Tag Archives: Central Asia

Kazakhstan: Heading for the Hills

2 Jun

Yum yum ... horses grazing at Ush Konyr

It’s that time of the year in Kazakhstan when people in years gone by would have made off for the high pastures with their horses, cows and sheep in the annual migration to the rich upland grazing land known as the zhaylau. The summer months would be spent fattening up the animals – and the humans – on the riches in the mountains in preparation for the long, cold winter.

Wild flowers in Ush Konyr

Soviet-era collectivisation put paid to this nomadic existence and few people in modern-day Kazakhstan still follow the wandering traditions, but come the weekend and many city-dwellers still feel the call of the wild and take off to the mountains in their 4x4s for a spot of communing with nature and to get their supper by picking wild mushrooms.

Mushroom mania

Last weekend Kazaxia joined the exodus and visited Ush Konyr, which is easily reached from Almaty – head for President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s home village of Shamalgan and then follow the track that winds steeply up to the 3,000 metre pastures. In no time at all you’re in the rolling grasslands where President Nazarbayev spent his early years. He had such fond memories of this carefree existence that he penned a song about it. See it performed here by Kazakh band MuzArt.

More wild flowers in Ush Konyr

The smog and noise of Almaty feel light years away as you breathe in the clean air and concentrate on foraging for edible mushrooms and admiring the rich covering of wild flowers. You’ll see packs of horses grazing as you hike around and the occasional paraglider taking flight, but not a great deal else will intrude to spoil your peace and quiet.

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Kazakhstan Bank Boss for IMF?

24 May

Lord Venal is back with this contribution on the head of the National Bank of Kazakhstan being put forward for the top spot at the IMF recently vacated by Dominique Strauss-Kahn in controversial circumstances. 

It is no surprise that Grigoriy Marchenko,  a name that is highly respected in international banking circles, has been chosen by that august body the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) as its man for the top job at the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Under his skillful stewardship as head of Kazakhstan’s central bank, this oil-rich nation has successfully rode the choppy waves of the global financial crisis to emerge as a real contender to join the elite GoGUN club.

In the light of the sex scandal that has engulfed the former head of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, many observers feel that a wholesome family guy is needed to fill this key post and who better than Mr Marchenko, who according to this site has already got the job.

Mr Marchenko  has told reporters that he does not plan to bother any maids if he makes it to the hot seat.  I can personally vouch for his good character – last summer I was pottering about the Med in the Venal family pedalo when I spotted some familiar faces on board a splendid-looking yacht.  Some Kazakh bigwigs invited me to join them and we all had a great time partying until the wee small hours. I cannot recall seeing Mr Marchenko on the yacht, in fact I cannot recall much of anything.

Back in the UK, it seems Dave and Nick are backing France’s Christine Lagarde for the post – I really must have a word with them about Grigoriy as I feel he is definitely the right man at the right time.


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Edgy Almaty Art

21 May

Almaty-based artist Justin Mulrooney, who is originally from Ireland, has launched a new website containing two collections of his provocative artwork.

Riverbank

He works in the medium of photograms – photographic images made without using a camera. The image is made by putting an object between a source of light  and paper that is sensitive to light.

O'Connell

Images from the  first collection – Vertebrae – caused a stir among Almaty’s art cognoscenti when exhibited at the Tengri Umai gallery in 2009. The other collection –Maps -is based on his travels around the world.

Athens

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Kazakhstan: Strange Days

18 May

17 May 2011 will go down in the annals of Kazakh history for the dubious distinction of being the day the country had its first suicide bomber and for an unprecedented hailstorm in the commercial hub Almaty.

25-year-old Rakhimzhan Makatov killed himself and injured two others in a blast that targeted the HQ of the KNB, Kazakhstan’s successor to the KGB, in the western city of Aktobe. Officials linked the suicide bombing to organised crime and claimed that Makatov killed himself in order to avoid responsibility for crimes he was alleged to have committed.

In a modus operandi more associated with religious extremists rather than the mafia, early suspicions were that the bomber was acting out of religious convictions, but this announcement by a prosecutor’s office spokesperson served to quash any whiff of links to Islamic radicals. Religious extremism is felt by many to be on the rise in western Kazakhstan.

In the south of the country, there was a massive hailstorm in Almaty which caused damage to trees and parked cars. The intense storm lasted for about 20 minutes and the hailstones were described variously by eye-witnesses as being the size of olives, egg yolks or cherry tomatoes.

The sudden storm was preceded by two days of high temperatures with the mercury touching 32 degrees Celsius on 16 May – temperatures more usually found at the height of summer. The storm caused extensive damage with trees were brought down on some central Almaty streets leaving a number of cars trashed.

