Tag Archives: Tajikistan

Iran eyes Tajikistan’s water

SEPT. 18 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – There is only one natural resource Tajikistan is indisputably rich in. Water.

With the fresh water reservoirs close to Tehran running low, Iran is trying to work out how to import Tajikistan’s spare water, opening up a tantalising export prospect for Central Asia’s poorest country.

Iranian officials have previously touted the idea of pumping water from Tajikistan to Iran.

According to RFE/RL’s Tajik service, as of 2004 Tehran was prepared to invest $3b in an ambitious pipeline to send water from Tajikistan’s Lake Sarez to Khorasan province in Iran.

The pipeline, which could transit a billion cubic metres of water annually, would also have to travel at least 500 km across Afghanistan.

It’s expensive but when Iranian officials visited Dushanbe they again brought up the prospect, Bloomberg quoted Iran’s Mehr news agency as reporting.

With Iran’s liquidity hampered by UN sanctions, it is no surprise that now that the talk is of a water for oil swap. Tajikistan depends mostly on Russia for its petrol supplies.

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(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)

Tajik footballer returned home

SEPT. 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajik footballer Khurshed Beknazarov has test positive for a banned substance at the Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, media reported. Reports said that the 20-year-old defender had been sent home. The Asian Games are a showcase for countries and the ruling will be an embarrassment to Tajikistan.

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(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)

Tajiks fighting for IS

SEPT. 19 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Around 200 Tajiks are fighting in Syria and Iraq for the extremist group Islamic State, President Emomali Rakhmon said according to media. Mr Rakhmon has long said he is facing pressure from Islamic extremist recruits who are attracting disaffected young Tajiks.

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(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)

Qatar to set up Islamic Banking in Tajikistan

SEPT. 19 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A delegation from Qatar visited Tajikistan promising various investments, including setting up an Islamic bank, media reported. Islamic banking has previously been discussed in Central Asia, especially in Kazakhstan. Qatar is looking to spread its influence across the Islamic World, including Central Asia.

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(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)

SCO meeting in Tajikistan disappoints observers

SEPT.13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Other than providing a forum for bilateral get-togethers and photoshoots it is difficult to see what makes the Shanghai Cooperation multilateral.

To much fanfare, the six members plus observers of the organisation met in Dushanbe, releasing what can only be described as a nondescript Dushanbe Declaration at the closing of the summit.

Containing both Russia and China, the SCO remains the most notable intergovernmental organisation in the region but places no binds on members, several of whom have significant bilateral tensions with one another.

Outcomes of the 13th summit are open to interpretation. The Dushanbe declaration’s blanket statement supporting “continued negotiations” to achieve peace in Ukraine was presented by Russian media as support for Moscow’s controversial policies in the civil war, despite the organisation’s general opposition to separatism.

Neither Pakistan, who Beijing favours as a member, or India, who Russia favours, were admitted to the club, although this may happen in the SCO’s 14th summit held in Ufa, Russia, next year. Islamabad and New Delhi’s rivalry may add further complication within the organisation’s disunited membership.

One big disappointment was that bilateral meetings in the summit’s backdrop failed to resolve Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan’s border conflict, or the long-standing tensions between Dushanbe and Tashkent.

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(News report from Issue No. 200, published on Sept.17 2014)

New Russian route for Tajik migrants

SEPT. 12 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Asian Express Airline, a private airline, will fly two return flights next month to the city of Barnaul in Russia’s Siberia from Dushanbe for migrant Tajik workers, media reported. The new route shows the economic power and importance of remittances from migrant workers to the Tajik economy.

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(News report from Issue No. 200, published on Sept.17 2014)

Inflation rises in Tajikistan

SEPT. 11 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan’s Central Bank expects official inflation to hit 7.5% this year, double the figure for 2013, the ASIA-Plus website reported quoting a source at the Central Bank. Rising prices will place increased pressure on the authorities. Basic services are already strained in Tajikistan.

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(News report from Issue No. 200, published on Sept.17 2014)

Tajikistan to receive more investment

SEPT. 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – China will boost its total investment in Tajikistan to $3b within four years, a massive amount for the country, media reported quoting the Tajik presidential press service. Tajikistan’s entire annual GDP is roughly $3b. The leaders of Tajikistan and China met after the SCO summit in Dushanbe.

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(News report from Issue No. 200, published on Sept.17 2014)

The World Nomadic Games strike a Kyrgyz chord

CHOLPON-ATA/Kyrgyzstan, SEPT. 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — In front of a packed hippodrome in this provincial town of shores of the mountain-ringed Lake Issyk Kul, Kyrgyzstan A beat Kyrgyzstan B to win gold in the main event of Kok-Boru at this inaugural Nomadic Games.

Amid the enthusiastic roars of local Kyrgyz, foreign diplomats cheered on half-heartedly between snipes about graft and the hippodrome’s overloaded portaloos.

While the World Nomadic Games was designed to unite all countries of the Turkic-speaking world, it retained a very local flavour throughout, with the hosts cruising to victory in the medal table — the majority of the competitors were Kyrgyz — and poor planning abounding. None of the presidents of the competing states — Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan — showed up as hoped before the games began.

The Kok-Boru on July 14 was spectacular, however. Exhibition games of Kok-Boru, a polo-like game played with a dried goat carcass, are common at tourist-focussed festivals throughout the country. This one was far more competitive, with the captain of Kyrgyzstan’s A team sporting a battle-inflicted gash across his forehead as he lead his team to victory over the B team.

Russia’s federal Altai Republic and Turkey claimed silver and bronze in the event respectively. Following a reported disagreement over the rules of Kok-Boru — or Kokpar to the Kazakhs — neighbouring Kazakhstan refused to send a team.

Also on Sept. 14, to the chuckles of local spectators, horses belonging to former Prime Minister Omurbek Babanov claimed the bronze and silver medals for the 2.5 km flat race. Babanov’s weakness for stallions is legendary.

He was jettisoned from the government amid rumours he had accepted a racehorse a bribe for securing a foreign investment for a Turkish businessmen in 2013.

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(News report from Issue No. 200, published on Sept.17 2014)

Firtash appeal dashed in Tajikistan

SEPT. 4 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – An appeal court in Tajikistan upheld the decision of Tajikistan’s High Court to invalidate a takeover by Ukrainian billionaire Dmitro Firtash in 2002 of Tajik fertiliser maker TajikAzot. Analysts have said that the authorities in Tajikistan have used the problems in the country as a cover for a corporate raid.

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(News report from Issue No. 199, published on Sept. 10 2014)