BBC Persian video on Iskandar Lake (Iskandarkul) in Tajikistan

Iskanderkul seems to be quite the lake. It's located right in the middle of the mountains to the northwest of the capital Dushanbe, and BBC Persian did an interview with a guy from London the other day by the side of the lake. What makes him special is that he has been travelling across Europe and Asia with his bicycle all this time, through countries such as Bulgaria in Europe and Turkey, Iran and others in Asia. The guy's name is Ben Rowlands and he has a site here, and the videos for BBC Persian (in Persian but you can still make out most of the English interview even in spite of the dubbing and the lake looks fantastic in any language) can be seen here and here - the first is a link from BBC Persian itself with the article and the second link is a YouTube version of the same video without the text.

So where exactly is the lake? Right here.


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8 October 2009: Tajik now the only official language of Tajikistan (Russian dropped)

I heard this on Deutsche Welle Persian today (I download the mp3 to listen to as I go to the temple to feed the cats) and sure enough, it's true (در اینجا به فارسی نوشته است). The law signed by the president (Emomali Rakhmon) doesn't specifically mention that Russian is being dropped, but that's the effect of the bill which will now mean that government documents will only be in Tajik, so correspondence between government agencies will no longer be able to be done in Russian.

Tajik, of course, is a variant of Persian that is perfectly intelligible to someone from Iran but written in Cyrillic. The Perso-Arabic script does not really fit Persian all that well so Tajik is a nice reminder that it does not need to be written in its current script, though whether it would be worth it for Iran to switch to another alphabet is another matter. Personally I like the Perso-Arabic script, but am not particularly attached to it and it's quite obvious that it doesn't fit all that well.

Two quick examples:

گربه - gorbe, cat. Without knowing the word though you wouldn't know whether it was read as gorbe or garbe or gerbe. In Tajik it's гурба (gurba), and anyone can read it without even knowing the word.

کشور - keshvar, country. Since the third letter can be read as o or u or v or va, it first sight it would be impossible to know whether it was kashur or kashor or kashvar or keshor or a number of other possibilities. In Tajik this is кишвар (kişvar).

Now we wait for Russia's reaction. But if any of the ex-Soviet republics have a good reason to remove Russian as an official language, it would be Tajikistan. Only 50,000 native Russian speakers live in the country and geographically it's really quite far away, with Kyrgyzstan and gigantic Kazakhstan in between. China is also just next door. But then again, having more than one official language is a good thing in my opinion and proficiency in Russian has never hurt a country in terms of competitiveness.

Edit: this article also says that minorities have the right to choose the language in which they want their children educated.


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No long beards for teachers in Tajikistan under the age of 50

Here's something from La Presse yesterday on Tajikistan.

Teachers in Tajikistan under the age of 50 will no longer have the right to have a (long) beard, according to new rules issued Monday by the government.

"Men over 50 years of age are permitted to have a beard of over three centimetres in length, but those that are younger than that will have to shave", specified a decree from the Ministry of National Education published by the state-run journals. "As for shoes, anything that covers the foot is possible, including rubber boots", it adds.

Long beards are often considered to be suspect by the authorities in Tajikistan. The country has been plagued from 1992 to 1997 by a civil war fed by islamist movements, which resulted in tens of thousands dead, and a fragile peace afterwards.

Rubber boots are popular among rural peasants who use them for protection against frequent flood rains in the mountainous country.

An article here in English on the same subject also notes that less conservative styles of clothing have also been banned for teachers: jeans, mini-skirts and t-shirts. It says this to be a "balancing nod to conservatism" but since this only applies to teachers it looks like nothing more than a dress code to me.

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Turkish schools in Central Asia in a bit of hot water

Here's the location of one of these schools.

