News Digest

KARZAI TAKES ACTION IN KABUL BANK SCANDAL

6 April

Nabucco group expecting key decisions
22 March
A decision to link the broader Nabucco natural gas pipeline to a Turkish counterpart is expected by next year, a managing director said from Ankara. Reinhard Mitschek, managing director of Nabucco Gas Pipeline International, said from Turkey his company expects to make a decision on linking up to the Trans-Anatolia Pipeline by 2013. "The point of no return is a final investment decision … that will most likely be next year," Mitschek told Bloomberg News. "That is something we're working on in a very concentrated and focused form within the Nabucco group, with Shah Deniz partners and others." The Trans-Anatolia Pipeline, known also as TANAP, is a project envisioned by Turkish energy company Botas and the State Oil Co. of Azerbaijan Republic to transport natural gas to southern Europe. Nabucco could carry gas from suppliers in the Caspian region, notably those in the Shah Deniz field in Azerbaijan, to southern Europe by 2017. Ankara had said TANAP is backed by a supply guarantee. Nabucco has faced questions over its $10.5 billion price and the lack of firm supplier commitments. A smaller version of the planned 2,400-mile pipeline, dubbed Nabucco West, would travel from the Turkish border to Austria, about half of what's expected for the entire project. (UPI)

Borat anthem stuns Kazakh gold medallist in Kuwait
23 March
Kazakhstan's shooting team has been left stunned after a comedy national anthem from the film Borat was played at a medal ceremony at championships in Kuwait instead of the real one. The team asked for an apology and the medal ceremony was later rerun. The team's coach told Kazakh media the organisers had downloaded the parody from the internet by mistake. The song was produced by UK comedian Sacha Baron Cohen for the film, which shows Kazakhs as backward and bigoted. Footage of Thursday's original ceremony posted on YouTube shows gold medallist Maria Dmitrienko listening to the anthem without emotion and finally smiling as it ends. Coach Anvar Yunusmetov told Kazakh news agency Tengrinews that the tournament's organisers had also got the Serbian national anthem wrong. "Then Maria Dmitrienko's turn came," he said. "She got up on to the pedestal and they played a completely different anthem, offensive to Kazakhstan." The spoof song praises Kazakhstan for its superior potassium exports and for having the cleanest prostitutes in the region. The film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, released in 2006, follows Baron Cohen's character, the journalist Borat Sagdiyev, as he travels to the US and pursues the actress Pamela Anderson. The film outraged people in Kazakhstan and was eventually banned in the country. The government also threatened Baron Cohen with legal action. Reports say the film is also banned in Kuwait. (BBC)

OSCE urges tajiks to end shutdown of facebook, sites
8 March
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe has urged Tajikistan to end a local shutdown of Facebook and several Russian-language sites that had published material critical of the nation's veteran leader. President Imomali Rakhmon, a former head of a Soviet state farm, has ruled this Muslim Central Asian nation of 7.5 million people with a firm hand since 1992. Although his government has shown a more liberal attitude to the press compared to repressive regional neighbours Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, criticism of Rakhmon is taboo for the local media. Local access to the websites was blocked on March 2. Dunja Mijatovic, the OSCE representative on freedom of the media, said in an appeal to the Tajik government she hoped that the ban on Facebook and the other sites would not set a precedent."Internet should remain an open public forum for discussion and free expression of opinions, as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," said the statement posted late on Wednesday on the site of the world's largest security body. She said she had sent a letter to Tajik Foreign Minister Hamrokhon Zarifi on March 5, and added: "I also expressed hope that access to Facebook and the four news websites would be restored without delay." The Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the OSCE statement. March 8 is a market and public holiday in Tajikistan. Facebook's popularity has soared in Tajikistan, with membership doubling last year to 26,000 people. Several Facebook groups openly discuss politics and some users have been critical of the authorities. (Reuters)

