SEPT. 3 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh officials said that a new round of peace talks in Astana aimed at ending violence in Syria was now scheduled for Sept 14/15. The talks, which feature Russia, Iran, Turkey, the Syrian government and Syrian rebels, had been due to begin in mid-August but were delayed. This is the sixth episode of the talks this year.
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(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)
AUG. 31 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia lifted visa requirements for Japanese citizens, two years after Japan opened an embassy in Yerevan. Armenia has had an embassy in Tokyo since 2010. Previously, like EU citizens, Japanese citizens had to apply for a visa on arrival at an Armenian border.
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(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)
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.
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(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)
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.
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(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)
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.
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(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)
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.
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(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)
AUG. 22 (The Conway Bulletin) — The United Nations said that Erkin Musaev, a former staff member who had been running a joint programme with the European Union in 2006 in Tashkent when he was arrested trying to leave Uzbekistan, has been freed. Musaev was imprisoned for various crimes, including embezzlement and espionage. The UN has always said that the crimes have been fabricated. Under Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Uzbekistan has released several political prisoners.
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(News report from Issue No. 341, published on Aug. 27 2017)
TASHKENT, AUG. 24 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan joined the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), an intergovernmental organisation set up to help member countries strengthen their sources of green power. IRENA has 152 members. Uzbekistan has previously shied away from joining international organisations. Under the presidency of Shavkat Mirziyoyev, though, it has become open to international cooperation.
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(News report from Issue No. 341, published on Aug. 27 2017)
AUG. 18 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The US state of Iowa issued a proclamation recognising the killing of up to 1.5m Armenians at the end of the First World War by Ottoman Turks as “the first modern genocide”. Turkey has always denied the genocide and said that Armenians were killed in the general chaos at the end of the war.
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(News report from Issue No. 341, published on Aug. 27 2017)
AUG. 25 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Turan news agency, described as the last independent news outlet in Azerbaijan, said it would close on Sept 1 after its director and owner was detained on tax evasion charges.
Human rights groups said that the charges levelled at Turan’s director, Mehman Aliyev, were false and should be dropped. He was detained and officially charged with tax evasion on Aug. 24.
“Who at this point can seriously believe that this is not a politically motivated case to silence a strong, independent voice in Azerbaijan’s deserted independent media landscape,” Rachel Denber, deputy Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
Turan and Aliyev, no relation to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, are accused of owing around $21,500 in unpaid taxes from 2014/16.
Azerbaijan has one of the worst records for independent media in the world. It has clashed with the European Union and the US, who accuse the Azerbaijani government of a systematic campaign to subvert the media, over the past few years.
And the US released a strongly worded statement describing the arrest of Aliyev, considered to be one of the post-Soviet pioneers of journalism in Azerbaijan, as an “Assault on media freedom”.
“These actions by the government of Azerbaijan to curtail freedom of press and to further restrict freedom of expression are the latest in a negative trend that includes the government’s May decision to block access to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and other independent media websites,” the statement said.
“We urge the government of Azerbaijan to immediately release Mehman Aliyev, and all those incarcerated for exercising their fundamental freedoms, in accordance with its international obligations and OSCE commitments.”
The Azerbaijani government has not commented.
There are dozens of Azerbaijani journalists in jail for various reasons including various financial crimes, drug smuggling and gun possession.
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(News report from Issue No. 341, published on Aug. 27 2017)
