AUG. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A senior UN official said that Tajikistan needed to prioritise bringing clean drinking water to more people. Leo Heller, Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation, made the statement after a mission to the country.
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(News report from Issue No. 243, published on Aug. 14 2015)
DUSHANBE, JULY 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Tajik government said official news should be sent first to the state news agency Khovar, prompting allegations of a media crackdown.
Bishkek-based Tajik news agency Ozodagon published a scan of the decree.
The decree said: “All official information, meetings of the Government of Tajikistan, the President of Tajikistan’s working visits within the country and abroad, international, republican and sectoral meetings should be provided first to Khovar state information agency, and only after that should be sent by the agency to other media.”
The authorities in Tajikistan have been limiting media freedom over the past few years. The West has accused Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon of increasingly authoritarian tendencies.
The new law is another step towards becoming a fully authoritarian state, said Dr Irshod Sulaymoni, an independent political analyst in Dushanbe.
“The decree essentially contradicts the laws, including the constitution, of Tajikistan and questions the reality of equal access to information given by the law,” he said. “I think that the decree is clearly intended to control the official news.”
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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)
JULY 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan increased its electricity exports by 9.4% in the first half of 2015, compared to the same period last year, according to the ministry of energy. Afghanistan receives the majority of Tajik electricity exports. Electricity exports are increasingly important to Tajikistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)
JULY 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Tajikistan jailed Jaloliddin Mahmudov, a senior official in the opposition Islamic Renaissance party, for illegally handling weapons, media reported. Opposition groups in Tajikistan have said that they are being unfairly targeted by the authorities.
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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)
JULY 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Landslides in eastern Tajikistan have killed at least seven people and destroyed 50 homes, media reported quoting local officials.
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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)
JULY 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Central Bank said inflation in Tajikistan for the first half of 2015 stood at 2.6%. In the same period in 2014, inflation measured 4.5%. Tajikistan’s economy is faltering under a drop in remittances from Russia.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – TALCO, the aluminium smelter in Tajikistan, exported 3.6% more aluminium in the first half of 2015 compared to the same period in 2014, the statistics agency said. TALCO is one of the biggest aluminium smelters in the world and generates around 70% of Tajikistan’s foreign currency earnings.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
DUSHANBE, JULY 12/13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Indian PM Narendra Modi’s grand tour of Central Asia ended with a visit to Tajikistan, once again sparking the decade long rumour that India would lease the Ayni airbase near Dushanbe.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty website reported that Mr Modi and Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon visited the Ayni military base 15km outside Dushanbe as well as a 50-bed military field hospital India helped set up last year, ramping up speculation an agreement was about to be signed.
Instead, the two leaders signed far less eye-catching deals on culture and education.
India has been looking to lease an airbase in Central Asia for years.
It helped renovate the air base at Ayni in 2003 but appears to have been blocked from renting the base, possibly by Russia or China, Tajikistan’s close allies.
Earlier on the trip in Russia, Mr Modi had signed a deal for India to join the China and Russia led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) military/economic group focused on Central Asia.
India wants to start competing with China for influence over Central Asia and also for access to its various energy and metal deposits.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Governments across Central Asia and the South Caucasus welcomed a deal between the West and Iran over its nuclear programme that will allow sanctions on Tehran to be lifted, boosting their southern neighbour as an important trade partner once again.
Sanctions have weighed down Iran’s economy since 2002, stunting demand and undercutting its value to the region.
Central Asian and South Caucasus countries have legally been able to trade with Iran during the Western-imposed sanctions, but Iran’s economy had faltered. They now hope that, unshackled, Iran can generate wealth and demand throughout the region once again.
“It will have a positive impact on the economic and social development of all countries in the region, and will further strengthen the cooperation between Kazakhstan and Iran,” Kazakh foreign minister Erlan Idrissov said of the deal with Iran.
From Dushanbe to Yerevan, these sentiments were echoed across the region.
Georgia’s foreign ministry said in a statement: “(This) deal brings about normalisation of relations between Iran and Western countries, which will create new economic opportunities for countries both in the region and in the entire world.”
Iran has, over the past few years, been increasing links with both Central Asia and the South Caucasus.
In Azerbaijan it patched up a row over spying, in Georgia new regulations have allowed Iranians to set up businesses and Armenia has been busy making plans to increase trade with one of its few regional allies.
Its a similar story in Central Asia where ties with Iran are being improved and strengthened through new train links and product swaps.
And Iran’s economic impact on the region is significant. The ArcelorMittal steel factory at Temirtau in central Kazakhstan, for example, has long complained that sanctions on Iran severely dented demand for its steel.
With sanctions soon to be lifted and Iranian domestic and industrial demand primed to rise, Central Asia and the South Caucasus should benefit.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Khatlon province, south Tajikistan, sentenced Khusein Odinamakhmadov, 30, to 35 years in prison for recruiting Tajik men in Moscow to travel to Syria to join the extremist IS group, media reported. Tajikistan is worried about IS recruitment.
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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)
