OCT. 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – China’s football coach Gao Hongbo resigned after his team lost 2-0 to Uzbekistan in a World Cp qualifier match. Mr Gao had returned to coaching China this year, after a two-year stint in 2009- 2011. In September, Uzbekistan was ranked in the top-50 national teams in the FIFA ranking.
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(News report from Issue No. 300, published on Oct. 14 2016)
OCT. 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Baku released Javid Huseynov, an Azerbaijani international football player jailed at the end of May for links to the killing of a journalist in 2015. Initially sentenced to four years in prison for obstructing justice, Mr Huseynov was freed after an appeal. A group of people linked to Mr Huseynov beat Rasim Aliyev, a journalist, to death after he had criticised Mr Huseynov’s behaviour.
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(News report from Issue No. 300, published on Oct. 14 2016)
OCT. 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A prized hunting falcon belonging to Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Emir of Qatar died in a Kazakh customs warehouse. The precise reasons for the falcon’s death have not been released to the public. The Emir was a regular visitor to Kazakhstan, where he liked to hunt with falcons near Lake Balkhash. Kazakhstan is a popular destination for Middle Eastern rich with a penchant for falconry.
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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)
OCT. 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The management of Azerbaijan’s Formula One city circuit said they want to change the name of Baku’s grand prix race. Formula One held its first race in Azerbaijan in June, under the European Grand Prix moniker which has previously been assigned to races not fixed to specific geographic area. Azerbaijan, which sees sport as a way of promoting its brand, wants to rename the race as the Azerbaijani Grand Prix, in the style of most of the other races.
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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)
OCT. 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Parliament approved a ban on underage marriage, five months after MPs had controversially voted against it. Kyrgyz law only allows people over 18 to marry, but under special religious conditions, minors could get married. The bill, which passed by a narrow margin, now needs President Almazbek Atambayev’s signature to enter into force. Around 15% of women marry before turning 18 in Kyrgyzstan, the Kyrgyz statistics committee said.
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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)
OCT. 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – US golf champion Jack Nicklaus flew to Ashgabat to meet with Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov to discuss designing Turkmenistan’s first golf course. Mr Nicklaus’s company, Nicklaus Design, has mulled building a golf course in Turkmenistan, near the border with Iran, for the past couple of years.
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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)
OCT. 7 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – >> I read earlier in the Bulletin that the Pope flew over to Tbilisi but wasn’t warmly received. This surprised me as I thought the Pope was generally greeted by massive grounds wherever he went.
>> You’re right. Georgians gave Pope Francis a luke- warm welcome. Staff at the Vatican had probably been expecting a far more friendly touch down but then Georgia has a complicated relationship with the Catholic Church.
>> So what actually happened in Georgia?
>> Essentially, although the head of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Ilia II, greeted Pope Francis, he was made to feel unwelcome. Many Orthodox priests told their congregations to stay away from his Papal mass on the Saturday and a hardcore group of Orthodox believers followed him around shouting various slogans against the Catholic Church.
>> Right, the sound fairly active? Outside the Pope’s visit, is the Orthodox Church influential in Georgia?
>> Yes, very. Around 80% of Georgians identify themselves as Orthodox. The Patriarch, Ilia II, is one of the most powerful men in the country and is often turned to in times of crisis. He has brokered deals between rival political leaders. Presidents and prime ministers are careful to be seen attending church and meeting with the Patriarch. He is also a staunch conservative, holding views that represent those of many in Georgia.
The Georgian Orthodox is anti-gay rights and same sex marriage, for example. There are often Orthodox priests leading anti-gay rights marches.
And the Georgian Orthodox Church an incredibly influential body. Public opinion surveys consistently rank it as the most trusted public body in Georgia.
>> I see. But is the Orthodox Church involved any way in Georgia’s foreign policy?
>> Not officially. Georgia’s constitution states that the Orthodox Church is fully independent of the state. That said it has played a major role on occasion. After Georgia and Russia fought a brief war in 2008 over the disputed region of South Ossetia, it was the Patriarch who was able to reach out to the Russian side and begin to mend relations. He was in Moscow towards the end of 2008 to see the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Alexey II, for the last time. While he was there he also met up with Dmitri Medvedev, then Russia’s president. This was considered a vital first step towards pulling Georgia and Russia together.
>> So, Ilia II is definitely a bit of an all-rounded then. He seems to play a major role in domestic affairs, influencing public opinion, and also happy to deal in high level diplomacy in international affairs.
>> He’s certainly a major factor in modern Georgia. Watch out for his reaction to any issues before or after the parliamentary election in Georgia on Oct. 8.
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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)
TBILISI, OCT. 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Pope Francis endured a diplomatically tough trip to Tbilisi and Baku, his second to the South Caucasus this year.
In Tbilisi, hostile Orthodox Christian followers tried to unsettle the Pope by heckling him and waving banners with anti-Catholic slogans outside each of his various meetings.
“The Vatican is a spiritual aggressor” and “Pope, arch-heretic, you are not welcome in Orthodox Georgia,” their posters read according to media reports.
The Orthodox Church, suspicious that the Pope’s real reason for making the visit was not to improve relations but to recruit followers, also called for a boycott of a Papal mass planned for a football stadium.
“As long as there are dogmatic differences between our churches, Orthodox believers will not participate in their prayers,” the Georgian Orthodox Church said on its website.
Only a few thousand people turned up to the mass, leaving the stadium looking empty.
Earlier the Pope had met with both the head of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Ilia II and President Giorgi Margvelashvili.
The Pope then visited Azerbaijan, a country with a tiny Catholic community, where he held talks with President Ilham Aliyev aimed at improving diplomatic relations.
Pope Francis said that in both Yerevan, which he visited earlier this year, and Baku he had urged Armenia and Azerbaijan to hold peace talks.
“Armenia is a nation with open borders, it has problems with Azerbaijan and should go to an international tribunal if dialogue and negotiation is a no-go,” he was quoted as telling media.
Azerbaijan and Armenia are officially at war over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh which is controlled by Armenia-backed forces.
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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)
OCT. 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev said that he had had a heart attack while en route to New York for a UN meeting and that he was back at work after undergoing medical care. On Sept. 19, Mr Atambayev cancelled the trip to the UN Annual Assembly after suffering chest pains during a layover in Turkey. He later flew to Russia for medical care before returning to Bishkek at the weekend.
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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)
OCT. 8 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – CRRC, China’s state-owned train manufacturer, signed an agreement with state-owned Georgian Railway to supply 28 new electric locomotives and jointly build a factory to produce trains in the country. The new $20m factory, located near Tbilisi, will be operated by CRRC and local companies BMI Partners and AS Group 1990. The joint venture aims to create an export hub for train parts to Europe and Turkey.
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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)