Tajik caught in Moscow for selling two Uzbek girls as prostitutes
13 February
The man caught by the Moscow police several days ago trying to sell two young women from Uzbekistan appeared to be a native of Tajikistan, not a resident of Russia's Lipetsk region, Galina Mikhailova from the Moscow southwestern district police department told Interfax on Monday. "The police detained the man trying to sell two girls, 25, for 50,000 rubles. The girls are natives of Uzbekistan," he said. The detainee was identified as a 46-year-old native of Tajikistan without registration in Moscow. The police learned that he was a member of the criminal group involved in human trafficking. "A criminal case was opened for the illegal deprivation of freedom [Article 127 of the Russian Criminal Code]," Mikhailova said. A police source told Interfax earlier that a 46-year-old resident of the Lipetsk region was caught in southwestern Moscow while trying to sell two 24-year-old natives of Uzbekistan. The detainee told the police he was selling the girls as prostitutes. The criminal case was opened on Saturday, and the suspect was in custody pending trial, the source said. (Interfax)

Tehran accuses Baku of helping Israeli agents murder Iranian nuclear physicists
13 February
Azeri ambassador to Tehran Javanshir Ahundov was summoned to the Iranian Foreign Ministry last weekend where he was handed a protest note against Baku assisting agents of Israeli special services, the official Iranian media reported on Monday. The Iranian authorities believe that Azerbaijan helped the Israelis who had organized the assassination of several Iranian nuclear physicists return home. Tehran thinks these people returned to Israel via Azerbaijan after completing their missions. At the Foreign Ministry, Ahundov was told Azerbaijan must stop Israeli spies from using its territory to conduct operations against Iran. (Interfax)

Turkmenistan and Afghanistan interested in speeding up TAPI pipeline project
26 January
The construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline was one of the of the main issues in negotiations on Wednesday between Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who was paying a working visit to Turkmenistan. During the meeting, which was held in the seaside city of Turkmenbasy (formerly Krasnovodsk), it was noted that the realization of this massive energy project, which was initiated by Turkmenistan, would be significant for all involved parties, primarily Afghanistan. The pipeline with directly help stimulate the Afghan economy, raise investment, solve social issues, including employment, which would have a positive effect on stabilization in the country. According to the project's feasibility study, the 1,735-kilometer TAPI pipeline will run from eastern Turkmenistan, where major gas fields are located, across Afghanistan and Pakistan to the town of Fazilka in India on the Pakistani-Indian border. The gas pipeline will have an annual gas handling capacity of over 30 billion cubic meters. Among the priority areas for intergovernmental partnership are operations in electricity. In this context, Karzai thanked Berdimuhamedow for Turkmenistan's efforts in boosting electricity supply to Afghanistan. (Interfax)

Kyrgyzstan to get 1 mln tonnes of fuel and lubricants from Russia, duty-free in 2012
12 January
Russia is expected to ship 1 million tonnes of fuel and lubricants to Kyrgyzstan, duty-free, the head of Kyrgyzstan's Oil Traders Association, Zhumakadyr Akeneyev, told Interfax. "Kyrgyzstan's estimates its need in fuel this year at 1.15 million tonnes. Russia was prepared to provide 650,000 tonnes. The parties agreed on 1 million tonnes in talks," he said. Akeneyev also said that the Association and the Agriculture and Land Reclamation Ministry are expected to sign a deal on fuel supplies needed to run the spring sowing campaign. Russia and Kyrgyzstan signed an indefinite agreement on duty-free shipments of fuel and lubricants in March 2010 and they have only been adjusting the figures since then. Russia is the main supplier of petroleum products to Kyrgyzstan. Another 5%-7% arrives from Kazakhstan. (Interfax)

