Author: popcorn563

Realtor Turkey took its place at the International Real Estate Investment Fair held in Almaty, Kazakhstan on 24-25 June, as it has been for years. Many investors and many companies providing real estate services participated in the two-day fair. The fair has a very important place in terms of bringing real estate investors together with companies. It was seen that the participation and interest in this fair, where innovations and developments were exhibited, was quite high, as in previous fairs. Realtor Turkey Real Estate Chairman of the Board Anıl Ulaş Övençoğlu said in his statement that in line with the…

DUSHANBE — A prosecutor has asked a court in Dushanbe to convict and sentence Tajik blogger Abdusattor Pirmuhammadzoda to seven years in prison on extremism charges that he and his supporters reject. A relative of Pirmuhammadzoda told RFE/RL on December 19 that the prosecutor made his request as the trial, which started in October, resumed last week at the Ismoili Somoni district court in Dushanbe. A representative of the court refused to give any details to RFE/RL, saying that the judge involved in the trial was not available for comment. Pirmuhammadzoda’s lawyer also refused to talk to RFE/RL. In an…

Kazakhstan’s reform efforts after the recent presidential elections could position the country as a key partner for the EU, with the region increasingly slipping out from Russia’s thumb. In response to the deadly January protests, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev promised comprehensive political and social change, pushing amendments to the country’s laws, including the constitution, approved by the nationwide referendum, which transferred some powers from the executive branch to the legislature. The early presidential election in November, moved up from the scheduled date in 2024, with Tokayev’s five opponents virtually unknown and none of them scoring double digits faced complaints by the…

Mongolians welcomed in the new year amid an atmosphere thick with disapproval of the government, as officials struggled to extricate themselves from the highly damaging coal mafia affair. Every year, Mongolia’s leaders, including the prime minister, speaker of parliament and president, toast accomplishments of the year gone by and offer best wishes for the coming year. It is mostly a restrained, matter-of-fact affair, with the leaders promising the Mongolian people a brighter future. But this time round, something felt off—the public dissatisfaction with the ruling politicians was all too palpable. A couple of days earlier, on December 29, when the…

Perhaps the first foreign official to arrive in Tashkent in 2023 was the Taliban’s Acting Energy and Water Minister Mullah Abdul Latif Mansour, who traveled north on January 1 and returned to Kabul the next day with an agreement on the export of electricity to Afghanistan from Uzbekistan. It’s been another rough winter for both Uzbekistan and Afghanistan. Agreements made between the two sides may still be upended by the very real fragility of Central Asia’s energy systems — politically and infrastructurally. According to the Taliban government’s Ministry of Energy and Water, Mansour “called solving the electricity problem with Uzbekistan…

On the electricity front, Kyrgyzstan may be reaching the end of the line. Demand is growing relentlessly, and yet the hydropower resources it has relied on historically are yielding diminishing returns. Burning coal is pushing the country deeper into an ecological crisis, as attested to by the black blanket of smog that suffocates the capital, Bishkek, every winter. With those considerations in mind, thoughts have focused ever more on pursuing a nuclear exit. An important stride in that direction was taken at the ATOMEXPO-2022 international forum in the southern Russian city of Sochi, where representatives from the Kyrgyz Energy Ministry…

A man has died in a jail in Tajikistan after allegedly being arrested on drug charges, sparking claims from his relatives that he was tortured to death. Details of what occurred on January 2 have been reported to the wider public by Europe-based journalist Anora Sarkorova and RFE/RL’s Tajik service, Radioi Ozodi. Ozodi cited 36-year-old Abdukakhkhor Rozikov’s relatives as saying that he was detained in the city of Kulob, around 180 kilometers from the capital, Dushanbe, on suspicion of involvement in drug trafficking. Rozikov had previously been sentenced to 12 years in prison on drug charges but was subsequently released…