Turkmenistan Gas Congress 2012

23 – 24 May 2012, Arzuv Hotel, Avaza, Turkmenistan

Event Newsletter 5 – 17/04/2012

TAPI Meeting to be held at TGC 2012

The steering committee of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline has scheduled their next meeting under the umbrella of the TGC 2012 Congress in Avaza.

Minister of India to lead a 16 strong delegation to TGC 2012

S. Jaipal Reddy, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas of the Republic of India will lead a 16 strong delegation of representatives from the Ministry and Indian National Gas Company GAIL to TGC in 2012. Continue reading

U.S. EMBASSY SPONSORS ANTI-DRUG DANCE FESTVIAL IN DUSHANBE

Dushanbe, Tajikistan, April 16, 2012 – The International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) section of the U.S. Embassy and local partner NGO Dast ba Dast organized an anti-drug themed dance festival at the Mayakovski Theatre in Dushanbe on April 8, 2012. Over the last three months, NGO Dast ba Dast recruited choreographers to assist students develop dances representing successful battles against drug addiction. Each school presented a different interpretive dance that reflected the harmful nature of drug use and the joys of life without drugs. This project also established six sustainable dance clubs in Dushanbe.

The goal of the festival was to raise awareness about the dangers of drugs and to develop healthy extra-curricular activities for students. A total of 120 schoolchildren aged 12-17 from six Dushanbe schools participated in the festival. Following the event, Dast ba Dast donated equipment to the dance clubs. Articles about the project activities and drug issues in Tajikistan were published, and five radio programs were aired on Radio Vatan, raising awareness of drug problems and advertising the festival. Continue reading

DUSHANBE AMERICAN CORNER RELOCATES TO THE NEW NATIONAL LIBRARY

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U.S. Ambassador Ken Gross today took part in the re-opening ceremony of the Dushanbe American Corner at the new National Library. The National Library director and staff, local government officials, NGO leaders, university rectors, teachers, and students participated in the event.

The original American Corner Dushanbe opened its doors in 2005 and was located in the Academy of Science. During the ceremony, Ambassador Gross explained, “As the number of visitors to the American Corner grew and our programs became more successful, a larger space was needed. We were delighted when the Government of Tajikistan agreed to house our American Corner in the beautiful new National Library.”   Continue reading

Musical Geographies of Central Asia, University of London, 16-18 May

Middle East and Central Asia Music Forum, Institute of Musical
Research, School of Advanced Study, University of London
in association with the School of Oriental and African Studies and the
Aga Khan Music Initiative, Aga Khan Trust for Culture

Musical Geographies of Central Asia
International Conference and Concert

Keynote speaker: Professor Theodore Levin (Dartmouth College)

Convened by Saida Daukeyeva (IMR) and Rachel Harris (SOAS)

Wednesday, 16th to Friday, 18th May 2012
Chancellor’s Hall, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU Continue reading

Jazz Caravan in Bishkek Again!

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The spring again invites  jazz to the capital of Kyrgyzstan. Public fund «Central Asia Arts  Management» is excited to announce that from 13th to 15th of April, 2012, in the big hall of  the Kyrgyz National Philharmonic named after T.Satylganov will hold an annual, traditional, the Seventh International Bishkek Jazz  Festival “Jazz_Bishkek_Spring”

The 7th International Jazz Festival will be presented by   both well-known and young jazz musicians from Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, the United States, Germany,Austria, Switzerland, Norway and Turkey. Continue reading

The real secret history of the Mongols?

Thank god for steppe hyper-patriarchy; it’s a model which we can test. Dienekes points me to a paper, The Y-chromosome C3* star-cluster attributed to Genghis Khan’s descendants is present at high frequency in the Kerey clan from Kazakhstan, which is notable for increasing sample coverage of the distribution of “Genghis Khan haplotype.” As you might recall in 2003 a paper reported that a particular Y-chromosomal phylogeny was extremely common in Central Eurasia, and, that it had expanded rather rapidly starting approximately ~1,000 years ago. The natural supposition was that this was connected to the rise of Genghis Khan, from whom male-line descent in particular has become a matter of pride and prestige across the former domains under his rule. Subsequent researchers have supported this finding insofar as the distribution of the haplotype does tend to drop off among the “Western Mongols,” who were for various reasons marginal during the time of Genghis Khan, and whose ruling class were subsequently diminished in part due to their lack of a Genghiside pedigree. Continue reading

Vienna’s Burgkino hosts Kazakhstan Film Days

The Kazakhstan Film Days are being held at one of the main theaters in Vienna, Burgkino. Both residents and visitors of the Austrian capital had a chance to see Kazakh movies on a big screen for the first time ever. There were two films by Rustem Abdrashov, «The sky of my childhood» and «The Gift to Stalin», the «Birzhan Sal» historical and romantic drama and the film directed by Farhat Sharipov called «A Tale of the Pink Hare». The event was part of the «Together for a Safer World» charity campaign. All funds raised during the campaign will help children undergoing treatment at the Hematology Department at the Semei Medical Center. This grand mission was organized by the Kazakhstan Student Society in Austria, powered by the Embassy of Kazakhstan and the Shaken Aimanov Kazakhfilm studio. The Kazakhstan Film Days in Austria began with the screening of «The sky of my childhood» film.

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Niamh Walsh, Senior Advisor, Office of Secretary General at OSCE, says:

“The movie was beautiful. It was enthralling from the moment we saw the planes of Kazakhstan until the very end I was totally mesmerized and I’m Irish by nationality and I have to say that a lot of it reminded me of how Irish people live as well, that family is very important and that you always welcome strangers and outsiders into your home. And I have to say, the young boy deserves an Oscar, he was fantastic.”

Philippe Ternes, from Luxembourg, says:

“I was also really surprised, especially about the music which I found was really cheerful and very peaceful.” Continue reading

EBRD buys into Kazakh wheat

Isabel Gorst, Financial Times Blogs, Mar 29, 2012_200ebrd001


Kazakhstan is well known as an emerging oil power with a growing role in meeting the world’s energy needs. Less well known is the central Asian country’s huge agricultural potential and ability to contribute to global food security.

Against a backdrop of rising world wheat prices, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has chosen Kazakhstan as the destination for its first ever equity investment in farming.

In a statement on Thursday the EBRD said it had spent $45m on a 13 per cent stake in KazExportAstyk, Kazakhstan’s third biggest grain producer and its biggest producer of oil seeds. Continue reading