JULY 1 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – On a visit to London, Tajik foreign minister Sirodjidin Aslov met with his British counterpart William Hague. Tajikistan and Britain have been cultivating close relations but the arrest on spying charges of a Tajik researcher linked to Exeter University in June has strained ties.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)
JUNE 24 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Media in Uzbekistan reported that a drought in the south of the country means that crop expectations are low.
The uznews.net opposition website said that harvest would be 50% lower than normal on rain-fed crops.
“It did not rain this April and we expect smaller harvests,” uznews.net quoted a farmer as saying.
Officials have not commented although signs of drought are important for policymakers. Droughts and a lack of income can trigger social discontent. Throughout the year, reports have surfaced from Uzbekistan of rising prices.
Uzbekistan is particularly prone to drought. Much of its agriculture is under-resourced and lacking in investment and the land is generally arid. A government report in 2012 said that 76% of the population was living in areas at risk of drought.
And the timing of the uznews.net report is pertinent. The state’s Committee for Natural Protection organised a roundtable on June 29 specifically to discuss desertification and drought in Uzbekistan. The World Bank and the Asian Development all provide various forms of financial assistance aimed at reducing drought in Uzbekistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)
JUNE 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s authorities have deported 25 Chinese migrants for working illegally at an oil refinery in Tokmak in the north of the country after a fight with their Kyrgyz co-workers, media reported. The incident highlights lingering tensions between Chinese workers and locals in Central Asia.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)
JUNE 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Almaty sentenced Bagdad Maykeev, a former General and Kazakh deputy defence minister, to six years in jail for taking bribes worth about $500,000 in a case that highlights the endemic levels of corruption at the highest levels in Kazakhstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)
JULY 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Islamic extremists who have captured several cities in Iraq under the banner of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) have been directly trying to recruit disenchanted religious Kazakhs.
In an interview with Tengrinews, a news website linked to the Kazakh government, political analyst Yerlan Karin said that he had seen videos put out by ISIS showing men with Kazakh passports being recruited and then trained.
He also said that in Syria, where Islamic extremists from Central Asia, had been fighting, units were organised along ethnicity. And this, experts have said, is particularly worrying as they may be more inclined to use the skills and experience learned in Syria back home.
“There have been such cases in Central Asia already: 25 Kyrgyz nationals who returned from combat zones in Syria and attempted acts of terrorism in their home country are now in prison in Kyrgyzstan,” Mr Karin said.
The authorities in Central Asia have been particularly nervous about the civil war in Syria and now the ISI attacks in Iraq, as they represent an easily accessible war zone for Islamic extremists to gravitate towards.
ISI have declared an Islamic Caliphate stretching across Syria and Iraq.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)
ALMATY/Kazakhstan, JULY 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Globally, eating horses is controversial. The Italians, Dutch, Brazilians and French traditionally enjoy horsemeat, but in the United States it is highly taboo.
Americans balk at the idea of eating the animals that helped to settle the West. Horses have not been killed for human consumption on US soil since 2007.
In Britain, the so-called “horsegate” outcry of 2013, when supermarket burgers and sausages were found to contain large amounts of horsemeat, reviled British sensibilities triggering an avalanche of criticism over food security.
But in Kazakhstan, with its culture so heavily entwined with a traditional nomadic way of life, horsemeat is still very much seen as a delicacy and a status symbol.
At midday in Almaty’s Green Bazaar, the counters selling horse meat were doing brisk trade. Vendors slammed lumps of horse onto old sky-blue weighing scales to count the kilos.
Aisha, who was 43-years-old and a mother of four children, hovered over a table packed with cuts of horse. Intestines and ribs glistened next to prime rump.
Saiyan, the owner of the stall, said that she sells Aisha her fresh horsemeat three times a week. The horse meat cost 2,200 Tenge ($12) a kilo.
Dressed in a white trouser suit and yellow snakeskin shoes Aisha inspected the different cuts.
“My family eats a small amount of horse meat every day,” she said. “We don’t suffer from any flu or illness. This is why we eat it, for good health.”
Horsemeat in the Green Bazaar, however, is twice the price of lamb in the main markets. It might be beneficial to health and cherished by Kazakhs, but it is only obtainable to a privileged few.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)
JUNE 26 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – From 2015, except for members of the Eurasian Economic Union (EaEU), migrant workers from the ex-Soviet Union will only be allowed to work in Russia if they carry a passport and not just an ID card. Kyrgyzstan wants to join the EaEU which includes Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)
JUNE 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Uzbekistan fined Said Abdurakhimov, a local journalist who reports critical stories, roughly $4,000 for supposedly spreading panic and working without the correct accreditation. The police detained Mr Abdurakhimov after he reported on the demolition of homes to build a new motorway.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)
JULY 1 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – South Korea’s Daewoo will invest $22m upgrading and expanding production at two Uzbek textile factories, media reported. South Korea has been looking to expand its business links with Uzbekistan which has also wanted to boost its important textile industry.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)
JUNE 26 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in the south Russian region of Dagestan have agreed to rebuild a road that runs from Makhachkala on the Black Sea to Georgia, media reported. This is another signal relations between Georgia and Russia have improved since a brief war in 2008.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)
