Tag Archives: Tajikistan

Fire burns market in Tajikistan

JULY 3 2017 (The Bulletin) — A fire burnt down most of the biggest bazaar in Dushanbe, destroying hundreds of people’s livelihoods. Police have not yet determined how the fire at the Korvon bazaar started but arson has not been ruled out. The state news agency reported that President Emomali Rakhmon ordered his officials to exempt traders from rent and other taxes.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)

Comment: Turkey’s coup and its impact

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ISTANBUL, JULY 16 2017 (The Bulletin) — Finally we’ve made it to this finest of cities. It’s taken us a week since leaving Edinburgh to get here – via Yorkshire, Hampshire, Lord’s cricket ground, Warsaw, Prague (the airport only) and lovely, louche Odessa.

But at turns brooding and majestic; playful and frustrating, Istanbul is a place that commands love and loyalty. My wife and I are heading east on book research duty, hers not mine, and there was no reason to linger. Still, I insisted. It’s good for the temper, if not the waistline, to spend days here eating, drinking and strolling.

Coincidentally we are in Istanbul for the first anniversary of a failed coup attempt against Turkish President Recep Erdogan. A rebel army unit captured the bridge over the Bosphorus and tried to arrest Erdogan. They failed and the ramifications have been great.

Erdogan blamed the exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen for organising the coup and police have arrested at least 50,000 people for being ‘Gulenists’. This purge hasn’t been confined to Turkey. Pressure has been applied to Turkey’s allies in Central Asia and the South Caucasus too. Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan have been happy to comply, others less so, although Georgia has started to acquiesce.

With a resurgent Russia and a powerful China, Turkey’s influence in the region has waned since the 1990s but the coup anniversary is a reminder that events in Istanbul reverberate across the Anatolian plateau, over the Caspian Sea and on to the Tien Shan mountains.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)

CASA-1000 is on schedule, leaders say in Tajik capital

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DUSHANBE, JULY 6 2017 (The Bulletin) — The CASA-1000 electricity generation and supply project, considered an essential Western-based link between Central Asia and South Asia, will be finished this year, as scheduled, leaders of the four nations working on its construction said at a meeting in the Tajik capital.

This is important because CASA- 1000, which will generate electricity through hydropower stations in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan and distribute it to Afghanistan and Pakistan, is the main transnational Central Asia project backed by the West and its financial institutions. The US government has even described it as an important part of a new north-south Silk Road.

The West has lost influence in Central Asia over the last few years to Russia’s military expansionist strategy and China’s trade-orientated ‘Belt and Road’ policy.

Looking to allay fears that timings had slipped, Pakistan’s PM Nawaz Sharif, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, Kyrgyz PM Sooronbay Jeenbekov and host Tajik President Emommali Rakhmon lined up to talk up progress.

Pakistani news agencies quoted Mr Sharif as saying: “We must make efforts to ensure that the project is completed well in time.”

There are still major security and operational concerns over CASA-1000, though, which need to be solved.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)

Tajikistan confirms death of former police relatives

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JULY 5 2017 (The Bulletin) — The authorities in Tajikistan said that police had fought and killed four relatives of former Tajik police commander Gulmurod Halimov who joined IS in Syria in 2015. They said that the four relatives, two of Halimov’s brothers and two cousins, were involved in a gunfight with police on July 4 in the Vosa district, 25km from Dushanbe. Reports do not clarify what triggered the gunfire.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)

AllurGroup to send cars to Tajikistan

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JUNE 24 2017 (The Bulletin) — Kazakh company AllurGroup has started shipping cars to Dushanbe to form a fleet of taxis for the Tajik capital. The $600,000 deal for 55 Chinese-designed JAC S3s is important as it will keep jobs at the Kostanai-based SaryarkaAvtoProm. The Kazakh car making sector has been under pressure in the current economic downturn.

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(News report from Issue No. 335, published on July 3 2017)

Uzbek and Tajik ministers meet for first time since 1998

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JUNE 29 2017 (The Bulletin) — The interior ministers of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan met for the first time in 19 years during a CIS meeting of interior ministers in Dushanbe. The meeting highlights just how far Uzbekistan has moved towards improving its relations with its neighbours since Shavkat Mirziyoyev become president in September 2016. His predecessor Islam Karimov had pushed to isolate Uzbekistan, eschewing regional meetings. Relations with Tajikistan had been particularly strained over plans to build a new dam.

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(News report from Issue No. 335, published on July 3 2017)

Tajik CB auctions failed banks property

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DUSHANBE, JUNE 29 2017 (The Bulletin) — Tajikistan’s Central Bank said that it would auction off property belonging to two failed banks Tochprombonk and Fononbonk, a very public humbling for two prominent Tajik financial institutions.

The government withdrew the banking licences for Tochprombonk and Fononbonk on Feb. 24, effectively declaring them bankrupt, having tried to rescue them last year in a $490m bailout of the banking sector. It was more successful propping up Tajikistan’s two main banks, Tojiksodirotbonk and Agroinvestbank, which appear to have survived an economic downturn.

Tajikistan, like the rest of Central Asia, has been grappling with the impact of a collapse in oil prices that triggered a recession in Russia. Russia is the main driver of economic activity in the region and its recession had a heavy knock-on effect in Central Asia, which, to a large extent is reliant on remittances sent back by migrants working in Russia.

The Tajik banking sector has been heavily criticised by international organisations for is weaknesses. In April the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said that the Tajik banking sector needed to improve is transparency and increase capital levels. Last year the IMF said that the banking sector in Tajikistan was “dire”. Bad loans were now over 50% of the total loan portfolio.

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(News report from Issue No. 335, published on July 3 2017)

Tajikistan bans Hajj for under 40s

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JUNE 20 2017 (The Bulletin) — The authorities in Tajikistan have banned people under the age of 40 from travelling to Mecca this year for the Hajj, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. Officials said that ban was designed to give older people the chance of completing the Hajj but analysts said it could be designed to try and prevent young people from becoming radicalised. Tajikistan and other Central Asian countries are worried about the spread of radical Islam.

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(News report from Issue No. 334, published on June 26 2017)

US embassy warns Tajikistan

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JUNE 16 2017 (The Bulletin) — The US Embassy in Dushanbe said that the chances of a terrorist attack in Tajikistan had increased over the past six to 12 months. It said: “A range of terrorist organizations might seek to conduct attacks in the territory of Tajikistan, including against U.S. interests and the US Embassy.” The US embassy has previously issued terrorist attack warn- ings for Tajikistan.

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(News report from Issue No. 334, published on June 26 2017)

Tajik President flies to Yerevan

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JUNE 14 2017 (The Bulletin) — Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon flew to Yerevan for a state visit, a relatively rare foray into the South Caucasus. At a joint press conference Mr Rakhmon and his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan promises to boost bilateral ties, including setting up a direct flight between the two capitals.

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)