Strange days, indeed, in Kazakhstan.

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Save Our Saigas!

11 May

The world’s saiga population has taken a hit in recent years with numbers declining drastically due to poaching but now a new eco-tour to Russia’s southern steppe aims to reverse the trend by bringing people to the region and provide much needed funds to support saiga conservation projects.

                                                       A close-up of a saiga’s snout                                                                                                                (taken from Wikipedia)

The saiga is one of the original steppe-dwellers. This strange-looking antelope with its long, flat snout has been around since wooly mammoths and saber toothed tigers roamed the earth.

Today there are still saiga populations roaming the plains in Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Mongolia. However, their numbers have fallen by around 95% since the early 1990s to below 50,000, leaving the species critically endangered.

Poaching, with saigas targeted for their amber horns, which are used in traditional Chinese medicine, has  led to this huge fall in their numbers. Matters were made worse in 2010 as a mysterious virus wiped out some 12,000 saigas in Kazakhstan.

Now the Saiga Conservation Alliance, UK-based charity which runs  saiga conservation projects in Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, has teamed up with Saga Voyages in Russia to run a 10-day tour starting in late August to see saigas close up in their natural habitat.

Proceeds from the tour will help support the SCA ‘s projects in the region and bring income to rural families.  The cost of the tour – which ranges from $1,275 – $1,600 depending on group size – may be too much for many, but you can still support the work of the SCA by making a donation here.

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Rip-Off Kazakhstan

11 May

This is the first in an occasional series of Rip-Off Kazakhstan (ROK) awards made by Kazaxia to businesses in the country offering poor value-for-money.

Congratulations to Rakhat Fitness in Almaty – the first business in Kazakhstan to receive a ROK award.

With summer just around the corner, this fitness centre has decided to introduce a 50% price hike – previously a monthly 12-visit pass cost 17,000 tenge ($117), now it’s 25,000 tenge ($172) or around $15 per swim.

That might not seem too bad, but for that you are allowed 75 minutes a session to change, shower and swim, and that’s if you’re lucky and there’s room in the pool.

The 50-metre pool is currently under repair and is closed until 22 May so wannabe swimmers will have to fight it out with the water polo teams for a small slice of the 25-metre pool.

The owners can’t be short of a bob or two – the fitness complex was formerly owned by Rakhat Aliyev,  the former husband of Dariga Nazarbayeva, eldest daughter of  President Nursultan  Nazarbayev.  It is rumoured that many of his assets were transferred to his ex-wife, although who  owns the fitness centre is unclear.

Aliyev, who is now living in exile in in Vienna, Austria, was sentenced in absentia  to a 20-year prison term after being found guilty of running a crime ring, abduction, theft and extortion in 2008. In the same year he was sentenced to another 2o years by a  secret military court for

attempting to forcibly seize power, illegally receiving and divulging state secrets, running an organized crime group, theft and illegal possession of firearms, theft of state property and abuse of power

Aliyev was famed in Kazakhstan as a ruthless money-grabber and is seems his legacy lives on with the current owners of Rakhat Fitness continuing to coin it in.

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Kazakhstan: Going for BROKE?

5 May

With Kazakhstan being touted as a future member of GoGUN, as revealed exclusively on Kazaxia by Lord Venal last week, rumours are rife as to which other international groupings the country could be aspiring to.

It has been quite a ride to go from the Group of Babyish States (GoBS) to GoGUN in just 20 years. Admittedly, there were some tough times as the country languished in the limbo of the Group of States Transitioning Internationally (GoSTI), but fortunately those days are now receding rapidly into the dim and distant past.

A few years ago analysts were speculating that Kazakhstan would provide the ‘K’ to turn BRIC (the informal grouping of Brazil, Russia, India and China) into a real word. This never materialised, but now an exciting new bloc is on the agenda – BROKE – which could see Kazakhstan joining forces with the emerging economies of Belarus, Rwanda, Oman and Egypt.

On a similar note, Lord Venal reports overhearing interested parties at a recent diplomatic shindig denying plans for Kazakhstan to join up with Cambodia, Oman and Chad. They also denied that links were being forged with Djibouti, Iran and Columbia. It was suggested by diplomatic insiders that these groupings were more up Kyrgyzstan’s street.

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Kazakhstan: A Young Country on the Threshold of Maturity

29 Apr

Thanks are due once again to Lord Venal who has contributed this opinionated piece to Kazaxia.

