucasus. Azerbaijan is a Muslim country and the natural location for a regional Muslim chief.

Mr Globe then wrote: “This move gives Iran an opening to expand its influence among Shiia not only in the post- Soviet space, also a direct challenge to Azerbaijan, but also among the nearly 400,000 Armenian Muslims (the Hemshins) living in the Middle East and Europe and also among the Yezidis who vastly outnumber the Shiia in Armenia.”

There were, Mr Globe explained, thousands of Muslims living in Armenia but most fled to Azerbaijan in the 1990s after war over Nagorno-Karabakh broke out. There are now only around 1,000 Muslims in Armenia.

Iran and Armenia have been steadily improving ties over the past few years. They are both short of regional allies. Now, it appears, Armenia could be quietly handing more responsibility for Armenia’s small Muslim community over to Iran.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)