MARCH 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan has appointed the British subsidy of Fluor Corp., a US engineering company, to manage the $16.5b construction of a new oil, gas and petrochemical processing plant outside Baku, media reported.
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(News report from Issue No. 225, published on April 12015)
MARCH 31 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – LT Textile Cooperatief, a Dutch company, has started building a $55m cotton processing plant in the south of the country, media quoted a senior Uzbek official as saying. Human rights campaigners have accused Uzbekistan of using child labour to pick its cotton, making association with the industry problematic.
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(News report from Issue No. 225, published on April 12015)
MARCH 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Looking for options to boost its energy supplies and reduce its reliance on Russia, Ukraine has said that it wants to restart importing gas from Turkmenistan.
At a meeting in Kiev, Turkmen foreign minister Rashid Meredov shook hands with Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko and smiled for the cameras. The two men appeared relaxed.
Media said that Mr Poroshenko had proposed re-starting gas supplies from Turkmenistan to Ukraine, stopped in 2006.
“Ukraine is ready and interested in resuming Turkmen gas imports as an alternative source,” Interfax quoted him as saying.
This will suit Turkmenistan’s agenda. It has been looking to increase its client base and has also hit an increasingly anti-Russia note in its public proclamations over the past few years. Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov blames the Kremlin for the recent regional economic downturn. Russia and Turkmenistan have also argued about gas supplies.
The problem with the plan is that to send gas to Ukraine, Turkmenistan will have to rely on pipelines in Kazakhstan and Russia.
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(News report from Issue No. 225, published on April 12015)
BERLIN, MARCH 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – To celebrate Nauryz, a traditional festival to mark the start of spring, the Kazakh embassy in Berlin paid for a free concert at the city’s Philharmonic Theatre.
The performance was to be a celebration of Kazakh culture with two youth orchestras and several dancers flown in from Astana.
Culture, as well as politics and trade, have become an important part of Kazakhstan’s foreign policy, promoting its brand and pushing its image. Kazakhstan is bidding to host the Winter Olympic Games in 2022, it is hosting the international EXPO in 2017 and wants to win one of the rotating seats at the UN Security Council.
Free, or heavily subsidised performances in European capitals are one way of pushing its messages.
The Kazakh ambassador to Germany, Bolat Nussupov, opened the concert in Berlin, speaking briefly about Kazakhstan’s concept on interethnic harmony. Kazakhstan heralds this concept regularly and the symbolism was maintained during the concert with dances routines from various Kazakh ethnicities in traditional costumes.
The evening, and the Kazakh PR push, continued outside the hall with free traditional food, from plov to baursaki.
“It’s nice to have such events when we’re so far from home. I felt surrounded by my own people, my own heritage for a night,” said Aya, who moved to Berlin 16 years ago from Kazakhstan.
And as well as delighting Kazakh emigres in Germany, the performance seemed to have made an impact on Kazakhstan’s target audience — ordinary Germans.
“It’s good to learn about Kazakh folklore, the performance was remarkable, if slightly cheesy,” Daniel, a German designer said as he swallowed a mouthful of baursak, a popular Kazakh fried bread snack.
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(News report from Issue No. 224, published on March 25 2015)
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MARCH 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan released two opposition activists from prison, part of an amnesty ordered by Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev. Orkhan Yeubzade, a youth activist, was arrested in October on drug related charges. Bashir Suleiman, head of an election watchdog, was convicted of hooliganism.
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(News report from Issue No. 224, published on March 25 2015)
MARCH 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Harvey Nichols, one of London’s most famous department stores, has opened a branch in Baku, media reported. The 7-storey store underlines Azerbaijan’s draw for luxury brands and cements its place as one of the region’s top shopping destinations.
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(News report from Issue No. 224, published on March 25 2015)
MARCH 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The EU wants to revive a project to build a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Europe, Reuters reported quoting an EU diplomat based in Ashgabat. Since a civil war erupted in Ukraine last year, the EU has tried to work out how to dilute its reliance on Russia for gas supplies.
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(News report from Issue No. 224, published on March 25 2015)
MARCH 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Remittances to Georgia in January and February dropped 30%, media reported quoting the World Bank. Georgia, like other countries in the region, is suffering the knock-on effects generated by the fall in oil prices and economic turmoil in Russia.
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(News report from Issue No. 224, published on March 25 2015)
MARCH 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan has issued an order to nearly double the size of its army to 100,000 soldiers, media reported.
Although no official reason was given for the increase in the size of the military, the Turkmen government has become increasingly nervous about the spread north of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Last year, news leaked out of Turkmenistan that the authorities had ordered the mobilisation of more officers for its army. Now it appears that it needs more soldiers too.
The Turkmen news website, Chronicles of Turkmenistan, also reported that Russian military observers had been seen patrolling parts of the border with Afghanistan.
Russia and the Central Asian states which border Afghanistan — that’s Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan — have all warned about a potential threat to regional stability from the spread north of the Taliban.
Some analysts have said that the governments of these countries are over-stating this threat to play into their security agenda.
Even so, Turkmenistan appears to be pursuing a major mobilisation agenda.
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(News report from Issue No. 224, published on March 25 2015)
MARCH 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan has once again raised the security stakes in Central Asia by ordering an increase in the size of its army.
Reports from the Turkmen-Afghan border also said Russian military advisers have been seen working with Turkmen forces.
This would possibly represent a major change in policy for Turkmenistan which has always promoted its neutral credential.
Central Asian states have becoming increasingly worried about the potential march north of the Taliban in Afghanistan once NATO forces quit the country. They have warned at various times that an attack is imminent. Russia, which maintains a large military base in Tajikistan, has issued similar warnings.
Last year, Turkmen forces set up checkpoints inside the Afghan border after what it described as a series of Taliban raids on its border-posts.
This is worrying for Europe because the EU wants to boost gas supplies from Turkmenistan. It wants to reduce its dependence on Russia for gas but doesn’t want to then start relying on a conflict-impacted Turkmenistan.
Turkmenistan also has aspirations to supply gas to a wider group of clients including Pakistan and India. To do this it needs stability in Afghanistan and along its borders.
There are some dissenters, though. Some analysts have been increasingly sceptical and said that Russia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have been talking up the prospect of a Taliban incursion into Central Asia because it suits their security agenda.
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(News report from Issue No. 224, published on March 25 2015)
