NOV. 16 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Emomali Rakhmon was sworn in as Tajikistan’s president for the fourth time after winning an election on Nov. 6 with 83% of the vote. He will serve for another seven years as president. Observers said the election was unfair and undemocratic.
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(News report from Issue No. 161, published on Nov. 20 2013)
NOV. 7 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Incumbent Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon won re-election with 83.1% of the vote in a presidential election. Mr Rakhmon didn’t face any genuine opposition in the election which observers have described as a sham. Mr Rakhmon, who consolidated his power in the mid-1990s after a civil war, will now rule until 2020.
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(News report from Issue No. 160, published on Nov. 13 2013)
NOV. 6 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Nobody is in any doubt what the result of a presidential election in Tajikistan on Nov. 6 will be. Incumbent president Emomali Rakhmon will win with a thumping majority.
The authorities in Tajikistan have already disqualified Mr Rakhmon’s only serious contender, a female human rights campaigner. He is left to face five loyal candidates who lend only the facade of an opposition movement to the election.
In power since the end of a civil war in the mid-1990s, Mr Rakhmon, 61, does not brook opposition and this election will rubber stamp his grip over Tajikistan for another seven years.
Democracy advocates, human rights campaigners and anti-corruption lobbyists may complain but the realpolitik of the situation is more complex.
When NATO forces withdraw from Afghanistan next year, Tajikistan moves onto the frontline of the fight against militant Islam. What NATO and Russia and China want more than anything else is a strongman in power who is able to impose stability and act as a bulwark against the potential move north of the Taliban.
For them, a clear win for Mr Rakhmon is their preferred option. And they’ll get it.
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(News report from Issue No. 159, published on Nov. 6 2013)
OCT. 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Utter the word Borat to a Kazakh diplomat and he or she may cringe.
It took years to purge the image of Kazakhstan — which wants to be seen as a modern, progressive country — from Borat, the boorish fictional character created by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen for his 2006 film “Borat: Cultural learnings of America make benefit glorious nation of Kazakhstan”.
Now, though, it appears that the BBC has created another comedy to, potentially at least, poke more fun at the Central Asian republics.
The BBC will broadcast the first episode of its new three-part comedy on Oct. 23 called “Ambassadors”. It’s essentially a sideways, tongue-in-cheek look at the British diplomatic service and the challenges of a foreign posting in a little-known and far-away country.
The twist, for Central Asia at least, is that the fictional little-known and far-away country is called Tazbekistan. No prizes for guessing the mish-mash of republics it is based upon.
And there’s more. The pre-broadcasting blurb goes further. The plot is based around an incoming British ambassador’s attempts to get to grips with Tazbekistan’s idiosyncrasies. This includes being oil-rich and having a woeful human rights record.
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(News report from Issue No. 157, published on Oct. 23 2013)
OCT. 17 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Switzerland has ruled that the Tajik Aluminium Company (TALCO), Tajikistan’s largest industrial project, breached contracts with RusAl, the Russia-based aluminium company in 2003, media reported. The court ordered TALCO to pay costs of $275m. A spokesman for TALCO said it would appeal the ruling.
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(News report from Issue No. 157, published on Oct. 23 2013)
OCT. 11 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The main opposition candidate in the Tajik presidential election next month, rights activist Oynihol Bobonazarova, said she had been barred from standing. She blamed the Tajik Central Election Committee for disqualifying her because she had failed to collect enough signatures to support her candidature.
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(News report from Issue No. 156, published on Oct. 16 2013)
OCT. 11 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A train carrying 200 Tajik soldiers through Uzbekistan derailed, injuring dozens, media reported. The train had to pass through a sliver of Uzbek territory en route from Dushanbe to northern Tajikistan. Tajikistan blamed the Uzbek authorities for the accident, raising tension between the two neighbours.
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(News report from Issue No. 156, published on Oct. 16 2013)
OCT. 7 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia’s base in Tajikistan is essential for regional security Russian parliamentarian Sergei Naryshkin said on an official visit to Dushanbe. After a one year delay, Tajikistan’s parliament on Oct. 1 ratified a deal to extend by 30 years Russia’s lease on the base, its largest overseas operation.
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(News report from Issue No. 155, published on Oct. 9 2013)
OCT. 2 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan’s main opposition surprised observers by picking a female human rights activist to be its candidate in a presidential election scheduled for November, media reported. Oynihol Bobonazarova is the first woman to run in a presidential election in Tajikistan. President Emomali Rakhmon is guaranteed a win.
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(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)
SEPT. 24 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), a Russia-led military group, will arm Tajik forces along its border with Afghanistan, Russian President Vladimir Putin said after a meeting in Sochi, south Russia. The CSTO is worried about the spread of the Taliban from Afghanistan after NATO leaves in 2014.
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(News report from Issue No. 153, published on Sept. 25 2013)
