JUNE 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The number of migrants entering Russia for work has fallen by 20% this year because of strict new rules, Konstantin Romodanovsky, head of the Russian Federal Migration Service, said. This is important to Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan whose economies rely most heavily on remittances from Russia.
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(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)
JUNE 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Dushanbe arrested 505 women for prostitution, AFP reported, a move that highlighted Tajikistan’s illegal sex industry. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported a 25% increase in women working as prostitutes this year. Most of these women, RFE/RL said, were driven to prostitution by poverty.
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(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)
JUNE 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Pakistan’s PM Nawaz Sharif flew to Tajikistan for a two day trip that is seen as vital in pushing through joint energy projects. One proposal is the CASA-1000 project which would allow Pakistan to import electricity from Tajikistan and Afghanistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)
JUNE 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – YouTube is partly inaccessible in Tajikistan, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported. Asomuddin Atoev, chairman of Tajikistan’s Association of Internet Service Providers, told RFE/RL that some of the country’s internet providers had blocked YouTube. The Tajik authorities have previously blocked websites.
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(News report from Issue No. 188, published on JUNE 11 2014)
JUNE 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Talks between Kyrgyz and Tajik officials over their border dispute will resume on June 16, media reported quoting a senior Kyrgyz official. This is important as altercations between villagers have intensified this year around the Tajik-Kyrgyz border. In May a mass brawl injured several people.
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(News report from Issue No. 188, published on JUNE 11 2014)
JUNE 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan is not known as a trading powerhouse, its main export is migrant labour to Russia, but a recent low-level diplomatic meeting in Dushanbe once again highlights the importance of its aluminium smelter.
Tajikistan’s deputy transport minister, Sherali Gandjalov and Georgia’s ambassador in the country, Konstantin Zhgenti met to discuss securing trade routes for aluminium exports from TALCO through the South Caucasus trade corridor, Asia-Plus reported.
Mr Gandjalov and Mr Zhgenti specifically discussed the Georgian port of Poti on the Black Sea coast. Poti is a major transit point for raw materials needed for Tajik aluminium production as well as an export route for finished aluminium products heading to European markets.
But all is not well at TALCO, the state aluminium- smelter. It is saddled with debts and last year laid off 20% of its staff as global aluminium prices bottomed out.
These former TALCO staff will most likely be adding to Tajikistan’s most economically successful export — migrant workers to Russia.
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(News report from Issue No. 188, published on JUNE 11 2014)
JUNE 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbek president Islam Karimov has criticised the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union as a thinly disguised effort to create a broader political group.
Mr Karimov is, perhaps, the first leader from Central Asia to offer such brazen criticism of the Eurasian Economic Union, one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s pet projects.
Kyrgyz news agency 24.kg reported Mr Karimov saying that joining the Eurasian Economic Union would mean losing national independence.
“They say that they will only create an economic market and it won’t relinquish sovereignty and independence. Tell me, can political independence exist without economic independence?” Mr Karimov said according to 24.kg.
Of course, Uzbekistan is the most unilateral of the Central Asian countries and criticism from Tashkent of the Eurasian Economic Union is not unexpected but Mr Karimov’s comments are particularly barbed and the timing poignant.
Alongside Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus are also members of the Eurasian Economic Union which was signed into existence last month at a ceremony in Astana. But Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are all eager to join.
Many Western analysts have said that despite assurances from Mr Putin, the Eurasian Economic Union is little more than a thinly veiled effort by the Kremlin to extend its political power. Clearly Mr Karimov shares these views.
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(News report from Issue No. 188, published on JUNE 11 2014)
MAY 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) -Tension has eased in south-east Tajikistan after officials agreed to launch an investigation into the causes of violence that killed several people a week earlier, media reported. The government’s authority is limited in the region of Gorno-Badakhshan. In 2012, security forces fought pitch battles to control the area after they tried to arrest a local warlord.
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(News report from Issue No. 187, published on JUNE 4 2014)
JUNE 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Human Rights Watch said a court ruling of defamation against the independent news outlet Asia-Plus had damaged media freedom in Tajikistan. Last year, Asia-Plus wrote a story about a poet returning to Tajikistan. It expressed scepticism over the poet’s apparent praise of Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 187, published on JUNE 4 2014)
JUNE 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) -In Tajikistan, where military service is compulsory, a debate is brewing about violence in the armed forces. The outcome of a high-profile trial may impact how President Emomali Rakhmon will react.
The trial revolves around 20-year-old border guard Shakhbol Mirzoyev who was seriously injured after, allegedly, being beaten up by fellow soldiers on March 6.
Tajikistan’s Asia-Plus news service reported that Mr Mirzoyev’s had his leg and neck broken.
The republic’s main opposition party the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan has since called for changes to the law on forced military conscription and the elimination of the practice of oblava which sees unwilling conscripts effectively kidnapped into armed service.
A period of hazing — physical and psychological intimidation that is part of most armies across the former Soviet Union — often follows such kidnappings.
Many young Tajiks flee abroad to dodge conscription.
Malik, a 23-year old Tajik national who graduated from university in Bishkek says he isn’t going home this summer.
“My [Tajik] friends in Kyrgyzstan here have all paid the army off, so they are safe,” he said. “But I am here on a scholarship and my family don’t have money. If they find me, I will have to serve.”
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(News report from Issue No. 187, published on JUNE 4 2014)
