DUSHANBE, August 1, 2014, Asia-Plus:

 

July1                            By government’s decree electricity prices in Tajikistan rose 15 percent beginning on July 1 this year.  Current electricity prices of one kWh of electricity are 12.60 dirams for residential customers, 30.60 dirams for industrial and non-industrial enterprises, 12.20 dirams for federally funded institutions, public utilities and sports complexes, 8.20 dirams for electrical transport, and 2.20 dirams for reclamation vertical wells and water pumping stations.  Meanwhile, the price of one kWh of electricity for the Tajik Aluminum Plant (TALCO) is 7.20 dirams for the period from May 1 to September 30 and 11.80 dirams for the period from October 1 to April 30.  The price of one kWh of electricity for water supply pumps, pumping irrigation and maintenance-and-production bases of the Agency of Land Reclamation and Irrigation under the Government of Tajikistan is 2.20 dirams for the period from April 1 to September 30 and 8.20 dirams for the period from October 1 to March 31.  

 

July 1-3                        - Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Aslov paid a working visit to the United Kingdom.  Tajik foreign minister reportedly held talks with high-ranking British state officials to discuss issues related the state and prospects of further expansion of bilateral cooperation between Tajikistan and the United Kingdom.  The situation around Alexander Sodiqov, an academic researcher arrested in Tajikistan, was discussed at a meeting of Aslov with about 20 MPs, assorted lords and ladies, and invited members of the public that took place in the House of Lords on July 2.  

 

July 3                           - A conference of representatives of Tajik and Kazakh business communities took place in Dushanbe.  The event was organized by Kazakhstan’s National Export and Investment Agency KAZNEX Invest and Ministry of Industry and New Technologies in cooperation with Tajikistan’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI).  Kazakh delegation members included representatives of more than 20 exporting companies and the Ministry of Industry and New Technologies.

 

July 4                           - Tajik Defense Minister Sherali Mirzo attended a meeting of the Council of Defense Ministers of the CIS member nations that took place in Astana, Kazakhstan.  Some 20 issues related to military and technical cooperation between the CIS member nations were discussed;

                                   - Tajik Defense Minister Sherali Mirzo met with his Russian counterpart Sergey Shoigu in Astana on the sidelines of the CIS defense ministers’ meeting.  Issues related to the Russian military base deployed in Tajikistan were a major topic of the meeting;  

July                             - Abdusalom Qurbonov, Minister of Finance of the Republic of Tajikistan and Peter Mikula, Director of Swiss Cooperation in Tajikistan signed three agreements on granting financial and technical assistance for the implementation of three projects in the field of water resources management and urban and rural safe drinking water: 1) National Water Resources Management project with the lifetime of four years totals to over USD 8 million; 2) Rural Water Supply and Sanitation project in Fergana Valley worth over USD 5 million; and 3) additional funding of the ongoing 2nd Phase of Tajikistan Water Supply and Sanitation project worth around USD 6 million.   

 

July 5                           - By government’s decree top managers of the Tajik power holding, Barqi Tojik,  were replaced.

 

July 7-8                        - Working groups of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan gathered in the Tajik northern city of Qairoqqum to discuss a draft government-to-government agreement between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan on use of border roads.

 

July 8                           - Tajik President Emomali Rahmon met in Dushanbe with visiting head of Switzerland’s Federal Department of Finance (the Swiss finance minister), Ms. Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf.  The sides discussed state and prospects of further expansion of bilateral cooperation between Tajikistan and Switzerland.  Issues related to trade and economic cooperation and investment were reportedly a major topic of the meeting.

 

July 9               - The popular video-sharing website YouTube was partially blocked in Tajikistan again.  Internet Service Providers (ISPs) Saturn Online, Babilon T, Megafon Tajikistan, Telecom Technology, Tcell and some others reportedly blocked access to YouTube following a verbal instruction from the communications service agency.  Meanwhile, the Communications Service under the Government of Tajikistan says it has nothing to do with the situation.

