APRIL 1 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Under new rules designed to quash Islamic radicals, internet cafes in Uzbekistan will have to install surveillance cameras. The order was signed into law on March 19. Uzbekistan has increased surveillance generally, angering human rights campaigners.
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(News report from Issue No. 178, published on April 2 2014)
MARCH 25 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Radical Islamists fighting government forces in Syria’s civil war have attacked and killed people living in a predominantly ethnic Armenian town, news reports have said.
An estimated 2,000 Christian Armenians have fled the city of Kesab in western Syria for Latakia, a nearby town, reports said.
Syria has been home to a large Armenian minority for the past hundred years but thousands have fled to Yerevan since the start of Syria’s civil war in 2011.
The civil war in Syria presents president Serzh Sargsyan and his government a major headache both externally and domestically.
On a pre-planned trip to a conference in Brussels, Mr Sargsyan voiced his concern and offered help.
The attack is blamed on the Nursa Front, affiliated to Al Qaeda.
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(News report from Issue No. 177, published on March 26 2014)
MARCH 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Disagreements over the pagan Nowruz celebration, marking the beginning of spring have highlighted fault lines in Kyrgyz society.
While the state-affiliated Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Kyrgyzstan (SAMK) views celebrating Nowruz as an acceptable part of pre-Islamic Kyrgyz tradition, more hard-line clerics, perhaps with a more Arab influence, called on believers to ignore the holiday completely in the run up to March 21.
The debate brings into focus the sharp rise of nontraditional Islam, imported from the Arab world, in Central Asia.
Nowruz — a key event in the calendar of all five Central Asian states and also Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey — is not celebrated in other parts of the Muslim world.
In February, Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev expressed alarm at signs of “Arab culture, including the appearance of women wearing hijab, something alien to the gentler Kyrgyz traditional Islam.
As well as a gulf between the views of secularists like Mr Atambayev and practicing Muslims, Kyrgyzstan is also witnessing what a local religion expert called a “battle for control of mosques between different Jamaats.
As if to illustrate the point, last month the deputy Imam of a mosque in Kara-Suu, a southern city, was arrested for organising radical activity.
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(News report from Issue No. 177, published on March 26 2014)
MARCH 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Turkmenistan have imprisoned a seventh man for refusing to sign up for conscription, the Forum 18 website reported.
Forum 18 reported that Pavel Paymov, a 23-year-old Jehovah’s Witness member, was sent to one year in prison in January for dodging conscription.
According to the article, Turkmenistan does not offer an alternative to military service. This, apparently, breaks international human rights laws.
Turkmenistan’s constitution calls on men to serve for two years in the military between the ages of 18 and 27.
Earlier this month, Turkmenistan mobilised its reserve forces after an attack on its border with Afghanistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 177, published on March 26 2014)
MARCH 18 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan has mobilised its military reserves along its border with Afghanistan after an alleged firefight with Taliban militants in February, media reported. A Taliban spokesman has denied any involvement in the firefight that killed a handful of Turkmen border guards.
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(News report from Issue No. 176, published on March 19 2014)
MARCH 16 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s President Giorgi Margvelashvili made a surprise trip to visit Georgian soldiers in Afghanistan. Keen to boost its Western-leaning credentials, Georgia has been an enthusiastic supporter of NATO’s mission in Afghanistan. It has also pledged to help Afghanistan rebuild.
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(News report from Issue No. 176, published on March 19 2014)
MARCH 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — With NATO’s mission in Afghanistan winding down, tension is rising on the Tajik-Afghan border. Quoting Afghan officials, media said Tajik border guards shot dead two fishermen they thought were Taliban fighters or smugglers.
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(News report from Issue No. 176, published on March 19 2014)
MARCH 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kenes Rakishev, the high-profile son-in-law of Astana mayor Imangali Tasmagambetov, has been appointed director at Kazakhstan Engineering . Kazakhstan Engineering is owned by Kazakh sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna. It mainly works with the ministry of defence to maintain military equipment
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(News report from Issue No. 176, published on March 19 2014)
MARCH 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has ordered his military commanders to build up their forces in the south and west of the country to counter any territorial disputes in the Caspian Sea and guard against the spread north of Islamic extremists from Afghanistan, media reported.
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(News report from Issue No. 175, published on March 12 2014)
MARCH 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan increased its exports of military equipment by 500% in 2013, media quoted a government report as saying. Azerbaijan has previously said that it wants to boost its arms manufacturing sector. It has invested much of its relatively recent oil wealth into its military.
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(News report from Issue No. 175, published on March 12 2014)
