JUNE 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov was one of a handful of international leaders to head to Azerbaijan for the opening ceremony of the European Games. In Baku, he held talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. Turkmenistan wants to send gas to Europe via Azerbaijan.
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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)
JUNE 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- Moon wrapped up a trip to Central Asia with a speech to university students in Ashgabat in which he warned that democracy and human rights in the region were being increasingly marginalised.
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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)
JUNE 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan and Iran intend to set up a joint bank in Tehran, Iran’s ambassador to Azerbaijan, Mohsen Pak Ayeen, told the Trend news agency.
Mr Ayeen was speaking to reporters at the sidelines of a conference in Tehran. He didn’t give any more details on how the bank would be developed.
If the bank did take off, it would underline just how far relations between Azerbaijan and Iran have improved over the past few years. Under former president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, Azerbaijan and Iran were locked in a cycle of sabre rattling, arresting spies and threatening war.
Since then, though, with Hassan Rouhani in power in Tehran since 2013 and the international community gradually accepting the re-emergence of Iran, the two neighbours have made a show of swapping prisoners, hosting bilateral defence and diplomatic meetings and talking up trade relations.
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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)
JUNE 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – At a lavish ceremony in the Olympic Stadium in Baku, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev opened the inaugural European Games.
The focal point of the $95m opening ceremony celebrations was a haunting rendition of John Lennon’s Imagine by Mr Aliyev hosted a handful of global leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan. The leaders of Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Belarus and Serbia also attended.
And the glitz and the glamour couldn’t displace all the criticism of Azerbaijan and its record on human rights over the past few years.
Irish band U2 used a concert in Montreal to call for the release of a number of political prisoners in Azerbaijan. In a strongly worded statement, Rupert Colville, the United Nations’ High Commissioner for Human Rights, heavily criticised Mr Aliyev and the authorities in Azerbaijan.
“These cases are indicative of a shrinking democratic space in Azerbaijan,” he said.
The Games themselves haven’t been without controversy either. Police arrested a bus driver who ploughed his coach into a group of Austrian swimmers walking on a pavement in the Olympic village and a partisan Azerbaijani crowd booed Armenian athletes at the Opening Ceremony.
Azerbaijan and Armenia are still officially at war over the disputed region of Nagorno- Karabakh.
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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)
JUNE 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan will only see the benefits of its membership of the Kremlin-led Eurasian Economic Union in 2017, media quoted economy minister Oleg Pankratov as saying. He said inflation will initially soar in Kyrgyzstan once it joins the economic group.
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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)
JUNE 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Maina Kiai, a United Nations Special Rapporteur, said the freedom to assemble and freedom of expression were compromised in Kazakhstan. Mr Kiai was reporting on a trip he made to Kazakhstan in January.
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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)
JUNE 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Chen Changzhi, vice-president of China’s influential National People’s Congress, met Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan in Yerevan highlighting China’s growing interest in Armenia and the wider South Caucasus region.
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(News report from Issue No. 235, published on June 11 2015)
JUNE 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Dozens of young Azerbaijanis demonstrated outside the British embassy in Baku against what they described as double standards over criticism from London-based newspaper and human rights organisations of the European Games.
The protesters waved Azerbaijani flags and shouted: “England, avoid double standards!” according to media reports.
The protests appeared to be sanctioned by the authorities, perhaps as a counter demonstration to deflect from criticism generated by Azerbaijan’s crackdown on opposition activists and journalists.
London has become the main centre of criticism of Azerbaijan.
A group called Platform London published a book earlier this week titled: “All that Glitters Sport, BP and Repression in Azerbaijan”. BP is a major foriegn investor in Azerbaijan and is sponsoring the Games.
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(News report from Issue No. 235, published on June 11 2015)
JUNE 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Saudi Arabian Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal bin Abdulaziz al Saud visited Tbilisi and met separately with both PM Irakli Garibashvili and President Giorgi Margvelshvili. Prince Al-Waleed is a billionaire investor. Georgia has said it wants to boost foreign direct investment.
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(News report from Issue No. 235, published on June 11 2015)
JUNE 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – An Iranian delegation headed by Muhammedreza Nematzadeh travelled to Tashkent for a meeting with senior Uzbek officials where the two countries pledged to improve ties, media reported. Trade volumes between the two countries have been steadily increasing.
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(News report from Issue No. 235, published on June 11 2015)