Interesting read here on a subject I often write about. Turkish is in an interesting position in its language family in that Turkic languages resemble each other a lot more than other languages in other families usually do (that is, there's a very high degree of mutual intelligibility) while at the same time Standard Turkish is the only language that has the wherewithal and stability to promote itself in other countries. Other Turkic languages are either similar to Standard Turkish anyway (Azeri), have just recently changed their script or are going to in the near future (Uzbek, Kazakh, Kyrgyz), still have a great deal of Russian influence and are yet to be learned by the majority in the country (Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uzbek to a certain extent), or don't even have an independent country to their name to begin with (Uyghur, Tatar, Gagauz, etc.). Add to that the history of the Ottoman Empire and it's no surprise that Turkey is interested in promoting its language as the lingua franca of Central Asia. That doesn't always sit well with the authorities of the countries concerned though, as the article states, and not just out of suspicions of pan-Turkism, but also religious differences as well. The schools are technically founded on Fethullah Gülen's philosophy, which means a fair amount of teaching religion as well, and many secular countries have a problem with that.

One other interesting aspect of these schools that I didn't know about was that they exist in Tajikistan too. I had assumed that they didn't really have an interest in setting up schools there considering that Tajik is pretty much just Persian written in the Cyrillic script. That means quite a few similar loanwords but a completely different grammar.

You can also see the exact location of the school mentioned in the article in Dushanbe here.

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Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have given permission for NATO supplies to pass / "Tacikistan ve Özbekistan, NATO malzemelerinin geçişine izin verdi"

Central Asia with Afghanistan in brown and Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in tan (Uzbekistan on the left, Tajikistan the tinier country on the right just on the northeast tip of Afghanistan)

Source: turkish.cri.cn (Turkish)

"Tacikistan ve Özbekistan, NATO malzemelerinin geçişine izin verdi"

"Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have given permission for NATO supplies to pass"

(GMT+08:00) 2009-02-20 20:06:27 cri

ABD ordusu Ulaştırma Komutanlığı yetkililerinden Tümgeneral Mark Harnichek, Tacikistan ve Özbekistan'ın kendi toprakları üzerinden, NATO'nun Afganistan'a askeri olmayan malzemeler göndermesine izin verdiklerini ileri sürdü.

Mark Harnichek, the Major-General of the authorities in the Transportation Command of the American army, said that Tajikistan and Uzbekistan had given permission for NATO to send non-military supplies to Afghanistan.

Duşanbe'yi ziyaret eden Harnichek bugün (20 Şubat) Tacikistan Dışişleri Bakanı Hamrokhon Zarifi'yle görüştü. Görüşmeden sonra bir demeç veren Harnichek, Tacikistan'ın Afganistan'a askeri olmayan malzemelerin gönderilmesinde demiryolları ve karayollarının kullanılmasını kabul ettiğini söyledi. Özbekistan'dan da malzeme geçiş izni aldıklarını anlatan Amerikalı komutan, bu iki ülke üzerinden haftada 50-200 konteyner göndermeyi planladıklarını sözlerine ekledi.

Harnichek met with the Foreign Minister of Tajikistan Hamrokhon Zarifi today (20 February) on a visit to Dushanbe. Harnichek made a statement after the meetings where he said Tajikistan approved the usage of railroads and highways for the sending of non-military supplies to Afghanistan. The American commander said that Uzbekistan had also given permission for the passage of supplies, and added that they planned to send 50 to 200 containers a week through these two countries.

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Uzbekistan halves natural gas shipments to Tajikistan / Özbekistan Tacikistan'a doğalgaz sevkiyatını yarıya indirdi

Source: turkish.cri.cn (Turkish)

Özbekistan Tacikistan'a doğalgaz sevkiyatını yarıya indirdi

Uzbekistan halves natural gas shipments to Tajikistan

Tacikistan Devlet Doğalgaz Şirketi tarafından bugün (26 Aralık) yapılan açıklamada, Özbekistan'dan Tacikistan'a yapılan doğalgaz sevkiyatının yarıya indirilerek, günde 1 milyon metreküpten 500 bin metrekübe düşürüldüğü bildirildi.

