DEC. 4 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — UNESCO agreed to include Manas, the epic Kyrgyz national poem, on its cultural heritage list. The decision is a victory for Kyrgyzstan which sees the poem as a bedrock of its national identity. Streets are named after Manas which tells the story of 13 Kyrgyz tribes uniting to form one nation.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 164, published on Dec. 11 2013)
DEC. 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kyrgyz authorities sacked the powerful mayor of Osh, Melis Myrzakmatov, a few days after he attended a major anti-government rally.
It’s a bold, but also risky, move by the government.
The 44-year-old Mr Myrzakmatov is a firebrand nationalist, known for ignoring the central government in Bishkek. He’d held power in Osh since January 2009 and has been a headache for the national government ever since the ouster of former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev in 2010.
Since then the southern power groups have jostled for influence with their northern adversaries. In June 2010 this came to a head with inter-ethnic fighting between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks. Some analysts blamed local regional chiefs, including Mr Myrzakmatov, for stirring the trouble.
On Dec. 3, a few days after clashes with police, a reported 3,000 demonstrators gathered in Osh to call for the release of popular southern politician, Akhmatbek Keldibekov. Police had arrested Mr Keldibekov, a former Speaker of the parliament, in November on corruption charges.
By deposing Mr Myrzakmatov, who attended the rally, the government probably hopes to cut a major agitator out of the equation and take the momentum out of the protests. Mr Myrzakmatov, though, is a wily opponent and has already said that he will return to front-line politics.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 164, published on Dec. 11 2013)
DEC. 6 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan filed a $304m claim for environmental damage against Toronto-listed Centerra Gold’s operation at the Kumtor gold mine in the east of the country. The claim is probably designed to pile pressure on Centerra Gold to relinquish a larger stake in the Kumtor mine to the Kyrygz state.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 164, published on Dec. 11 2013)
DEC. 3 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Hundreds of protesters clashed with police in Osh, in the worst violence in the south of Kyrgyzstan since fighting between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in 2010. The protesters were angry at the arrest of a southern Kyrgyz MP for alleged corruption. Reports said the protesters briefly captured a government building.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 163, published on Dec. 4 2013)
NOV. 21 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Kyrgyzstan arrested Akmatbek Keldibekov, an opposition leader, for alleged abuse of office and corruption. The arrest of Mr Keldibekov triggered demonstrations calling for his release. Kyrgyzstan is polarised between the pro-government north and the opposition stronghold in the south.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 162, published on Nov. 27 2013)
NOV. 12 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — So-called roadmaps for Kyrgyzstan and Armenia to join the Russia-led Customs Union will be ready at the start of 2014, media quoted an adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin as saying. Currently only Belarus and Kazakhstan are members of the trade bloc. Analysts have said that Russia is using the Customs Union to expand its sphere of influence.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 160, published on Nov. 13 2013)
NOV. 7 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev told the BBC that he might try to nationalise the Kumtor gold mine in the east of the country. Kyrgyzstan is locked in negotiations with Centerra Gold, listed in Toronto, which owns a majority stake in Kumtor, the country’s largest industrial asset.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 160, published on Nov. 13 2013)
OCT. 31 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Talking to Reuters, Ian Atkinson, CEO of Toronto-listed mining company Centerra Gold, said shareholders would reject a demand from the Kyrgyz government that they reduce their stake in the Kumtor gold mine to 33%. A tentative 50-50 deal had been agreed but Kyrgyzstan wants a bigger stake in the country’s main economic asset.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 159, published on Nov. 6 2013)
OCT. 26 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia will double the number of warplanes at its base at Kant outside Bishkek, media quoted Viktor Sevastyanov, a senior Russian air force commander, as saying. Earlier this month the US started withdrawing its forces from its own base in Kyrgyzstan. It will end operations at the Manas air base by mid-2014.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 158, published on Oct. 30 2013)
OCT. 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s parliament voted against a deal with Toronto-listed Centerra Gold to split ownership of the Kumtor gold mine 50-50. Instead, parliamentarians want a new agreement which gives the country a majority 67% stake in Kumtor, Kyrgyzstan’s single biggest industrial asset.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 158, published on Oct. 30 2013)