Democratic Party should remain leader in Turkmenistan’s future multi-party system –Berdimuhamedov
16 December
A multi-party system may be created in Turkmenistan in the near future, but the Democratic Party, which is currently the only party in the country, should remain the leader, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow said. Turkmenistan's Democratic Party, "which is a big political force, should be a leader in everything," Berdimuhamedow said. In his congratulatory address to the people of Turkmenistan on the 20th anniversary of the country's only party, the president reiterated that ideological work among different population groups remains the main task of this political organization. The text of the address was published in the Turkmen press on Friday. "The Democratic Party, which has now become an active public force involved in the solution of major state and public policy issues, plays the main role in the propaganda and explanation of state policies," the president said. Outlining the party's priorities, Berdimuhamedow reiterated that "the party should conduct consistent explanatory work among the population together with other public organizations, revealing to the people the meaning and significance of public policy, which has great goals, the programs, which are aimed at ensuring a decent life for the country and its people." "You should actively use all of your methods to promote the development and strengthening of Turkmen society in the era of the new Renaissance and great changes," Berdimuhamedow said. Berdimuhamedow wished his comrades to always follow the principles of democracy in the development of Turkmen society. (Interfax)

Karzai pardons imprisoned afghan rape victim
1 December
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has pardoned an Afghan woman serving a 12-year prison sentence for adultery after being a victim of rape. Karzai's office released a statement saying the woman and her attacker agreed to marry.
The Associated Press reports that would reverse an earlier decision by the woman, who had previously refused a judge's offer of freedom if she agreed to wed the rapist. It is not clear how long the woman has been in jail. The BBC reports that her child had been serving her sentence with her. Rights groups say hundreds of women jailed in Afghanistan are victims of rape and/or domestic violence. (RFE/RL)            

BUlgaria, Azerbaijan confirm gas deal
16 November
Azerbaijan will make good on commitments to supply Bulgaria with 1 billion cubic meters of gas per year, Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov said this week. Appearing with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev Monday in Baku, Parvanov said the two countries are ready to make official a deal struck last year to supply that from Azeri gas fields in the Caspian Sea, the Sofia News Agency reported. The agreement could serve as an example to the European Union how to successfully negotiate energy deals with Azerbaijan as the EU strives to diversify its natural gas supplies from Russia. "Bulgaria has its place of being a pro-active factor in these energy relations that can overtake the relations between the EU and Azerbaijan with the realization of some of the initiatives that we started long ago," Parvanov said. Calling the agreement a "small breakthrough," he said it could eventually be of great significance and lead to much more sizable deals in the "southern corridor," including the ambitious Nabucco pipeline proposal and smaller projects to connect Azerbaijani supplies with European customers. The Sofia-Baku agreement, which is separate from the ongoing negotiations on the EU-sponsored Nabucco pipeline, to which Bulgaria is also a party, could serve "to demonstrate to Europe how things can be done," Parvanov asserted. The news agency said current plans call for the gas to flow into Bulgaria via Georgia, Turkey and Greece once gas network interconnections between Bulgaria and Greece are ready.

S. Ossetia views EuroParliament’s resolution on Georgia an example of double standards
18 November
The European Parliament's resolution on Georgia, in which South Ossetia and Abkhazia are described as occupied Georgian territories, does not have any significance to these republics, South Ossetian parliamentary speaker Mira Tskhovrebova told Interfax on Friday. "The resolution does not reflect the current historical and political realities in the Caucasus. The European Parliament is continuing its policy of double standards - if things have been different, then why has a similar resolution not been passed on Kosovo? However, Kosovo's sovereignty meets the interests of the European countries, but in the case of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the European parliamentarians just once again supported the interests of Georgia as their ally and mouthpiece of their interests in the region," Tskhovrebova said. South Ossetia and Abkhazia are recognized independent countries, and the European Parliament's resolution cannot affect their status and the geopolitical situation in the Caucasus, she said. The European Parliament's resolution on Georgia passed on Thursday, in particular, calls on Russia to pull its troops out of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and urges the European Union to recognize South Ossetia and Abkhazia as occupied Georgian territories. (Interfax)