Tajikistan's National Natural Gas Company said in a statement today (26 December) that the natural gas shipments from Uzbekistan to Tajikistan had been reduced by half, fallings from 1 million cubic metres a day to 500,000.

Doğalgaz sevkiyatınındaki azaltmanın, Tacikistan'ın Özbekistan'a olan 12 milyon dolar tutarındaki doğalgaz borcunu ödememesi nedeniyle yapıldığı belirtildi.

The reason given for the reduction in natural gas shipment was Tajikistan's lack of payment of its total $12 million debt for natural gas to Uzbekistan.

Tacikistan'ın tek doğalgaz sağlayıcısı olan Özbekistan, Ocak-Kasım döneminde Tacikistan'a bin metrekübü 150 dolardan 450 milyon metreküp doğalzgaz ihraç etti.

Uzbekistan is the only supplier of natural gas to Tajikistan, and during the period from January to November exported 450 million cubic metres of gas to Tajikistan at $150 per cubic metre.

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Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan in Tajikistan / Babacan Tacikistan'da

Source: trt.net.tr (Turkish)

Babacan Tacikistan'da

Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan in Tajikistan

Görüşmelerde, Tacikistan ile ikili ilişkiler, Rusya, Afganistan ve İran ele alındı.

The talks dealt with bilateral relations between Turkey and Tajikistan, Russia, Afghanistan and Iran.

27.11.2008 14:53:21

Dışişleri Bakanı Ali Babacan, Tacikistan'da temaslarda bulunuyor.

Foreign Minister Ali Babacan is holding talks in Tajikistan.

Tacikistan'da Dışişleri Bakanı Hamrahan Zarifi ile görüşen Babacan, Devlet Başkanı İmamali Rahman tarafından da kabul edildi.

Babacan met with Tajikistan's Foreign Minister Hamrohon Zarifi, and was also received by State Minister Emomalii Rahmon (Эмомалии Раҳмон).

Dışişleri Bakanı Babacan, görüşmenin ardından Tacikistan Milli Üniversitesi'nde öğrencilere hitap etti.

After the meetings, Babacan addressed students at Tajikistan National University.

Görüşmelerde Türk tarafı, Rusya'nın bölgedeki önemine de dikkat çekti ve Moskova'nın Türkiye'nin bölgede önemli partneri olduğuna vurgu yaptı.

In the meetings the Turkish side pointed out the importance of Russia in the region, and emphasized that Moscow was an important partner in the region.

Afganistan konusu da görüşmelerde gündeme geldi.

The issue of Afghanistan also made its way into the meetings.

Ali Babacan ve mevkidaşı Zarifi, Afganistan'da önemli olanın, askeri tedbirlerden çok halkın kazanılması olduğunda fikirbirliğine vardı.

Ali Babacan and his counterpart Zarifi agreed that winning over large numbers of people in Afghanistan was more important than military measures.

Görüşmelerde, Türkiye'nin İran'a yönelik izolasyon politikalarına katılmadığı ve Tahran'ın uluslararası camia içine çekilerek sorunların aile içinde çözülmesi gerektiği ifade edildi.

In the talks he said that Turkey would not participate in policies of isolation towards Iran and that there was a need to pull Tehran towards the international community to solve the issues within.

Bu arada, nükleer teknolojiyi tüm ülkelerin kullanma hakkının olduğu, ancak bunun barışçı amaçlarla yapılması gerektiği de vurgulandı.

Meanwhile, it was also stressed that all countries had the right to use nuclear technology, but that it needed to be used for peaceful purposes.

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500 tons of wheat aid from Turkey to Tajikistan / Tacikistan'a 500 ton buğday yardımı

The truck convoy carrying the wheat probably took a route somewhat like this. Ten days were spent at the border with Iran.

Source: zaman.com.tr (Turkish)

Türkiye, Birleşmiş Milletler (BM) aracılığıyla Tacikistan'a 500 ton buğday yardımı yaptı.

