JULY 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A new visa-free regime came into effect in Kazakhstan for citizens of Australia, Belgium, Hungary, Finland, Monaco, Norway, Singapore, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. They join nine countries which already have a visa-free arrangement with Kazakhstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a televised speech to his cabinet, Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev said Western governments and human rights groups had no right to criticise Azerbaijan for a clampdown on civil rights.
In seemingly combative mood, Mr Aliyev took aim at the German parliament, the Bundestag, which had just passed a motion criticising Azerbaijan.
“Is the German Bundestag master of the world, ruler of the world, should everyone obey them?” Mr Aliyev said. “We don’t want anything from them, while they, on the contrary, need our gas, contracts, oil and our activity in this region.”
Mr Aliyev, increasingly vocally, rails against the West for what he has said is unfair criticism of his government.
Baku hosted the inaugural European Games last month, an event that Mr Aliyev had hoped would showcase Azerbaijan. Instead it was used as a lightning rod by critics
Azerbaijan has evicted several Western institutions, including the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the US Peace Corps, a teaching programme for young Americans.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Vienna acquitted ex-Kazakh spy chief, Alnur Mussayev and presidential guard Vadim Koshlyak of murdering two Kazakh bankers in 2007. The case involved Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s former son-in-law Rakhat Aliyev who was found hanged in prison earlier this year.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – India’s government ratified an agricultural deal with Armenia which should boost trade between the two countries, media reported. India is looking to boost relations with Central Asia and the South Caucasus.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia signed a tax agreement with the US that means US citizens living in Georgia will be liable to pay US income tax. After signing the agreement Georgian finance minister Nodar Khaduri said the deal would give Georgian banks more access to the US market.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – TBILISI — Georgia accused Russia of grabbing a significant slice of its territory around the breakaway region of South Ossetia, including part of an oil pipeline owned by BP.
Signposts appeared overnight near an important motorway which crosses Georgia declaring the area to be under the control of South Ossetian forces. Armed men also started to patrol the area.
“(The) placing of these banners can be assessed as a provocation and completely unjustified move,” Georgian PM Irakli Garibashvili was quoted by Georgian media as saying.
The EU, a consistent supporter of Georgia, agreed with Mr Garibashvili and released a statement on July 16 calling for the South Ossetian banners to be withdrawn.
Georgia and Russia fought a brief war in 2008 over South Ossetia which had declared de facto independence after the breakup of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. After the 2008 war, Russia and a handful of other states recognised this independence.
Tension around the border zone, rugged hilly countryside dotted with farms and woods, has ebbed and flowed since then. This apparent land grab is one of the most serious, though.
It also highlights the risk of Georgia being an increasingly important part of the transit route for goods travelling between Asia and Europe.
Mr Garibashvili said that a 1.6km section of BP-operated Baku-Supsa oil pipeline now fell under rebel control.
“The pipeline is of strategic importance not only for us, but also for several other countries,” he said.
The 850km-long pipeline pumps 100,000 barrels of oil a day from fields in the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea where it is then shipped on to consumers in Europe.
Media quoted a BP spokesperson as saying that oil supplies would continue unaffected.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The US State Department gave a human rights award to Azimzhan Askarov, an ethnic Uzbek sent to prison in 2010 for inciting ethnic fighting earlier that year. At the time, in 2010, Askarov’s supporters said the charges had been fabricated. The Kyrgyz foreign ministry lodged a complaint to the US State department.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
YEREVAN, JULY 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia welcomed the announcement from Vienna, perhaps with even more gusto than its neighbours, that Western powers had agreed a deal with Iran that should see sanctions on it lifted.
As a landlocked country surrounded mainly by enemies, Armenia has viewed its southern neighbour as a necessary trade partner over the past few years. A sanction-free Iran, it is hoped in Yerevan, will also give Armenia a boost.
“Naturally, if we consider Armenia and Iran as not only neighbours with friendly relations but also having partnership relations, then the lifting of sanctions against Iran and growing regional role of Iran will benefit us in terms of Iran’s developing economic relations,” said Armenian orientalist Vardan Voskanyan on Shant TV.
Both countries have been forced to improve bilateral relations — both diplomatic and trade — over the past few years. Iran has experienced years in the international wilderness. Armenia’s neighbours include Turkey and Azerbaijan, its enemies.
Armenia supplies electricity to Iran in return for gas and there is a programme to build a joint hydro-electricity generating plant along the border on the Arax River.
Various other projects are planned, including a railway.
The Zhamanak newspaper wrote that Armenia can now become a transit country for Iranian goods heading to Europe.
“We just have to welcome the achievement of the agreement, hoping that the positive effects of this situation will impact us as soon as possible,” it said.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Governments across Central Asia and the South Caucasus welcomed a deal between the West and Iran over its nuclear programme that will allow sanctions on Tehran to be lifted, boosting their southern neighbour as an important trade partner once again.
Sanctions have weighed down Iran’s economy since 2002, stunting demand and undercutting its value to the region.
Central Asian and South Caucasus countries have legally been able to trade with Iran during the Western-imposed sanctions, but Iran’s economy had faltered. They now hope that, unshackled, Iran can generate wealth and demand throughout the region once again.
“It will have a positive impact on the economic and social development of all countries in the region, and will further strengthen the cooperation between Kazakhstan and Iran,” Kazakh foreign minister Erlan Idrissov said of the deal with Iran.
From Dushanbe to Yerevan, these sentiments were echoed across the region.
Georgia’s foreign ministry said in a statement: “(This) deal brings about normalisation of relations between Iran and Western countries, which will create new economic opportunities for countries both in the region and in the entire world.”
Iran has, over the past few years, been increasing links with both Central Asia and the South Caucasus.
In Azerbaijan it patched up a row over spying, in Georgia new regulations have allowed Iranians to set up businesses and Armenia has been busy making plans to increase trade with one of its few regional allies.
Its a similar story in Central Asia where ties with Iran are being improved and strengthened through new train links and product swaps.
And Iran’s economic impact on the region is significant. The ArcelorMittal steel factory at Temirtau in central Kazakhstan, for example, has long complained that sanctions on Iran severely dented demand for its steel.
With sanctions soon to be lifted and Iranian domestic and industrial demand primed to rise, Central Asia and the South Caucasus should benefit.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Court of Human Rights (ECRH) in Strasbourg ruled that Russia had broken the European Convention on Human Rights in 2006 and 2007 when it detained hundreds of Georgians in Moscow and deported them. At the time, analysts said the deportations were linked to a Russia-Georgia spy row. The ECRH ruling will likely raise Georgia-Russia tension.
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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)
