JUNE 21 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The UN has decreed the Pamir Mountains in Tajikistan a World Heritage Site, media reported, giving the Tajik tourist industry a boost but also potentially making development in the area more difficult. The Tajik National Park, which covers 18% of the country and most of the Pamir Mountains, is Tajikistan’s first World Heritage Site.
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(News report from Issue No. 140, published on June 24 2013)
JUNE 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan started construction on a new rail link that should boost trade between the three neighbours, media reported. The 400km route will run from Panj on the Tajik-Afghan border, across northern Afghanistan to Atamyrat in central Turkmenistan and cost $1.5b to build.
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(News report from Issue No. 138, published on June 10 2013)
MAY 20 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — After flying to Beijing, Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon signed a strategic partnership with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping which is designed to enhance cooperation, media reported. China has been playing an increasingly influential role in Tajikistan, mining for metals and building roads.
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(News report from Issue No. 136, published on May 27 2013)
JAWSHANGOZ/Tajikistan, APRIL 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — In this hamlet in the mountains of eastern Tajikistan, Firishtamo Shohnavruzov made a note in his battered jotter.
Like many poor farmers, Shohnavruzov has opened his home to international visitors.
“Two guests paid $5 each for plov (a rice and mutton dish) and chai (tea) and $14 for lodging,” he said.
The Pamirs are remote and rugged but with an increasing number of tour operators and basic B&Bs, they are attracting a growing number of intrepid travellers. In the first half of 2011, for example, the Pamir Eco Cultural Tourism Association (PECTA) noted a near 40% increase in the number of tourists to their office in Khorog, the main town in the south of the country.
Shohnavruzov Homestay is typical of the locally-based tourism PECTA, set up in 2008, wants to encourage. The main attraction is the so-called Pamir Highway, an arduous 500km Soviet-built road over soaring mountain passes that connects Khorog to Osh in Southern Kyrgyzstan.
There are still many, basic, infrastructure challenges, though.
Gulnara Akhmatbekovna, a tour guide in Murgab near the Kyrgyz border, leafed through various guides printed out in different languages.
“What I’d really like is an internet connection that doesn’t run on a generator,” she said.
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(News report from Issue No. 133, published on April 29 2013)
APRIL 24 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — High winds ripped the Tajik national flag from the world’s tallest flag-pole in central Dushanbe, media reported. Tajikistan erected the 165m high flag in August 2011 to mark the 20th anniversary of independence from the Soviet Union. Azerbaijan had previously held the record with a flag-pole measuring 162m.
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(News report from Issue No. 133, published on April 29 2013)
APRIL 26 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkey signed up to become a so-called dialogue partner of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a group led by China and Russia that includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Belarus and Sri Lanka already hold the same status with the SCO but Turkey is a NATO member and that makes its partnership more important. Analysts have often described the SCO as a potential Chinese and Russian-led military rival to NATO.
This analysis of the SCO, though, is too simplistic. The SCO is more than just a security group. It is also a financing organisation and a forum for inter-governmental conversation and debate.
Turkey, too, has deep economic, historical, cultural and linguistic ties with Central Asia, the focus of the SCO’s activities. Turkish senior governments ministers often visit the Central Asia capitals and it is only natural that Turkey should look to become a member in the region’s main security grouping.
Turkey’s interest in the SCO and its promotion as a dialogue partner should be welcomed by all, including NATO.
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(News report from Issue No. 133, published on April 29 2013)
APRIL 19 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Unknown attackers punched and beat Mahmadali Hayit, head of the Tajik opposition group the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan, outside his home, media quoted his family as saying. Photos from hospital showed a bruised and swollen Mr Hayit lying on his bed. Tajikistan is to hold a presidential election in November.
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(News report from Issue No. 132, published on April 22 2013)
MARCH 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — In comments made on a trip to Dushanbe, Kazakh foreign minister Yerlan Idrissov appeared to signal Kazakhstan’s intent to mediate in a long-running dispute between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan over water rights, media reported. With Iran’s help, Tajikistan is building a dam that will effect water flow to Uzbekistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 130, published on April 5 2013)
APRIL 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Ukraine snubbed Tajikistan by releasing, rather than extraditing, former PM Abdulmalik Abdullojonov who is wanted by the authorities in Dushanbe for an alleged assassination attempt on Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon in 1997. Ukrainian authorities detained Mr Abdullojonov, who has been granted refugee status by the US, in February.
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(News report from Issue No. 130, published on April 5 2013)
APRIL 11 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon reiterated his concern that NATO’s withdrawal from Afghanistan will destabilise Tajikistan and Central Asia, Reuters reported from a conference in Brussels. NATO plans to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014. Tajikistan shares a 1,200km porous border with Afghanistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 131, published on April 12 2013)
