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Starbuks opening in Ashgabat is fake news

AUG. 25 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Hundreds of people were taken in by images that appeared to show that Starbucks, the US coffee shop chain, had opened up its first store in Turkmenistan (Aug. 25).
Various pictures showed young Turkmen drinking coffee at what looked like a Starbucks coffee shop in Ashgabat.
The fake news appears to have been spread initially by a little-known website called http://www.atavatan-turkmenistan.com.
The original post said that Starbucks had opened in a shopping mall ahead of the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games which opens later this month.
Starbucks has only just opened its first stores in Kazakhstan, Central Asia’s economic powerhouse, and has not announced any plans to open in Turkmenistan or anywhere else across the region.
Neither the Turkmen government nor Starbucks have commented on the fake news.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017

Nazarbayev opens nuclear fuel bank

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ALMATY, AUG. 29 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev opened the first nuclear fuel bank owned and managed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The low-enriched uranium fuel bank based at the Ulba Metallurgical Plant in Oskemen will be the first independently-managed supply of fuel for nuclear power stations. It will take a year to stock the plant with low-enriched uranium.

For Mr Nazarbayev the opening of the IAEA’s nuclear fuel bank has important inferences, including cementing Kazakhstan’s self-made image as a centre for peaceful nuclear energy.

At the opening ceremony in Astana, Mr Nazarbayev said that the nuclear fuel bank should reduce the risk of nuclear war.

“We are the largest producer of uranium and are ready to play an important role in the world energy,” he was quoted by a government press release as saying.

Over the past 25 years, Mr Nazarbayev has carefully crafted an image for himself as a pioneer of nuclear safety. He voluntarily surrendered an arsenal of nuclear weapons, left over by the Soviet Union after its collapse in 1991, and has pushed Kazakhstan to become the biggest producer of raw uranium in the world. It now has a market share of around 40%.

Some have even suggested that Mr Nazarbayev views the nuclear route as a way of securing a Nobel Peace Prize.

The low-enriched uranium nuclear fuel bank is seen as a resource of last resort for countries that need to secure supplies for nuclear power stations.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

Kazakhstan agrees prison officer training deal with UK

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AUG. 31 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — On a trip to Kazakhstan aimed at persuading Kazakh companies to list their stocks on the London Stock Exchange, Alan Duncan, the British minister for Europe and the Americas said that he had agreed a deal to help train up Kazakh prison officers. Prison reform is high on the list of changes demanded by human rights activists of Kazakhstan. The country has spent millions on improving conditions but lobby groups say that it still has a long way to go.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

Aliyec sues French reporters for libel

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SEPT. 5 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev started a libel case against two French journalists and a broadcaster for describing him as a dictator.

The libel claims focus on a report broadcast in 2015 from Azerbaijan by France 2 called: ‘My president is travelling on business’. Introducing the report, presenter Elise Lucet called Azerbaijan a “dictatorship” and reporter Laurent Richard described Mr Aliyev as a “despot” and a “dictator”.

The image-conscious Mr Aliyev is looking for a symbolic 1 euro in damages but also wants sanctions on the broadcaster and two reporters. His lawyers have said that the report was sensationalised and not based on fair reporting.

Azerbaijan is considered one of the worst countries in the world for media freedom. It has rowed with both the EU and the US over the past few years because of what free speech activists have said has been a systematic clampdown on journalists.

In 2011, the youngest daughter of former Uzbek leader Islam Karimov, Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva, lost a libel case against French website rue89.com for calling her a “dictator’s daughter”.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

Fire destroys chemical factory in Armenia

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AUG. 29 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — An explosion at a chemical manufacturing plant in Nairit, Armenia, ignited a fire that raged for at least two days. The chemicals plant has been on the verge of bankruptcy for several years, with management sacking two-thirds of the staff en mass in 2015. The plant is currently owned by Samvel Karapetyan, one of Armenia’s richest men, through his company Electric Networks of Armenia. It is unclear if anybody was hurt in the explosion and what caused it.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

US military war games held in Georgia

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SEPT. 3 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — US forces started joint annual exercises with forces from Georgia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Latvia, Romania and Ukraine. This is the seventh year running that Georgia has hosted the multilateral war games. The US has said that its main ambition from the exercises is to give Georgian forces a boost.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

Two Canadian MPs banned from Azerbaijan

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SEPT. 4 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry issued an official complaint to the Canadian foreign ministry after two Canadian MPs visited Nagorno-Karabakh as guests of Armenia. Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper said that Tony Clement and Rachael Harder had also been banned from travelling to Azerbaijan. They said that they had accepted an invitation to help make a documentary about the disputed region by a Toronto-based group called One Free World International.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

Workers fight at Astana tower

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SEPT. 2 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh riot police intervened in a fight between foreign workers, identified as Indian by Twitter users, and security guards at the Abu Dhabi Plaza construction site in Astana. It is the second major incident at the site, set to be the tallest building in Central Asia, after a fire earlier this year. The fight also shows the tension between foreign workers brought into Kazakhstan to build major infrastructure projects and locals. Kazakhstan has become something of a magnet for migrant workers in the region.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

EBRD extends financing in Armenia

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SEPT. 5 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — On a trip to Armenia, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said it was extending its scheme aimed at boosting lending to women and small and medium-sized businesses. It will lend Araratbank, one of the larger banks in the country, the equivalent of $10m in local dram currency, media reported.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

Bishkek court closes opposition TV station

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BISHKEK, AUG. 22 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Less than two months before what is shaping up to be an increasingly feisty and acrimonious presidential election, a court in Bishkek ordered the closure of the Sentyabr private TV channel that was broadly sympathetic with the opposition. The court banned Sentyabr for broadcasting film that it said was extremist. Specifically, it broadcast an interview with an ex-police chief in Osh in which he accused Pres. Almazbek Atambayev’s preferred successor, ex-PM Sooronbai Jeenbekov, of fuelling ethnic tension in the region in 2010.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 341, published on Aug. 27 2017)