Bishkek - The Times Of Central Asia

Viewing results 1 - 6 of 50

Tension Spills Into Streets of Bishkek After Fight Involving Foreigners

Police in riot gear deployed in part of Kyrgyzstan’s capital overnight as large crowds gathered in anger over an alleged fight between local and foreign people which was widely circulated on social media. The Kyrgyz government later reported that 28 people, including three foreigners had been injured in the incident, whilst four foreign citizens were arrested for incitement. The crowds milled around some intersections of Bishkek for hours before dispersing early Saturday, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs said the situation was stable. Riot police cordoned off areas where the mobs had gathered and negotiated with the protesters in order to head off any further confrontations. The incident appeared to reflect tension over the presence in Kyrgyzstan of migrants. Kyrgyzstan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs is taking steps to tighten monitoring and penalties for foreigners who violate immigration laws, Kaktus Media reported. The fight which led to the wider conflagration happened at a hostel on May 13. Rumors spread on social media, and a video showing Kyrgyz students fighting with medical students from Egypt went viral. People started gathering on Friday night to show their dissatisfaction with what they said was the lax treatment of foreigners involved in the fight. However, police said three foreigners were detained on suspicion of hooliganism, the AKIpress news outlet reported. It said the suspects appeared in a video, apologizing for the fight and saying they would accept their punishment. “All measures were taken in a timely manner, they were detained, legal measures will be taken against them,” said Azamat Toktonaliev, head of Bishkek´s Internal Affairs Directorate. He told AKIpress that Kyrgyz citizens were invited to testify as witnesses and were not detained. Kyrgyzstan has expressed concern about the plight of some of its own citizens who travel to Russia in search of employment and have faced official scrutiny and sporadic harassment there. In the wake of the violence, diplomatic delegations from Pakistan and India have advised their students in Bishkek to stay indoors.

Environment Bishkek Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan: US Embassy publishes Bishkek air quality data

BISHKEK (TCA) — In observation of the United States’ Air Quality Awareness Week and in cooperation with the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic, the Embassy of the United States in Bishkek installed a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-approved air quality monitor at the Embassy complex, the Embassy said on May 3. Continue reading

Economy Urban development Environment Bishkek Energy Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan: Governments change but the environmental problems remain

BISHKEK (TCA) — Kyrgyzstan’s capital Bishkek is gradually turning from one of the greenest cities of the former Soviet Union into a gassed and smoggy one. The public outrage intensifies in cold seasons, when a shroud of smog covers Bishkek, and subsides in spring. The Government and state agencies regularly make decisions to improve the environmental situation in the capital but it is getting worse every year. Continue reading

Government Bishkek Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan: new Bishkek mayor elected

BISHKEK (TCA) — A new mayor of Kyrgyzstan’s capital, Bishkek, has been elected by the city council amid protests by civil activists. Continue reading

Kyrgyzstan Bishkek Government

Mayor of Kyrgyzstan’s capital gets no-confidence vote

BISHKEK (TCA) — City council members of the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, decided unanimously to remove Mayor Albek Ibraimov in a no-confidence vote on July 13 while he was on vacation. The move came a week after Ibraimov’s deputy, Renat Makenov, was arrested on charges of abusing his power. In a video message on July 13, Ibraimov called the vote of no-confidence expressed by the City Council a political order, 24.kg information agency reported. The mayor said that he learned about the meeting of the capital’s council members too late, as he was on a three-day trip in the mountains. “The decision of the City Council is a political order,” he said. According to the Law on the Status of the Capital, in case of vote of no-confidence in the mayor of the capital city, Kyrgyzstan’s Prime Minister has the right to decide whether to dismiss the mayor or disagree with the decision of the city council, 24.kg reports. Ibraimov, who was Bishkek mayor since 2016, is a close ally of Kyrgyzstan's former President Almazbek Atambayev, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports. Former prime ministers Jantoro Satybaldiev and Sapar Isakov, who served during Atambayev's tenure, were arrested last month in a corruption case. In April, President Sooronbai Jeenbekov fired several of Atambayev’s allies, including Prosecutor-General Indira Joldubaeva and the head of the State Committee for National Security, Abdil Segizbaev. The pressure put by authorities on Atambayev's allies is seen as evidence of a rift between Atambayev and Jeenbekov, an ex-prime minister who was tapped by Atambayev as his favored successor in Kyrgyzstan's October 2017 presidential election but has clashed with his former boss in recent months. Atambayev, who was limited to a single six-year term by the constitution, initially kept a low profile after leaving office in November. Following his election as head of the ruling Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan on March 31, however, he has publicly criticized Jeenbekov.

Bishkek Kyrgyzstan Energy Transport Environment

Kyrgyzstan: green activists sound alarm over air pollution in Bishkek

BISHKEK (TCA) — Environmentalists are asking the President of Kyrgyzstan to declare 2019 the year of ecology. This was announced at the recent roundtable on air pollution problems in the capital Bishkek. Parliament members, representatives of the Achyk Asman (Clean Air) youth environmental movement, civil society, and the media took part in the discussions. It is encouraging that industrial production is developing in the country, mainly at small enterprises, but they often do not take into account environmental aspects. The State usually draws attention to the environment only when problems arise, Achyk Asman head Ermek Adylbekov said. Kyrgyzstan remains among the seldom countries in the world where nature is still relatively well preserved. It would be a big mistake of the Government and an irreparable loss for the nation if the environment deteriorates as a result of human negligence and mismanagement, MP Dastan Bekeshev said. Kyrgyzstan is an agrarian country. But even the development of agriculture leads to a deterioration of the ecological situation in the country. Incorrect cultivation of arable land, introduction of pesticides, outdated irrigation and drainage systems, which have not been updated since Soviet times – all this negatively affects the ecological situation in Kyrgyzstan, Bekeshev said. The MP also expressed outrage at the way the country uses clean water. "We mindlessly use drinking water spending it for washing cars and other things," he said. Cutting trees The Bishkek authorities are massively cutting trees, which leads to environmental degradation in the city, said the head of the Green Party movement Erkin Bulekbaev. In 2017, about three thousand trees were cut down for the expansion of roads, which caused discontent from environmentalists and local residents. Bishkek authorities explained that the firewood was given to poor families, as well as the felled trees were sold and the money has been spent for the city’s needs. Last year, 2,938 trees were felled in Bishkek, of which 840 trees were in emergency, the city administration clarified. However, residents and activists suspected city officials of corrupt sales of timber for their own benefit. Environmentalists believe that mass tree cutting will affect the ecology and health of Bishkek residents. According to the city administration, instead of cut down trees they planted more than 10,000 seedlings. However, most of those seedlings did not take root. No matter how many trees are planted, this will not change anything, because the problem is in the competence and professionalism of the city officials, well-known environmental scientist Emil Shukurov said. Landscapers kill the environment, primarily by their incompetence, he added. Many of the imported seedlings could not accommodate to local natural conditions, because they are designed for another environment, he explained. The trees bought by the city administration are dozens of times more expensive than local trees, so they cannot afford to landscape the whole city, but some specific areas only. All trees in the city grew out of ordinary seedlings. This means that previous landscapers knew how to grow them, while the current ones do not cope...