Tag Archives: society

Azerbaijani woman has wrong leg amputated

JUNE 24 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — An Azerbaijani woman who went into hospital to have a gangrenous leg amputated woke up after the operation to find that the surgeon had cut off the wrong one.

Tarlan Aliyeva, 82, discovered that instead of the inflamed left leg, the right one had been cut off. The surgeon who performed the operation couldn’t be found. He had fled the hospital.

“The doctors did this to me,” a tearful Ms Aliyeva, now a double amputee, was shown on a Youtube video as saying.

“The doctors did that to me because of money. See, they cut it from the root. They are not doctors. If they were, I wouldn’t be in this situation now.”

The case has gripped Azerbaijan with many people reacting with anger at the incompetence of, and corruption in the Azerbaijani medical profession.

“By law, most medical services are free of charge but in reality, you can never get a proper service without bribing,” Ilkin, a 38-year old IT specialist from Baku, told the Conway Bulletin

Reacting to the news, the health ministry has established a special commission to investigate the case jointly with law enforcement authorities.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 287, published on July 1 2016)

Person in the news: Asset Issekeshev, the new mayor of Astana

JUNE 20 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – An urbane, English-speaking former civil servant who has quickly climbed up through the ranks, Asset Issekeshev, 44, is the prototype of Kazakhstan’s new generation. One of his most high-profile colleagues is Baurzhan Baibek, 42, mayor of Almaty since August 2015, forming a duopoly of power in the country’s most important civic positions.

But while Mr Baibek received a government grant to study in Germany, Mr Issekeshev’s education was completed in Kazakhstan, at the Al-Farabi University in Almaty, with a Law degree.

A Karaganda native, Mr Issekeshev then graduated from the Higher School of Public Administration, an aspiring model school for politicians.

Since the late 1990s, Mr Issekeshev has worked his way through government bodies, reaching the post of minister of industry and trade in 2009. Under him, the ministry underwent two successive reorganisations, first it changed name to the ministry of industry and new technologies and in 2014 to the ministry for investment and development.

Now the ever loyal Mr Issekeshev has claimed a top job as the mayor of Astana. Adilbek Dzhaksybekov, named chief of the presidential administration this week, was the incumbent before Mr Issekeshev took over on June 21.

Other notable mayors include Umirzak Shukeyev, currently chief of Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna, and Imangali Tasmagambetov, currently minister of defence and formerly Kazakh PM.

Throughout the history of independent Kazakhstan, the post of Astana mayor has proved to be a powerful springboard. When President Nursultan Nazarbayev wants to

raise the profile of a career-bureaucrat, the mayoral position in Astana is a perfect position.

Next year, the much awaited and heralded EXPO will take place in Astana, and Mr Issekeshev will be the young face of the shiny Kazakh capital.

The public likes him and local political observers highly regard him. He ranked as the most popular minister in the country last year, in a poll organised by KIPR, a local think-tank. In June 2013, he was named among the top ten of Kazakhstan’s most powerful elite people, according to the Strategiya think-tank.

This, perhaps, puts him in a strong position to play a role inMr Nazarbayev’s succession plans.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 286, published on June 24 2016)

Utility cost rise in Armenia

JUNE 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s state regulator said it will consider a 5% reduction in the price it charges homes for electricity, currently in the 38.8 – 48.8dram range (8-10 cents), adding to the deflationary pressure in the economy. In April, Russia’s Gazprom agreed to apply a 9% discount to the gas it supplied to Armenia. Rising electricity costs for households had sparked a popular protest in the summer of 2015.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 286, published on June 24 2016)

Armenian taxi associations accuse Yandex

JUNE 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenian taxi associations have accused Yandex Taxi of market dumping practices as the Russian search-engine owned company tries to enter the local market. Yandex Taxi will start operations in Armenia on July 1 and has set prices that appear to be half the average rate of 500dram ($1) per 5km. The new taxi service will function through an online app. This month Uber started operations in Astana.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 286, published on June 24 2016)