 

July 10             - Tajik-Kyrgyz commission for delimitation and demarcation of disputed areas of mutual border met in the Tajik northern city of Isfara.  Co-chaired by Tajik Deputy Prime Minister Murodali Alimardon and Kyrgyz Deputy Prime Minister Abdyrakhman Mamataliyev, the meeting reportedly discussed the issue of construction of the roads Isfara-Vorukh and Koktash-Aksai-Tamdyk-Kishemish;

- One Tajik national was killed and seven others were injured by Kyrgyz border guards who fired their guns near Tajikistan''s Vorukh exclave, which is surrounded by the territory of Kyrgyzstan;

                        - President Emomali Rahmon convened a meeting of senior representatives of power-wielding and law enforcement structures at the Kokhi Vahdat State Complex in Dushanbe. The meeting was held within the framework of his participation in an enlarged meeting of the Board of the Prosecutor-General’s Office.  Speaking at the meeting, Emomali Rahmon reportedly touched upon issues related to providing national security and problems of involvement of officers of power-wielding structures in crime.

 

July 11                         - Tajik-Kyrgyz talks on resolving a border conflict resumed in Tajikistan''s northern town of Qairoqqum.  Tajik Deputy Prime Minister Murodali Alimardon and his Kyrgyz counterpart, Abdyrakhman Mamataliyev, agreed that a joint Tajik-Kyrgyz commission will investigate recent violence near Tajikistan’s Vorukh exclave.

 

July 14                         - Senior representatives of power-wielding structures of Tajikistan’s Sughd province and Kyrgyzstan’s Batken region met in the Tajik northern city of Isfara to discuss cooperation in providing peace and stability in border areas of the two countries.  The sides reached an agreement not to use weapons in case of conflict situation or an unforeseen contingency.

 

July 15                         - Police in Russia''s second-largest city, St. Petersburg, arrested Tajik citizen Ikrom Davronov, 24, who is wanted in Tajikistan for alleged participation in the activities of the Islamic Party of Turkestan (ITP).

 

July 15-18         - The task force of the Ministry of Defense of Tajikistan (MoD), led by Colonel Ilhom Aliyev, participated in military exercises of Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) member nations in Russia.  Units from the CSTO''s Collective Rapid Reaction Force (KSOR) conducted joint tactical exercises at the Chebarkul training ground in Russia’s Chelyabinsk oblast.  The exercise, dubbed Rubezh-2014 (Frontier-2014), included units from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan.

 

July 16                         - Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Aslov attended the fifth meeting of the Central Asia plus Japan Dialogue foreign ministers that took place in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

 

July 17                         - Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Aslov met in Bishkek with Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev on the sidelines of the fifth meeting of the Central Asia plus Japan Dialogue foreign ministers.  The sides discussed a number of issues related to state and prospects of further expansion of bilateral cooperation between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

 

July 18                         - Some Internet service providers in Tajikistan blocked access to the popular Russian social-networking site Odnoklassniki.ru.  According to Asomuddin Atoyev, the chairman of Tajikistan''s Association of Internet Service Providers, the access to the site was blocked following instruction from the state communications service agency. 

 

July 21                         - By government’s regulation Tajik national air carrier, Tajik Air, and Dushanbe International Airport (DIA) merged and Rustam Kholiqov has been appointed to head this new structure.  The government reportedly merged the companies for the purpose of ensuring an efficient management of financial and economic activity of Tajik Air.  Until 2008, Tajik Air had an absolute monopoly in Tajikistan’s air transport, owning all planes, airports, and airport and flight services.  As a result of restructuring, Tajik Air was split up into several separate companies;    

                        - Tajik President Emomali Rahmon received the Federal Minister of Water and Power of Pakistan, Khawaja Muhammad Asif.  The sides discussed issues related to bilateral cooperation between Tajikistan and Pakistan in the field of energy.  A special attention was reportedly paid to the Central Asia South Asia Electricity Transmission and Trade Project (CASA 1000), which is expected to be completed before 2017;

- The Khujand city court sentenced three local women to various jail terms.  Two of them were sentenced to 9 and 8 years in prison respectively.  The sentence followed their conviction on charges of human trafficking (Article 130 (2) of Tajikistan’s Penal Code).  The third woman, charged with not reporting crime to police (Article 347 (2) of Tajikistan’s Penal Code), was sentenced to one year in prison.  They were attempting to traffic two local young women to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).  They promised the women jobs with good salary, but the women they recruited were actually intended for UAE brothels; 

                                   - Shuhrat Qudratov, a lawyer for jailed ex-Minister of Industry Zayd Saidov, was detained in Dushanbe on bribe-related charges.  