Turkey has given 500 tons of wheat aid to Tajikistan through the United Nations.

Konya'dan yola çıkan buğday yüklü 25 tır, İran, Türkmenistan ve Özbekistan'ı kapsayan 6 bin kilometreyi geçerek Tacikistan başkenti Duşanbe'ye vardı. Türkiye'nin Tacikistan Büyükelçisi Akif Ayhan ve BM yetkilileri Duşanbe Maslojir deposunda tırları karşıladı.

The wheat, leaving from Konya, was sent on 25 loaded trucks on a 6000 kilometre route including Iran, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to Tajikistan's capital Dushanbe. Turkey's Ambassador to Tajikistan Akif Ayhan and UN officials met the trucks at Dushanbe's Maslojir depot.

BM yetkilileri, "Türkiye'den gelen buğday Tacikistan'ın 19 şehrinde yaklaşık 70 bin aileye dağıtılacak. Türkiye'ye yaptığı yardımdan dolayı teşekkür ederiz" dediler.

UN officials said that "The wheat from Turkey will be given out to about 70,000 families in 19 cities in Tajikistan. We thank Turkey for the aid it has given."

Büyükelçi Akif Ayhan ise, "Biz Türkiye olarak Tacikistan'a yardım etmekten gurur duymaktayız. Son zamanlarda buğday yardımı yapmak ülkelere faydalı değil ama biz kardeş ülke Tacikistan için yardım etmeye devam edeceğiz" dedi. Ayhan, Türkiye'nin bölgedeki diğer ülkeler ve Tacikistan için 2011 yılına kadar 10 milyon dolarlık yardımda bulunacağını ekledi.

Ambassador Akif Ayhan said that "We take pride as the nation of Turkey in this aid to Tajikistan. In recent times wheat aid to countries has not been worthwhile but we will continue to aid our brother nation Tajikistan." Ayhan added that Turkey would be giving 10 million dollars of aid to countries in the region and Tajikistan by 2011.

Tır şoförleri, Türkiye - İran sınırından çok zor geçtiklerini, İran sınırında 10 gün beklediklerini bildirdiler.

The truck drivers said that the Turkey - Iran border was extremely difficult to cross, and that they waited for 10 days at the border of Iran.

(CİHAN)

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Sometimes Persian-language scholars need Tajikistan

Extent of the Persian language. Tajikistan is the northeast extent of the language, and is a relatively safe and politically neutral country compared to Afghanistan and Iran.

Interesting bit of information I noticed in this article here:

"Prior to the Iranian revolution in 1979, a very high percentage of the faculty at Iranian universities was educated in the United States; since that time, and especially since 9/11, that number has declined dramatically," Berdahl said in the AAU press release.

"We believe it is important to maintain and renew academic ties between our two countries as a means of laying the groundwork for greater understanding and rebuilding what was once a very healthy collaboration in science and higher education.

Additionally, Erica Ehrenberg, executive director of the American Institute for Iranian Studies, said, "In the last few years, it has been very difficult to obtain visas both ways."

She cited that a Persian language workshop her organization sponsors had to be moved to Tajikistan in 2005 because of trouble obtaining visas to Iran.

This is interesting because I've often wondered about the role of Tajikistan in the Persian language - whether for one example it's used as a place to learn the language by people that are from Israel or often visit the country and thus can't visit Iran, or whether there are any Russians learning the language that learn it first through Cyrillic and through spending some time in Tajikistan, and then later on plunging into the Perso-Arabic script. (Afghanistan is another country where it could be learned but it's much too dangerous for most) If anyone else has some examples of this, I'd appreciate it.

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Detailed article on hydropower in Tajikistan, plus the Cyrillic and Latin vs. Perso-Arabic script for Tajik

Here it is, from the IHT and the New York Times. It's detailed in the sense of pretty-detailed-for-a-country-you-almost-never-hear-about detailed, but not this-week's-eight-page-feature-on-presidential-candidate detailed, so a total of two pages. Tajikistan is a tiny country (only 50% larger than South Korea) that has pretty much one ace in the hole in its economy: its large supply of water.

