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KABUL (TCA) — The Taliban has rejected Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani’s call for the group to take part in the upcoming parliamentary and district council elections in the country, TOLOnews reported. Continue reading
DUSHANBE (TCA) — As authorities in Tajikistan have been persecuting the opposition, Turkey has been used by self-exiled Tajik opposition figures as a relatively safe haven, but the situation there has changed for the worse. We are republishing this article on the issue by Umar Farooq*, originally published by Eurasianet: There was a time when Turkey felt like a safe haven for victims of political repression in Tajikistan. But the threat of attacks by groups like Islamic State and a state of emergency declared after a July 2016 coup attempt have changed all that. As well as embarking on a wave of arrests that put almost 50,000 Turkish nationals behind bars, the government has diluted the protections once afforded to foreign dissidents. Moreover, informal connivance among governments has eased the process of casting out unwanted elements. Over several days in early February, a group of officials with the Tajik consulate in Istanbul dropped by a teahouse to try and cajole the owner, 55-year-old Numonjon Sharipov, into returning to Tajikistan. Sharipov had every reason to resist the overtures. He had fled to Turkey in 2015, following a crackdown on the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan, IRPT, of which he was a prominent member. In August that year, the Tajik government banned the opposition party, which lost its only two seats in parliament in dirty elections a few months earlier. The bulk of the party leadership were then arrested and subsequently sentenced to lengthy prison terms. And then on the evening of February 5, as Sharipov was strolling past his teahouse with two friends, he was stopped by police and asked for identification papers. After detecting a purported irregularity, police took Sharipov to a detention facility in Istanbul’s Kumkapi district. Sharipov’s friends quickly called a lawyer, Sinan Berge. “All the police would say at first was that Sharipov was wanted by Tajikistan on terrorism charges,” Berge said. After further quizzing, police finally admitted Sharipov had been assigned a special security designation, G-87. This label is usually reserved for individuals who pose an imminent security threat, like members of the Islamic State group, which has been blamed for killing hundreds of civilians in Turkey. “Once they put that code on a person, police told me, we cannot do anything else. We cannot get more information on the reasons behind it and lawyers cannot file a case to stop the deportation,” Berge said. In the week that followed, Berge pursued various legal ploys to halt the deportation. Authorities complicated his quest by moving Sharipov to another detention facility while holding his passport at yet another location, making it difficult for the lawyer even to register as counsel. This ruse is a common practice, says Berge, who was forced to rely on assurances from immigration officers. “I told them not to send him to Tajikistan, because he is a political opponent and he will be in danger there,” he said. A glimmer of hope appeared on February 16, when a senior immigration official told Berge...
BISHKEK (TCA) — The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is installing 125 new road signs and street maps to improve the tourism experience in Kyrgyzstan. The tourist signs will help visitors to navigate through cities and trekking routes, and show directions to major tourist attractions. This initiative is a part of USAID’s Business Growth Initiative project, which works to strengthen the tourism sector in the country, the US Embassy in Kyrgyzstan said. Continue reading
KABUL (TCA) — Afghanistan’s power utility company Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS) says that two big solar energy projects will be built in the country’s eastern Nangarhar province with the help of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), TOLOnews reports. Continue reading
ASTANA (TCA) — The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on Kazakh authorities to dismiss criminal defamation suits against two popular independent media outlets and their journalists, RFE/RL reports. Continue reading
ALMATY (TCA) — American Space Almaty, an initiative of the U.S. Mission in Kazakhstan, organized the first ever Maker Faire in Central Asia on April 14. U.S. Ambassador George Krol opened the festival with welcome remarks. Continue reading
