MAY 31 2017 (The Bulletin) — Kazakhstan unveiled a new monument marking a famine between 1931-33, blamed on the forced collectivisation by the Soviet Union of the nomadic Kazakhs, that killed an estimated 1.5 m people. The monument, set in a central park in Almaty, shows a Kazakh woman carrying an emaciated boy in her arms.
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Copyright ©Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 331, published on June 5 2017)
TASHKENT, MAY 25 2017 (The Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s government banned 34 computer games because it said that they were too violent and corrupted their users.
Investors and Western analysts will be concerned that the ban betrays an authoritarian streak in Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s administration but gamers in Tashkent suggested that it smacked more of a lack of understanding and incompetence.
The surprise announcement banned violent computer games such as Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty but also covered less aggressive games such as The Sims which focuses on parenthood.
The Uzbek government press release said that the games were a threat “to the political stability of the country, civil peace, interethnic and interreligious harmony”.
Mr Mirziyoyev has been Uzbek president since September 2016 when the authoritarian Islam Karimov, who banned pool halls, died. Mr Mirziyoyev has made a virtue of appearing less authoritarian than his predecessor, talking up the possibility of currency liberalisation and opening up to foreign investors.
In Tashkent, kiosks selling computer games continued to trade as normal with shopkeepers claiming that they hadn’t even heard of the ban. And there was also a sense in internet cafes that the government didn’t understand gaming culture.
One gamer who wished to remain anonymous said that most people download their games over the internet.
“This ban won’t have any effect,” he said. “Real gamers don’t visit internet cafes as the computers there aren’t powerful enough for the games on the banned list.”
Another gamer said the ban was “feckless” and “stupid”. He said the government had already tried and failed to ban hundreds of films as well as Valentine’s Day, Halloween and Christmas.
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Copyright ©Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 331, published on June 5 2017)
MAY 22 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan officially closed the fourth Islamic Solidarity Games that it has been hosting in Baku. Azerbaijan topped the medals table during the 11-day competition that featured a range of events from football to athletics. Azerbaijan has invested heavily in its sport facilities, using these set piece events to promote itself.
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(News report from Issue No. 330, published on May 28 2017)
MAY 20 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia became the first country in the former Soviet Union to ratify the Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention aimed at increasing punishment for domestic violence, media reported. The Convention increases police powers and sets up a series of 24-hour telephone lines to report domestic violence.
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(News report from Issue No. 330, published on May 28 2017)
MAY 24 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Armenia’s top football player, scored the final goal in Manchester United’s 2-0 victory over Dutch club Ajax in the Europa League final. Mkhitaryan is a hero in Armenia and is considered one of the best players, if not the best, that the country has ever produced.
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(News report from Issue No. 330, published on May 28 2017)
TBILISI, MAY 25 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — On Turkey’s request, police in Georgia detained Mustafa Emre Cabuk, manager of a Gulen- linked school, for allegedly having connections with terrorist networks.
Mr Cabuk’s detention came the day after a visit to Tbilisi by Turkish PM Binali Yildirim, triggering accusations that the Georgian government was more interested in boosting relations with its neighbour than human rights.
Turkey has been pressuring its neighbours to close Gulen-linked schools and universities and to extradite their key staff since a failed coup attempt last summer, which it blamed on the exiled cleric Fetullah Gulen.
In court, media reported that Mr Cabuk sobbed.
“These tears come because they badly touch my self-esteem. I’ve not had even a small knife in my life,” media quoted him as saying.
“Unfortunately, there is no justice in Turkey and therefore I ask not to extradite me.”
Mr Cabuk was the manager of the private Demirel College in Tbilisi. As reported in the Bulletin in February, the Georgian government closed down a Gulen-linked school in Batumi on Georgia’s Black Sea coast.
Like the rest of the Central Asia and South Caucasus region, Gulenists set up a network of schools and universities immediately after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Then, the newly independent countries turned to Turkey for support. Russia was too weak and China had yet to develop a strategy towards its near-abroad.
And the Gulenist educational institutions have become some of the best in Central Asia. Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan have resisted Turkish moves to shut down these institutions but Azerbaijan and Georgia have acquiesced. Turkey is Azerbaijan’s most loyal ally and Georgia is increasingly currying favour with its neighbour through trade and military deals.
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(News report from Issue No. 330, published on May 28 2017)
MAY 23 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The World Heath Organisation (WHO) and the Tajik authorities started a mass measles vaccination drive that will cover 2m children to combat a epidemic that they say has already infected 400 people. The measles outbreak has spread from the countryside to Dushanbe, forcing the authorities to launch the drive.
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(News report from Issue No. 330, published on May 28 2017)
MAY 19 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan is preparing a new draft law on combating corruption, continuing an anti-graft drive that has left onlookers wondering the motivation behind it. Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has said that the anti-corruption campaign is aimed at defending ordinary people’s rights but analysts have said it may be a tool to distract from the economic downturn, linked to a drop in commodity prices, and also a way to unseat ministers and officials that are considered to be too powerful.
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(News report from Issue No. 329, published on May 20 2017)
MAY 16 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Aid agencies warned that a measles outbreak in Tajikistan had spread from the countryside into Dushanbe, the capital, and threatened to escalate. Several hundred, mainly children, have already been taken ill with measles. There have been no reports of any deaths.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 329, published on May 20 2017)
MAY 17 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Several hundred people were poisoned after eating ice cream in the Shahrian district of Andijan, in Uzbekistan’s Ferghana Valley, media reported. Hospitals said that they admitted 182 people into intensive care for poisoning. There have been, so far, no reports of any deaths.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 329, published on May 20 2017)