For this reason, President Emomali Rakhmon has pinned Tajikistan's economic hopes - and perhaps even its continued political existence - on developing its hydropower potential. Three projects are either under construction or being considered, including Rogun, a gargantuan structure farther up the Vakhsh River that, as it is now envisioned, will surpass Nurek in height by more than 30 meters, or 100 feet. Tajik officials say that they have hopes of building more than 20 hydroelectric plants and dams.

But a number of sizable hurdles must first be surmounted before the plans for a great hydropower future can be realized. Tajikistan is in an earthquake zone and the dams must be built to withstand major seismic shocks. Officials are expected to conduct environmental impact studies to determine whether any flora or fauna will be threatened.

The Tajik government is also heavily in debt and must find shiploads of foreign investment to build the dams. On Wednesday, China agreed to build a $300 million hydroelectric power plant, the Nurobad-2, with a capacity of 160 to 220 megawatts. But Tajik officials say that Rogun alone will cost up to $3.2 billion.

The reason why this is so important is because Tajikistan is weak to the extent that its very existence could be threatened if it doesn't find a source of economic stability soon:

Though for the moment it seems to be managing, Tajikistan threatens to become a failed state, say Western observers and diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the issue. The country still has not fully recovered from a devastating civil war a decade ago. State coffers are virtually empty, while the government is viewed as unable to meet basic needs.

The situation was laid bare last winter when prolonged subzero temperatures overloaded the Soviet-era electrical grid, plunging the entire country into cold and darkness. For Western officials working in Tajikistan, the emergency was a disturbing revelation of the government's dysfunction.

"The crisis was not caused by the winter weather," said an official of an American nongovernmental organization who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the news media. "The crisis was triggered by the winter weather, but caused by chronic mismanagement."

It's also a bit out of the loop linguistically and culturally from its northern neighbors, who all speak Turkic languages, whereas Tajik (a variant of Persian but written in the Cyrillic script) is mostly the same as Dari (another variant of Persian) in Afghanistan, but Afghanistan is still anything but stable so there's no help there.

It's too bad that Tajikistan is still so poor because Persian is actually quite easy to learn except for the fact that it uses an alphabet that doesn't express short vowels and thus introduces a needless complication in those learning the language (that don't know the Arabic script already and should switch over to the Latin alphabet IMO, but if that doesn't happen the Cyrillic alphabet is the second best choice. Take a look at the Tajik Wikipedia for example:

Астрономия (нуҷум) илм дар бораи коинот ва ҷирмҳои осмонӣ, галактикаҳо ва ҳаракати онҳо мебошад. Ин калима аз ду калимаи юнонӣ: άστρον, "астрон"- ҷирми мунир ва νόμος, "номос" қонун мебошад. Нуҷум ҳама ҷирмҳои осмониро, ҳаракати онҳо ва хосияти онҳоро ҳаматарафа меомӯзад. Нуҷум бо фанҳои физика, биология, химия, математика, ҷуғрофия ва геология алоқаи хеле зич дорад.

And even if you can't read that, since it has all the short vowels written there you can just use an automatic converter (built into their Wikipedia) to switch it over to Latin:

Astronomija (nuçum) ilm dar borai koinot va çirmhoi osmonī, galaktikaho va harakati onho meboşad. In kalima az du kalimai junonī: άστρον, "astron"- çirmi munir va νόμος, "nomos" qonun meboşad. Nuçum hama çirmhoi osmoniro, harakati onho va xosijati onhoro hamatarafa meomūzad. Nuçum bo fanhoi fizika, biologija, ximija, matematika, çuƣrofija va geologija aloqai xele zic dorad.

which is something you can't do with the Perso-Arabic script. With the Arabic script for example the word 'gol' (flower, goal) there is written with just the letters g and l, which could make it either gol (flower, goal) or gel (mud). The word 'va' (and) can also be pronounced 'o' but in Cyrillic there's no way to pronounce it but va.

