SEPT. 18 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan plans to start construction of its first wind farm by 2016, pro-government media quoted the director of the institute of energy at Uzbekistan’s Science Academy, Hakim Muratov, as saying. He said Germany’s GEO-NET Umweltconsulting is assessing the best spots.
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(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)
SEPT. 18 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen forces have crossed into Afghanistan and built up defensive positions to stop Taliban forces raiding across its border, the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and other media have reported.
Taliban forces have attacked several Turkmen military outposts this year, killing soldiers. Turkmenistan’s defence minister has flown to Kabul for talks with his Afghan opposite number on the situation but the attacks have continued. Any troop movement over the border is likely to be a response to these attacks.
“The Turkmenistanis came here, dug trenches, set up wire fences,” one resident told RFE/RL according to the Eurasianet website.
“No one asked them what they were doing here. The trenches they dug are 4m wide and 5m deep. Besides that, in the same place they are paving a road.”
Importantly, eyewitnesses didn’t distinguish whether the apparent Turkmen forces which have crossed the border are official military or one of the numerous militia forces that populate the border zones.
The troop movement hasn’t been confirmed by either Turkmenistan or Afghanistan.
Central Asian countries have said that they are increasingly worried about the march northward of the Taliban after the withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan this year.
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(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)
SEPT. 24 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Each cloud, so the saying goes, has a silver lining. For Armenia’s economy, hit badly by EU and US imposed sanctions on its main trading partner Russia, this could be its cheese industry.
Last month in retaliation for EU sanctions, Russia banned most agriculture imports from the EU. One of the biggest imports was cheese. There is now a shortage of cheese in Russia, presenting its neighbours, including Armenia, with an opportunity, as Armen Gigoyan, head of Armenia’s cheese manufacturers’ union explained.
“We supply approximately 1,500 tonnes of cheese to Russia every year. Under the current vacuum conditions in the Russian market, we could export up to 5,000 tonnes, but shortage will occur on the domestic market once we exceed 2,000 tonnes,” he said according to media reports.
Russia imports around 150,000 tonnes of cheese every year, Mr Gigoyan said, half from the EU. With economists downgrading Armenia’s economic growth prospects, news of a potential gap in the market has to be welcome. The Armenian consumer, though, who may find that the price of cheese has increased in supermarkets may not agree.
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(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)
SEPT. 19 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan has scored its second major football success of the year.
In May Athletico Madrid played in the Champions League final against its inter-city rivals Real Madrid, one of the most-watched sports events in the world. Emblazoned across its shirt was “Azerbaijan: Land of Fire”, a logo designed to promote the country as a tourist destination.
Athletico Madrid may have lost that match, but for Azerbaijan’s international image it was a storming success.
Now UEFA, European footballs’ governing body, has said Baku will be one of the host cities for the Euro 2020 football tournament. More precisely, Baku will host three group games and one of the quarter-final matches in the first trans-continental Euro football championship (Sept. 19).
This is a major coup for Azerbaijan as hosting four of Euro 2020 football matches guarantees blanket TV coverage and kudos.
It’s even more impressive given the context. The other four host cities for Euro 2020 are London, Munich and Rome — cities with long football lineage — and St Petersburg.
Baku has been pushing hard to promote itself through sport. This year it secured the right to host a Grand Prix race in 2016 and it is hosting the inaugural European Games in 2015. Hosting the quarterfinal of Euro 2020 will probably top the list though.
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(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)
SEPT. 19 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A delegation from Qatar visited Tajikistan promising various investments, including setting up an Islamic bank, media reported. Islamic banking has previously been discussed in Central Asia, especially in Kazakhstan. Qatar is looking to spread its influence across the Islamic World, including Central Asia.
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(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)
SEPT.13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Other than providing a forum for bilateral get-togethers and photoshoots it is difficult to see what makes the Shanghai Cooperation multilateral.
To much fanfare, the six members plus observers of the organisation met in Dushanbe, releasing what can only be described as a nondescript Dushanbe Declaration at the closing of the summit.
Containing both Russia and China, the SCO remains the most notable intergovernmental organisation in the region but places no binds on members, several of whom have significant bilateral tensions with one another.
Outcomes of the 13th summit are open to interpretation. The Dushanbe declaration’s blanket statement supporting “continued negotiations” to achieve peace in Ukraine was presented by Russian media as support for Moscow’s controversial policies in the civil war, despite the organisation’s general opposition to separatism.
Neither Pakistan, who Beijing favours as a member, or India, who Russia favours, were admitted to the club, although this may happen in the SCO’s 14th summit held in Ufa, Russia, next year. Islamabad and New Delhi’s rivalry may add further complication within the organisation’s disunited membership.
One big disappointment was that bilateral meetings in the summit’s backdrop failed to resolve Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan’s border conflict, or the long-standing tensions between Dushanbe and Tashkent.
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(News report from Issue No. 200, published on Sept.17 2014)
SEPT. 12 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Asian Express Airline, a private airline, will fly two return flights next month to the city of Barnaul in Russia’s Siberia from Dushanbe for migrant Tajik workers, media reported. The new route shows the economic power and importance of remittances from migrant workers to the Tajik economy.
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(News report from Issue No. 200, published on Sept.17 2014)
SEPT. 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – It looks like the Kazakh president’s office is becoming more commercially-minded.
Media reported that it has trademarked the Akorda, or the presidential palace, and a handful of other buildings in Astana.
One of the trade-marked images of the blue-domed Akorda show the sun rising behind it, rays of light shining over its roof.
It’s unclear, currently, just what the presidential administration plan to do with the trademark other than boost the image of the building itself.
The Akorda, which means White Horde, was built in 200 and lies at the centre of Astana, the city at the focus of President Nazarbayev’s vision for Kazakhstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 200, published on Sept.17 2014)
SEPT. 16 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s deputy energy minister, Uzakbai Karabalin, has said fuel shortage will continue despite government attempts to buy extra petrol from Azerbaijan and other neighbours, media reported. He said a third of Kazakhstan’s petrol came from Russia which was dealing with an economic slowdown.
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(News report from Issue No. 200, published on Sept. 17 2014)
SEPT. 16 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s football federation has signed a deal with English football club Manchester United to help it develop grass-roots interest in the sport, media reported. Azerbaijan has been developing links with various football clubs.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 200, published on Sept.17 2014)