 

July 22                         - A large fire in the southern city of Kulob destroyed 46 shops and kiosks at a local bazaar and damaged dozens of others.  Some 480 square meters of the bazaar were damaged overall.  There were no casualties;

                                   - Detained Tajik researcher Alexander Sodiqov was released from jail after spending 36 days in pretrial detention in Dushanbe.  Sodiqov was requested not to leave Dushanbe while an investigation into his case continues.  Sodiqov, 31, a Tajik national residing in Canada, was detained in Khorog on June 16, shortly after speaking with civil society activists there.  He was later charged with high treason and spying.

 

July 23                         - Tajikistan launched a new social-networking site that is expected to become an alternative to the Russian site odnoklassniki.ru, which had been inaccessible to many in Tajikistan since July 18.  Ghanijon Salomzoda, the founder of the new site, vipnet.tj, told journalists that it prohibits the publication of extremist materials and the use of foul language.  The site also prohibits “the uploading of materials violating Tajik traditions,” as well as videos and photos that “violate Islamic legislation,” and materials violating copyright law.  

 

July 23-26         - A delegation of China Foundation for Peace and Development (CFPD) paid a working visit to Tajikistan.  Led by Mr. Yu Xiaoxuan, Deputy Secretary-General of CFPD, the delegation visited Tajikistan at the invitation of Tajikistan’s ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP).  While in Dushanbe, members of the CFPD delegation held talks with senior representatives of PDP, the Ministry of Education and Science, the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, and the Ministry of Labor, Migration and Employment of the Population to discuss cooperation issues.

 

July 25             - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) announced that it is providing a $50 million loan to fund the first phase of the modernization of the Qairoqqum hydropower plant in northern Tajikistan.  The project is EBRD’s largest in Tajikistan to date.  Built in 1957, the Qairoqqum plant is the only electricity generating facility in northern Tajikistan and supplies energy to over 500,000 homes in the Sughd Province.  The total cost of the modernization project is approximately $75.7 million.

 

July 26-28         A meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council of National Coordinators was held in Dushanbe.  Presided over by the Tajik side, the meeting discussed issues related to preparations for a SCO summit and other events, including the SCO foreign ministers’ meeting.

 

July 29                         - The Secretary-General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Dmitry Mezentsev arrived in Tajikistan ahead of a meeting of the organization.  He held talks with Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Aslov in Dushanbe .  The sides reportedly discussed issues related to joint efforts against terrorism, separatism, and illegal drug trafficking.

 

July 30                         - Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived in Tajikistan on official visits.  During their visits, Sergei Lavrov and Wang Yi met separately top Tajik state officials;

                                   - A court in the Vanj district of the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region sentenced Saodatsho Adolatov, the head of the Islamic Revival Party (IRP)’s organization in GBAO, to five years in prison.  The sentence followed his conviction on charges of incitement of religious enmity (Article 189 of Tajikistan’s Penal Code);

                                   - A joint military exercise for servicemen of military unit 07746 deployed in northern Tajikistan and local reserve officers was conducted at the training ground in the Choruk-Daron area near Khujand, the capital of Sughd province. The purpose of the exercise that reportedly involved 385 reservists was to retrain reservists in order to improve their combat skills.

 

July 31                         - Tajik President Emomali Rahmon received visiting foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member nations;

                                   - A meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the SCO member nations took place in Dushanbe.  The meeting participants discussed a broad range of issues related to further expansion of cooperation within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO); 

                                   - Tajik President Emomali Rahmon received visiting commander of the United States Central Command (CENTCOM), Lloyd James Austin III.  The sides reportedly discussed issues related to bilateral cooperation between Tajikistan and the United States in the fields of security and defense as well as in providing regional security.