(Edit: a helpful poster contributed to the above paragraph)

I've read a few stories here and there about Tajikistan possibly going back to the Perso-Arabic script. That would be a tragedy if it happened.

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Russia hopes for support in China / Russland håper på støtte i Kina

Dushanbe (Tajik: Душанбе), the capital of Tajikistan. Wikipedia says: "The name is derived from the Persian word for "Monday" (du two + shamba or shanbe day, lit. "day two",دوشنبه) and refers to the fact that it was a popular Monday marketplace."

Here's some news in Norwegian about Medvedev's visit to Tajikistan today to meet with Hu Jintao who is visiting a few countries - Korea yesterday, Tajikistan today, and Turkmenistan either was today or will happen tomorrow, I think.

Russland håper på støtte i Kina

Russia hopes for support in China

Mens Vesten raser mot Russlands anerkjennelse av de georgiske utbryterrepublikkene, holder president Dmitrij Medvedev samtaler med sin kinesiske motpart Hu Jintao.

While the West fumes against Russia's recognition of the Georgian breakaway republics, president Dmitri Medvedev holds talks with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao.

Medvedev håper trolig på å møte mer forståelse hos kineserne enn det han for tiden gjør i USA og Europa.

Medvedev hopes to meet with more understanding with the Chinese than that he is currently getting in the United States and Europe.

Men samme dag som Medvedev fløy til Tadsjikistan for å møte president Hu Jintao, uttrykte Kina uro over Russlands opptreden.

But the same day that Medvedev flew to Tajikistan to meet president Hu Jintao, China expressed anxiety over Russia's behaviour.

– Kina er urolig over den siste utviklingen i Sør-Ossetia og Abkhasia, sa talsmann for utenriksdepartementet Qin Gang onsdag, ifølge nyhetsbyrået Xinhua.

– China is distraught over the recent developments in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, said foreign ministre spokesmann Qin Gang Wednesday, according to the news bureau Xinhua.

Fram til nå har Kina vært så å si taus om konflikten. Landet har kun anmodet partene om å finne en fredelig løsning, men verken kritisert Russland eller Georgia.

Until now China has been virtually silent on the conflict. The country has only asked the parts to find a peaceful solution, but critisized neither Russia nor Georgia.

Kina er i en kinkig situasjon når det gjelder anerkjennelse av utbryterregioner, ettersom landet har egne områder der etniske og religiøse minoriteter ønsker større uavhengighet. Det gjelder blant annet buddhistiske Tibet og muslimske Xinjiang.

China is in a tricky situation when it comes to the recognition of breakaway regions, since the country has its own regions where ethnic or religious minorities want more independence, such as Buddhist Tibet and Muslim Xinjiang among others.

Samtidig trapper Vesten opp kritikken av Russland. Frankrikes utenriksminister Bernard Kouchner sa onsdag at anerkjennelsen av utbryterrepublikkene er et brudd på folkeretten som EU ikke kan akseptere, mens USAs president George W. Bush ba russerne om å revurdere sin «uansvarlige» avgjørelse.

At the same time the West is escalating criticism of Russia. French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner said Wednesday that the recognition of the breakaway regions is a violation of international law that the EU can not accept, while American president George W. Bush asked the Russians to consider their "irresponsible" decision.

Men Medvedev står på sitt, og erklærte samme dag at Russland ikke er redd for noe, selv om han også lover at landet vil gjøre alt for å unngå en ny kald krig.

But Medvedev is not budging, and declared the same day that Russia was not afraid of anything, even as he also promises that the country will do everything possible to avoid a new cold war.