Kazakh city administration rolls parking meters

JUNE 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Almaty city administration is rolling out parking meters across the city, the first in Kazakhstan. Almaty SpetsTekhParking, the company that will manage the service, said that the fee will beof100tenge/hour ($0.30). Almaty citizens reacted in online forums. Some highlighted a possible waste of public funds, but some hailed the measure as a potential life-saver for the city, which suffers from a chronic pollution problem.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 286, published on June 24 2016)

Kyrgyzstan considers language test

JUNE 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s National Migration Service said it is considering setting up a Kyrgyz language proficiency rule for foreign workers in the country, a move that is effectively aimed at reducing the number of Chinese foreign workers in the country. According to official sources, Chinese workers represent the vast majority of foreign workers in Kyrgyzstan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 286, published on June 24 2016)

Mine brawl leaves injured people in Kazakhstan

JUNE 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A brawl between private security guards and miners in Bestobe, a village 200km north-east of Astana, left as many as 16 people injured, highlighting a worsening labour dispute at the mine. Private security guards working for Kazakhaltyn, owned by Netherlands-based Institute Project, forcefully broke up a short-lived demonstration. Many of the miners said the incident echoed Zhanaozen, scene of violent clashes between police and oil workers that left at least 17 dead in 2011.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 286, published on June 24 2016)

Kazakh government fines Kazzinc

JUNE 20 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kazakh government slapped a 4.1b tenge ($12m) environmental fine on Kazzinc, a zinc producer, for damages caused by a leak of contaminated water into a river outside of Ridder, a town in eastern Kazakhstan.The leak was contained on May 25, three days after the spill. The prosecutor also opened a criminal case against the company for polluting water basins.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 286, published on June 24 2016)

Nico Rosberg wins F1 in Azerbaijani capital

JUNE 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – German driver Nico Rosberg won the first F1 Grand Prix in Baku. President Ilham Aliyev wanted to host the Grand Prix to boost the profile of Azerbaijan. His critics, though, accused him of wasting money and hosting an expensive vanity project while Azerbaijan’s economy shrinks.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 286, published on June 24 2016)

Kazakh champion weightlifter banned from Rio Games after failing drugs test

ALMATY, JUNE 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Ilya Ilin, a sporting hero in Kazakhstan after winning a weightlifting gold medal at the London Olympics in 2012, has been banned from the Olympics in Rio later this year after more evidence emerged that he had taked performance enhancing drugs.

The new evidence apparently showed that he took the drugs for the Beijing Olympics in 2008. This comes on top of other evidence that showed he took drugs at the London Olympics in 2012.

Three other Kazakh weightlifters — Svetlana Podobedova, Maia Maneza, Zulfiya Chinshanlo — have also been found guilty of doping at the London 2012 Olympics.

Kazakhstan won seven gold medals at the London Olympics, its best ever haul. Four of these medals were in weightlifting.

Mr Ilin has denied the drug-taking charges and instead said a change in how the samples are taken and tested was to blame for an incorrect positive test.

News of his suspension spread across Kazakhstan, shocking and angering people. Kazakh politicians lined up to give him their support.

“Whatever the decision taken on the athlete Ilya Ilin, he has earned our support as a leading sportsman and patriot of Kazakhstan,” said Kassym Jomart-Tokayev, chairman of Kazakhstan’s Senate.

And it was a similar story from ordinary Kazakhs.

Aizhan, a resident of Almaty, said that he had uploaded Ilin’s picture on to his Facebook site as a show of support. He said: “Honestly, I am very upset with this scandal and even more with how it is covered by foreign media. I believe his words.”

Bolat Mukashev, who works in the public sector, said: “I am very upset and support Ilya. The whole country believed in him and now this. Of course there is no smoke without fire but nobody denies that this is a trap.”

For Kazakhstan, the seven gold medals won at the London Olympics were a huge boost to their national pride and self-image. It had been part of the government’s policy to promote Kazakhstan through sport. It recruited weightlifters from China and tennis players and athletes from Russia to boost its cause.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 286, published on June 24 2016)