JAN. 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The organisers of Azerbaijan’s first Formula 1 race, scheduled for June, denied that the current economic downturn has hit their plans to stage the event. They were responding to media reports that they were going to have to downgrade their plans after a 50% fall in the value of their manat currency over the past year.
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(News report from Issue No. 264, published on Jan. 22 2016)
JAN. 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – An online poll by Kazakhstan’s football federation asking fans if they wanted a foreign or Kazakh manager for their national team flopped after it fell far short of the 50,000 votes it needed for the result to be acted upon. By midnight on Jan. 14, the poll had attracted just over 2,500 votes, 5% of total needed.
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(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)
JAN. 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The trial of five men accused of killing journalist Rasim Aliyev in August has opened. Aliyev was beaten on the streets of a provincial Azerbaijani town and died in hospital. Before he died, he said supporters of international footballer Cavid Huseynov who he had criticised in a match report has attacked him. Mr Huseynov is not among the men standing trial for killing Aliyev.
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(News report from Issue No. 262, published on Jan. 8 2016)
NOV. 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – After a four-month-long review linked to a drug doping scandal, Astana Pro cycling team received its World Tour licence. Astana Pro, which is funded by the Kazakh sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna and races in the national colours, has been involved in several doping cases since it was set up in 2007.
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(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)
NOV. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tony Adams, the former England and Arsenal footballer, has become the unlikely cheerleader of Azerbaijan’s healthcare system.
Media quoted him as saying that he credits doctors in Azerbaijan, where he is working as director of football at the country’s biggest club Gabala, with saving his life with heart surgery.
He said that he referred himself to the Gabala team doctor after feeling chest pains.
“The brilliant surgeons at the Medical Plaza (hospital) did a fantastic job, as has been reiterated to me by my cardiologist in the UK,” he said.
“I know full well that without the brilliance of Dr Uzeyir Rahimov and his team I would not be alive now: a minor heart operation saved my life.”
Mr Adams, 49, is one of England’s most successful living footballers. He played more than 650 times for Arsenal, between 1983 and 2002, winning 10 trophies. He also played 60 times for England.
Mr Adams started managing Gabala in 2010.
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(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)
OCT. 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan has forcibly evicted around 50,000 people from their homes in and around Ashgabat ahead of the 2017 Asian Indoors and Martial Arts Games, human rights group Amnesty International said in a report.
Researchers at Amnesty studied satellite images which they said showed evictions and demolitions between March 2014 and April 2015 in two Ashgabat neighbourhoods.
Ashgabat will host the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, a relatively minor Olympic event. It wants to impress visitors with a $2 Olympic Village and an extensive PR campaign on its readiness to open up to the world after decades of isolation.
Denis Krivosheev of Amnesty International said: “Instead of using the Games as an opportunity to clean up Turkmenistan’s human rights record, local authorities there have only succeeded in worsening living conditions for residents.”
Amnesty’s allegation, which the authorities have not refuted, will irritate the Turkmen government and further damage its image, just as it is trying to show the world a softer and more open side.
Analysis focused on Choganly and Shor, two so-called “dacha neighbourhoods” designated for holiday houses. More recently, though, Amnesty International said evictions were taking place in a suburb of Ashagbat too.
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(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)
OCT. 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia ended their Rugby World Cup with a 17-16 victory over Namibia, earning their second win in the tournament. This is and the only time that Georgia has won more than one match in a World Cup.
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(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)
ASTANA/ Kazakhstan, OCT. 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Just when the crowd began to think that it was all over, the ball slipped into the back of Galatasaray’s net. The Astana Arena, with 30,000 FC Astana fans inside, shook with celebration.
The third own-goal of a mad and exciting match sealed a 2-2 draw for FC Astana in the first ever Champions League football game played in Central Asia.
Incredulous FC Astana fans were besides themselves with joy at the unexpected result.
“I am not keen on football, but when there are games like this, I turn into a real football-freak” said Bota, a 27- year-old FC Astana fan. On her nails she had painted the Kazakh flag.
The atmosphere at the Astana Arena, a state-of-the-art stadium with synthetic grass and retractable roof, was electric and very patriotic. The 30,000 FC Astana fans were dressed in blue-and-yellow, the colours of Kazakhstan’s flag. They didn’t stop singing and chanting for the whole 90 minutes.
In Kazakhstan’s Premier League many seats are empty but not for this match against Istanbul’s Galatasary. On the pitch FC Astana were not just representing the Kazakh capital, they were representing the entire country.
“This game is a way to prove that we are not Boratstan,” said Bota in a reference to the fictional comic character called Borat. “We have a lot of things to show and be proud of.”
Kazakh fans hadn’t forgotten that Galatasaray forward Lukas Podolski tweeted a picture of Borat after his team were drawn in the same group as FC Astana. Every time he touched the ball, they booed.
FC Astana is essentially a state club, part of the President’s Sport Club Astana alongside an ice hockey and cycling team, and financed by the national fund Samruk-Kazyna.
And this historic football match helped distract many people from the increasing economic gloom. Perhaps with some irony, one of the FC Astana chants was “We believe in Astana. We do not care about devaluation.”
Whether they qualify or not for the next round of the Champions League, FC Astana will also host Atletico Madrid and Portugal’s Benfica this year.
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(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)
SEPT. 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s Olympic Committee reportedly appointed Timur Kulibayev, son-in-law of President Nursultan Nazarbayev and a potential successor, as its head. Earlier this year Almaty lost to Beijing in its bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. The bid boosted both the profile of Kazakhstan and also of its Olympic Committee.
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(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)
SEPT. 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Causing something of an upset, the Georgian rugby team beat Tonga 17-10 in their opening match of the Rugby World Cup in England. Georgia has the best national rugby team in the former Soviet Union and is ranked 13th in the world.
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(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)
