JAN. 19/24 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Strong earthquakes shook both Georgia and Tajikistan although neither caused major damage or deaths. A 5.3 magnitude earthquake in Georgia struck 30km south of Kutaisi, the country’s second largest city. In Tajikistan, a 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck about 350km east of Dushanbe.
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(News report from Issue No. 24, published on Jan. 24 2011)
JAN. 19 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Thousands of people rallied peacefully in central Yerevan against the Armenian government. Opposition politician Tigran Karapetyan, whose television station the government plans to close, organised the rally. News organisations estimated there were 7,000 people at the protest, the second major anti-government protest of the year.
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(News report from Issue No. 24, published on Jan. 24 2011)
JAN. 20 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said it had loaned Tajikistan $120m to upgrade a 62km stretch of road connecting Dushanbe to the Uzbek border. The road is economically vital to Tajikistan, the ADB said, and forms part of a 7,000km road corridor running from Russia to the Persian Gulf.
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(News report from Issue No. 24, published on Jan. 24 2011)
JAN. 11 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – An accidental blast at an army base in Georgia killed three and injured 13 soldiers. The Georgian ministry of defence said a technical error had caused a mortar bomb to explode at the Krtsanisi base where the US trains Georgians before deployment to Afghanistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 23, published on Jan. 17 2011)
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JAN. 17 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan says 5m people have signed a petition asking for a referendum to allow President Nursultan Nazarbayev to rule unchallenged until 2020.
But where are these 5m people? On the day parliament voted to back the petition I spoke to people on the snowy streets of Almaty, Kazakhstan’s biggest city, but couldn’t find anybody who had been asked to signed it. The petition apparently originated from the eastern city of Ust-Kamenogorsk but some analysts have suggested the 5m signatures are fiction, needed only to legitimise political will.
Romil, a 20-year-old trainee dentist, gave his opinion. And it was typical. “Of course it’s a good thing if Nazarbayev remains in power. He is a good, strong leader,” he said. “But I haven’t signed this petition and I don’t know anybody who has.”
Next along the path was Victoria, a 30-year-old ethnic Russian teacher. She also thought Mr Nazarbayev was a good leader but had also not been asked to sign the petition.
“I am worried though that Nazarbayev is getting old and it’s not good to change the Constitution,” she said. Mr Nazarbayev is 70-years-old.
Others compared the stability that Kazakhstan was enjoying to the recent upheavals in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan. “You know it’s a good thing if Nazarbayev continues. He is strong and a good leader. Just look at Kyrgyzstan for what happens without a good leader,” said Svetlana, who was out with her 4-year-old granddaughter.
And so it continued. Everybody thought it was a good idea that Mr Nazarabyev remained in power, most thought it would be good to scrap elections but nobody had been asked to sign the petition.
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(News report from Issue No. 23, published on Jan. 17 2011)
DEC. 29 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – In an interview with RFE/RL, Tajikistan’s deputy health minister said a polio epidemic had been brought under control. There have been no new reported cases of polio in the southern region at the centre of the outbreak since July 4 after an intensive vaccination period. World Health Organisation said 29 people died from 458 cases of polio.
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(News report from Issue No. 21, published on Jan. 4 2011)
DEC. 15 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — A US diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks revealed how in September 2008 a gas leak forced BP to evacuate 211 workers from one of its biggest oil drilling platforms in the Azeri sector of the Caspian Sea. The cable said BP tried to limit public information of the gas leak which shut down part of production at the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli field.
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(News report from Issue No. 20, published on Dec. 20 2010)
NOV. 25 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – The heads of governments of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation member states met in Dushanbe to discuss increasing humanitarian and economic cooperation. They were candid about the results other than to say they had agreed to boost regional aid. Founded in 2001, the SCO consists of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Mongolia, India, Pakistan and Iran hold observer status and attended the meeting.
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NOV. 15 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – Bicycle lanes cut through many major cities in the developed world. They are, perhaps, a public luxury that wealthy, well organised societies can afford and away from Europe or North America are far less common. Roads have to be smooth, drivers disciplined and the public has to be wealthy enough to be concerned with both traffic management and pollution and not just scraping together a living.
Now, Almaty has its own bicycle lane — the first in Central Asia. Opened this month, the bicycle lane runs 2.5km along a pavement at the side of Abai street which cuts across Almaty.
Kazakhstan has high aspirations. It is once again enjoying economic growth and this year it gained international political kudos through its chairmanship of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) which monitors democracy and human rights.
Almaty, no longer the capital but still Kazakhstan’s cultural and financial centre, also holds serious aspirations and in January 2011 hosts the Asian Winter Games.
But Kazakhstan’s recent wealth has also brought traffic and pollution problems to Almaty. In rush hour, the roads are gridlocked and exhaust fumes choke the air.
It appears, though, to be taking traffic management seriously. In 2011 Almaty will finish construction of a seven-station metro system and the bicycle lane in Abai is just the start of a proposed 40km network — similar to wealthy, well-organised European cities.
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(News report from Issue No. 15, published on Nov. 15 2010)
OCT. 20 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — Thousands of supporters of a Kyrgyz party that narrowly missed out on representation in parliament after an election protested
throughout the week in Bishkek. The Butun Kyrgyzstan party, a nationalist grouping, says it has been robbed and has pledged to hold street rallies until the result is changed.
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(News report from Issue No. 12, published on Oct. 21 2010)