– Det viktigste er å forsvare rettighetene til befolkningen i Sør-Ossetia og Abkhasia, sier han til BBC. (©NTB)

– The most important thing is to defend the rights of the people in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, he said to the BBC.

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Uzbekistan increases natural gas to Tajikistan / Özbekistan, Tacikistan gazını artırdı

Here's the third piece on Uzbekistan that I found recently that was worth translating. It's from Zaman, the 16th of August. Now you know how much natural gas you need to run a country the size of Tajikistan (7 million people).

Özbekistan, Tacikistan gazını artırdı

Uzbekistan increases gas to Tajikistan

Özbekistan, Tacikistan'a sattığı doğal gazın miktarını artırdı. Tacikgaz Genel Müdür Yardımcısı Şevket Şayimov, Özbekistan'ın doğal gaz taşımacılığı ve dağıtımı yapan Uztransgaz şirketinin, Temmuz ayında Tacikistan'a sattığı doğal gaz miktarını, Tacik tarafının giderek artan borcu yüzünden azalttığını hatırlatarak, söz konusu borcun bir kısmının ödenmesinin ardından Tacikistan'a verilen doğal gazın yeniden artırıldığını kaydetti.

Uzbekistan increased the amount of natural gas sold to Tajikistan. The Vice-President of Tajikgaz Shevket Shayimov reminded that the Uztransgaz company that transports and distributes Uzbek natural gas had decreased the amount of gas sold to Tajikistan in July due to the increasing debt from the Tajik side, and said that after this part of the debt was paid off the natural gas to Tajikistan was once again increased.

Günlük 840 bin metrekare doğal gaz verilmeye başlandığını ifade eden Şayimov, bu doğal gaz hacminin Tacikistan için yeterli olduğunu belirtti.

Shayimov said that 840,000 cubic metres of natural gas is now being given, and that this volume is enough for Tajikistan.

Şayimov ayrıca, Özbekistan'ın Tacikistan'a verdiği doğal gaz miktarının artırılmasının ardından geçen ay faaliyetini geçici olarak durduran Tacikazot mineral gübre fabrikasının yeniden üretime başladığını da ifade ederek, Tacikistan Alüminyum Fabrikası ve Tacik Çimento Fabrikalarının da doğal gaz alımına başladığını kaydetti.

Shayimov also said that following the increase of Uzbek gas to Tajikistan that the Tajikazot mineral fertilizer factory that was temporarily shut down last month was once again put into production, and that the Tajikistan Aluminum Works (note: probably this company; if so its name is Tajik Aluminium Company (Tajik: Ширкати Алюминийи Тоҷик; Russian: Таджикская алюминиевая компания), abbreviated as TALCO (Tajik/Russian: ТАЛКО)) and Tajik Cement also began to purchase natural gas.

Temmuz ayı sonunda Özbek Uztransgaz şirketi, Tacikistan'ın doğal gaz borcunun 7 milyon dolara ulaşmasının ardından, bu ülkeye verdiği doğal gaz miktarını azaltarak, daha önce mutabakat sağlanan günlük 850 bin metreküp doğal gaz yerine günlük 528 bin metreküp doğal gaz vermeye başlamıştı.

Near the end of July the Uzbek Uztransgaz company decreased the amount of gas given to Tajikistan after its natural gas debt reached 7 million dollars, beginning to give a daily amount of 528,000 cubic metres instead of the previously agreed 850,000 cubic metres.

2007 yılında satın aldığı Özbek doğal gazının bin metreküpüne 100 dolar ödeyen Tacikistan, 2008 yılında satın alacağı toplam 650 milyon metreküp Özbek doğal gazının bin metreküpü için 145 dolar ödüyor.

Tajikistan paid 100 dollars per cubic metre of Uzbek gas in 2007, and pays 145 dollars per cubic metre of Uzbek gas in 2008 for the total 650 million million cubic metres of gas it will purchase over the year.

16 Ağustos 2008, Cumartesi

16 August 2008, Saturday

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