Tag Archives: society

Azerbaijani opposition protests

JUNE 24 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijani opposition activists protested outside the European Parliament in Strasbourg during a speech by Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev. The protesters wore red T-shirts with pictures of different people in Azerbaijani jails who they say have been jailed for political reasons.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)

Air con rows in Turkmen city

JUNE 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Ashgabat have ordered residents to remove air conditioning units from the outside of their buildings as part of their drive to beautify the city, the BBC reported. It reported that fights had broken out over the order. Ashgabat swelters in the summer with temperatures around 40C.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)

Doctors’ salaries to rise in Kazakhstan

JUNE 19 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Doctors and nurses will receive a 28% salary rise next year, media quoted health minister Salidat Kairbekova as saying. Medical workers have long complained that they are underpaid, especially since a 20% devaluation of the tenge this year. Nurses in Kazakhstan are currently paid $436/month; doctors $620/month.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)

Kazakhstan imposed alcohol ban

JUNE 18 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan banned the sale of alcohol between 9pm and 12am every day except in licensed bars and restaurants in an attempt to get people to drink less Alcohol sales are ubiquitous in shops around the country, something officials blame for the high level of drinking.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)

Curriculum to change in Kazakhstan

JUNE 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan will trial a pilot project to change its national education curriculum away from the Soviet style rote learning to one based on the West’s critical thinking and problem solving, media reported. The step is, potentially, a major step in a much needed educational overhaul.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)

Unrest brew in Uzbek autonomous republic

JUNE 24 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Reports on the internet have surfaced which suggest that unrest may be brewing in Karakalpakstan, the remote western region of Uzbekistan. Karakalpakstan is officially an autonomous republic although in practice this mean little. Reports said protesters demonstrating at job cuts at a gas processing plant had been arrested.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)

Workers strike in west Kazakhstan

JUNE 19 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Workers at an oil services company that supplies equipment to the Kashagan oil project in the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea have gone on strike, media reported.

Since a strike by oil workers in west Kazakhstan ended in 2011 in clashes with police and 15 people being killed, the authorities have been ultra-sensitive to industrial action, so news that workers have walked out of Tuplar Energy Serves Company (TESCO) complaining of late salary payments will frustrate them.

TESCO have responded that their main client, the Australian company WorleyParsons hasn’t paid their invoices on time. WorleyParsons hasn’t commented.

The importance of this latest strike action in west Kazakhstan is not who is ultimately responsibly, no doubt lawyers will thrash this out, but the impact on the local community. If people aren’t working and aren’t being paid that means less cash in the local economy, increasing frustration and resentment of the increasingly rich political elite.

One disgruntled worker told the lada.kz news website: “I came here to work and establish a family, now I can’t find another job, the company hasn’t paid me for six months and the banks are pressuring me about my mortgage.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)

Demonstrations continue in Kyrgyzstan

JUNE 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Around 100 people demonstrated in front of the Jalal-Abad regional administration headquarters in the town of Aksy in south Kyrgyzstan to demand the resignation of the governor, who they accuse of corruption. Aksy is significant as a demonstration there in 2005 triggered a revolution.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)

Uzbek President’s daughter under house arrest

JUNE 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The 21-year-old son of Gulnara Karimova, Islam Karimov, confirmed in an interview with Russian TV that his mother and sister are under house arrest in Tashkent.

Mr Karimov, who shares the same name as his grandfather Uzbek President Islam Karimov, is a student at Oxford University.

He said that, contrary to previous reports, his grandfather is not behind the detention of his mother.

“This is happening behind his back,” he told REN-TV. “Our enemies could have misrepresented the facts when briefing him.”

Mr Karimov’s version of events are very clear, then. He said that the family’s enemies are trying to enflame a family rift.

The interview is important because it gives an insider’s view on the apparent demise of Ms Karimova. She has not been heard of or seen since February when security agents apparently raided her apartment. Her closest business associates have apparently been charged with various business misdemeanours.

Over the past year Ms Karimova has had a spectacular fall from power. She controlled many of the country’s biggest businesses and lived a glamorous life as a fashion designer and pop star. Slowly these have been stripped away from her.

Information for outsiders has been scant, although it appears that she is the victims of inter-clan rivalries. One of her biggest enemies was said to be Rustam Inoyatov, head of the Uzbek security services.