This December will see the twentieth anniversary of the epic struggle of Kazakhstan to gain its independence from the Soviet Union. In just 20 short years the country has managed a truly amazing turnaround to become the economic powerhouse of Central Asia and the undisputed champion of democracy in the region.

I feel that it is high time that the world stood up and took notice of these achievements. Kazakhstan, which likes to describe itself as a ‘young country’, should be recognised as the mature country it has bloomed into and inducted into the ranks of GoGUN (The Group of Grown-Up Nations) without any further ado. Then Kazakhstan’s politicians can stop banging on about it being a ‘young country’ and start taking some responsibility for their own actions.

Like any adolescent, Kazakhstan has spent hours in front of the mirror agonising over its image. It has lavished considerable sums on brushing up this image with glossy spreads appearing in international media outlets and is now seen around the world as a maturing, go-ahead nation with a very bright future.

Kazakhstan’s politicians often talk about it being a ‘young country’ but this should not mask the remarkable steps that have taken place in its short lifetime. From inauspicious beginnings, the economic miracle led by President Nursultan Nazarbayev has helped ensure the country’s smooth transition to a market economy.

On the political front there has been unprecedented stability with one leader occupying the highest office in the land for all those 20 years and as the recent elections showed his popularity is in no way diminished after he received an amazing 95.55% of the popular vote in April 2011.

Let’s compare this with other ‘young countries’ that emerged from the ashes of the Soviet Union. If we look at Lithuania we will see it has had a chaotic transition with no less than seven presidents since 1990. One of those, Rolandas Paksas, was impeached and removed from office in 2004. Estonia has fared little better with three presidents thus far.

Kazakhstan is a founder member of the up-and-coming Customs Union with Russia and Belarus, in stark contrast all that Lithuania and Estonia could come up with is membership of the debt-ridden European Union.

Kazakhstan is increasingly being seen as a leader on the world stage. It is lucky for the Organization of the Islamic Conference that Astana will chair this august body from late June. With the Arab world torn asunder by rebellions, Kazakhstan’s valuable experience as head of the OSCE in 2010 will hold it in fine stead here. After successfully dealing with the crisis on its doorstep in Kyrgyzstan last year, there is no better choice to lead the Islamic world on the path to reconciliation and stability.

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Futsal Finals Come to Almaty

26 Apr

Baluan Sholak Sports Palace Almaty - venue for UEFA Futsal Cup finals 2011

Almaty will put itself on the map of international sporting events this weekend as it hosts the  UEFA Futsal Cup finals. It’s the first time ever that Kazakhstan has been chosen to host the finals of a UEFA tournament.

Local favourites Kairat Almaty will face off with Sporting Clube de Portugal on April29. Later that day SL Benfica, also from Portugal, will take on Italy’s  ASD Città di Montesilvano C/5. The winners of these two games will battle it out in the final on May 1.

Futsal is basically five-a-side football played in an indoor arena. The match consists of two halves of 20 minutes and unlimited substitutions are allowed at any time from a pool of 12 players.

Kairat are a force to be reckoned with in Futsal – it has made the semi-finals of this annual  tournament three times since 2006. Kazakh midfielder Dinmukhambet Suleimenov is confident that Kairat, which has eight Brazillians on its books, can use its home advantage and be crowned UEFA Futsal champions for 2011

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The Tulip Trail

21 Apr

It’s quiz time on Kazaxia.

Where did tulips originate?

a) Turkey b) The Netherlands c) Kazakhstan

If you answered a or b then think again as these emblems of spring originated on the hillsides of southern Kazakhstan.

Turkey has adopted the tulip as a national symbol and The Netherlands has cornered the market in cultivated tulips, but to see these flowers in their original habitat you need to head for a small village located between Taraz and Shymkent in the south of Kazakhstan.

Greigs Tulip

For a few weeks at the end of April each year, the hillsides around Zhabagly come alive with a lush coating of bright red Greig’s Tulips (Tulipa greigii), the precursor of the tulips that are grown commercially around the world.

Kaufmanns Tulip

Higher up, the more delicate Kaufmann’s tulip (Tulipa kaufmanniana) blooms until July. This tulip has pink coloured petals with a yellow colouring on the inside. It is often found close to the snowline and favours rocky mountain slopes.

Zhabagly village is the gateway to Aksu-Zhabagly State Nature Reserve, founded in 1926, is Central Asia’s oldest national park. It’s a great place to visit in spring and autumn, but can get very hot in high summer. It has a range of hiking and horse trekking options including excursions to the Aksu Gorge.

One of the best homestays in Zhabagly village is run by www.wild-natures.com. It specialises in tours to see the tulips and other local sights of interest and can arrange birdwatching and horse riding trips.


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