MAY 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia’s military said it had started drills with drones in Tajikistan’s mountains aimed at potentially stopping Taliban forces, media reported. Russia and Central Asian countries are increasingly concerned about the threat from the Taliban.
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(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)
MAY 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajik bank Bonki Rushdi Tojikiston (BRT) will switch to Islamic banking rules after striking a deal with the Saudi Arabia- based Islamic Development Bank, media reported.
BRT will be the first Islamic Bank in Tajikistan. Its conversion shows the increasing appeal of Islamic banking, after banks in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan agreed to switch.
BRT aims to complete the conversion by mid-2015.
“This will open the door to numerous other operators iden- tifying the opportunities inherent in the sharia compli- ant financial system,” Khaled Al-Aboodi, head of the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector was quoted as saying. Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector is the unit within the Islamic Development Bank which helps banks convert to Islamic banking rules.
Reuters reported that Islamic banking has grown more popular across the world but has been slower in taking off in Muslim dominated countries that are officially secular. The popularity of finance raised through a sukuk, an instrument that adheres to Islamic banking rules, has also grown in popularity in the region. Earlier this year, the part state-owned International Bank of Azerbaijan said it wanted to issue a sukuk worth $200m to $300m.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Online reports have said that one of Tajikistan’s most senior police chiefs Gulmurod Halimov, who has been missing since April, has tried to cross into Syria to fight for the extremist group IS. These reports cannot be confirmed but, if they are true, it will embarrass the Tajik government.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has signed a deal with the Tajik government to help it update and modernise its power network. The agreement is part of general modernisation linked to the CASA-1000 deal that will see Tajikistan export electricity to Pakistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Tajik government has stopped issuing tourist visas to its southern Badakhshan Province because of increased fighting along its border with Afghanistan, the Dushanbe-based ASIA-Plus website reported. Badakhshan has been the scene of intermittent anti- government protests.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – One of Tajikistan’s most senior police chiefs has gone missing, Radio Free Europe/Radio liberty reported. Gulmurod Halimov, commander of the interior ministry’s special forces unit OMON, has not been seen since leaving home in Dushanbe on April 23.
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(News report from Issue No. 231, published on May 13 2015)
MAY 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan’s interior ministry said that it would not prose- cute men who have fought for the extremist IS group in Syria or Iraq if they repent and want to return home. Tajikistan is increasingly concerned about the number of young men who have moved to Syria to fight for IS.
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(News report from Issue No. 231, published on May 13 2015)
MAY 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – On a trip to New Delhi, Tajikistan’s foreign minister, Sirojiddin Aslov, met with Indian foreign minister, Sushma Swaraj, and defence minister, Manohar Parrikar, to discuss India’s accession into the Pakistan-Afghanistan-Tajikistan Trade and Transit Agreement (PATTTA).
Tajikistan and India have looked to improve their diplomatic and trade relations over the past years. Both countries now see the PATTTA, a mechanism designed to increase regional trade which was only finalised in April, as an option for cooperation. Pakistan has yet to agree to India’s accession.
Trade turnover between India and Tajikistan has grown in the past years, although it still stands below $30m. India has openly made designs on Central Asia. It tried, and failed, to buy into the giant Kashagan oil field in the Caspian Sea and is a partner in the so-called TAPI project that should pump Turkmen gas to south Asia.
India does, though, operate the Farkhor Air Base in south- western Tajikistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 231, published on May 13 2015)
MAY 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan’s ministry of justice has drawn up a list of names that it wants to ban parents giving to their babies, media reported. The so-called black list appears to be an attempt to centralise names.
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(News report from Issue No. 230, published on May 6 2015)
MAY 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon sacked the head of Tajikistan’s Central Bank Abdujabbor Shirinov, media reported, an apparent reaction to the continued slide of the somoni currency.
This year the somoni has nose-dived by around 20% against the US dollar as it struggled to cope with a fall in the value of the Russian rouble and a dip in Russia’s economy which has hit remittances.
Mr Shirinov, a previous Tajik ambassador to the United States and head of the Central Bank since 2012 has taken increasingly desperate measures to defend the currency. Last month he ordered exchange kiosks to be banned but instead of giving the government more control over its currency, it just forced money changers into the black market.
The Dushanbe-based ASIA-Plus reported that Jamshed Nourmahmadzoda had been appointed Tajikistan’s new Central Bank chief. Mr Nourmahmadzoda was previously head of Amonatbonk.
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(News report from Issue No. 230, published on May 6 2015)
