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Eurasia
June 22, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 20
possibility of implementing cross-border trade between Azerbaijan’s Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic and Turkey’s Kars and Igdir provinces will further strengthen relations between Baku and Ankara,” Turkish Minister of Transport, Mari- time Affairs and Communications Ahmet Arslan commented at the time.
“Armenia has long worried about the projection of Turkish power into the region by the establish- ment of a rail connection; it fears that if Turkey moved that far, it might help Azerbaijan to seize Zengezur, giving it a direct and unimpeded route to Baku and Central Asia beyond,” commented Jamestown analyst Paul Goble on June 12.
Bread sellers demand passports as Turkmenistan’s economic crisis goes from bad to worse
Kanat Shaku in Almaty
In Turkmenistan’s provinces people hoping to
buy bread must now be ready to present their passport. Stores selling flour, meanwhile, require customers to sign up for a purchase one month ahead, Radio Azatlyk reported on June 15. These are just some of the worrying signs that the re- mote Central Asian nation, with inflation running towards 360%, has fallen into an economic crisis that is spiralling out of control.
Numerous reports of shortages of basic foodstuffs including sugar, butter and flour have emerged from Turkmenistan in the past few months, with one report in March describing how a frustrated mob broke into a store. The passport-based bread rationing and month-ahead scheduling for pur-
Moreover, with Azerbaijan emboldened during the recent upheavals in Armenia, a military build-up on the Azeri side of the line of contact in Nagorno Karabakh was reported in late April.
“None of this means that a military conflict is im- minent. But it is likely that Moscow will use the Turkish and Azerbaijani moves to push Armenia to accept a still larger Russian military presence. It is also likely that Ankara and Baku will move cau- tiously in response. And it is almost certain that Iran will enjoy being in a position where Russia will support it being an east-west transit link for Turkey and Azerbaijan lest the two Turkic countries make any moves against Zengezur,” Goble commented.
Inflation at 357%... but all we wanna do is bicycle! Somehow it doesn't ring true, but amid Turkmenistan's economic misery the government often uses 'mega' events, such as this Guinness Book of World Records challenge, to distract from grim reality.
chasing flour demonstrate a new low that does not bode well for social stability. Such measures have been introduced against a backdrop in which the unofficial rate to the dollar of the Turkmen manat (TMT) had dramatically weakened to TMT29 by June 4 from TMT10 at the beginning of the year. The worst rate experienced in 2017 was TMT5.8. Throughout the severe devaluations, and going back as far as 2015, the official rate has stood stubbornly at TMT3.51.
The manat is "sinking and extremely volatile," Steve Hanke, professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and head of the Troubled Currencies Project at Washing- ton's Cato Institute, said earlier this month, as he