Speak Up for success

09.07.2014 23:47 msk Business Central Asia Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Russia Tajikistan Turkmenistan Turkey, Republic of Uzbekistan

Speak Up is part of the largest language school network in Poland, which belongs to the international capital group Empik Media & Fashion. In 2012 revenues of the Group were about PLN 3.2 billion (over 1 trillion USD). The language school division is represented by Learning System Group (LSG) which operates 115 schools with more than 100.000 students. LSG is the leader in teaching foreign languages in Central and Eastern Europe. Being listed in Warsaw Stock Exchange since 1997, EMF has become one of the leading distributors of language courses, media, clothing, cosmetics and children’s products in Central Europe. It includes well-known brands as Hugo Boss, River Island and Esprit. Our school has been recognized in the prestigious Book of Lists 2012 , taking first place in the category of number of students and offer. Speak Up specializes in teaching English to adults using a unique method that combines the most modern multimedia tools with classes conducted by highly qualified instructors. There are Speak Up schools all over Poland, Russia, Ukraine and Turkey.

Who makes up with rate of the national currency of Uzbekistan?

25.06.2014 20:22 msk Analytics Business Interview Uzbekistan

Interview with Shermamat Abdullozoda, who held senior positions in the Ministry of Finance and the Treasury of the Republic Of Uzbekistan

Birdamlik at ten: The leader’s personality stronger than ideas

09.06.2014 12:12 msk Analytics Business Politics Interview Uzbekistan

The Birdamlik political opposition movement hosted a convention in St. Louis, USA, late April, and stirred a fair amount interest in the movement. We have written many articles on the founder of the movement, Mr. Bakhodir Choriyev, and his ideas for a nonviolent regime change in Uzbekistan; we have also posted the platform of the movement and Mr. Choriyev statement on the launch of a “velvet” revolution in Uzbekistan on our website. All these publications drew sympathy and a few smiles, for such plans seemed unfeasible. After all, what kind of velvet revolution in Uzbekistan could one talk about? But Mr. Choriyev convened like-minded people and the supporters of the democratic movement from Russia, Kazakhstan, Europe, Canada and the USA to the city of St. Louis, where he currently resides. The topic of nonviolent [civil] resistance seems to be gaining traction, and we decided to get to know Mr. Choriyev better.

Uzbekistan: The Karimov regime is still firm

20.02.2014 11:05 msk Analytics Human Rights Business Politics Uzbekistan

On Monday, three closest allies of Gulnara Karimova were forcibly driven to the office of the Prosecutor General of Uzbekistan. These people are close to both her body and pocket, including her common-law husband, who is registered as the owner of her business assets in Uzbekistan and abroad. Such events are unfolding around the Uzbek president’s elder daughter, whose activities are closely investigated into and scrutinized by local investigation bodies since last fall. While some see the weakening regime’s inability to stop these troubles, I look at the situation from a different angle. The destruction of the shadow business empire Gulnara Karimova built does not indicate her father, the president of Uzbekistan, is growing weak; on the contrary, this is a sign of his might.

Uzbekistan: Anti-Gay Law Strikes Terror Into Gay People, but Enriches the Police (18+)

07.02.2014 17:15 msk Human Rights Interview Uzbekistan

The topic of homosexuality, along with domestic violence, is tabooed in the press and public discourse in Uzbekistan. Moreover, the Central Asian state is among the remaining few countries where same-sex intercourse is punishable by a harsh prison sentence. Our Tashkent-based correspondent reports on how this law is enforced, based on first-hand experiences of gay people to whom he spoke.

Steve Swerdlow: Czech President must cancel Islam Karimov’s visit to Prague

06.02.2014 23:13 msk Human Rights Politics Interview Uzbekistan

The president of Uzbekistan will pay a two-day visit to Prague on 21 Feb 2014. Human rights activists in Europe are preparing to greet Islam Karimov with protest rallies: Mutabar Tajibayeva, the head of the Fiery Hearts Club, promises that they will firmly demand Karimov free all political prisoners, cease tortures of detainees and inmates, allow an international inquiry into the Andijan events, ensure conditions for NGO activities, and guarantee the freedom of speech. Fergana interviewed Steve Swerdlow, a representative of Human Rights Watch, about President Karimov’s upcoming visit to Europe.

AN OPEN LETTER TO JOURNALISTS AND PHOTOGRAPHERS OF RUSSIA AND UKRAINE, TO ALL THEIR COLLEAGUES WORLDWIDE

30.01.2014 12:46 msk Human Rights Uzbekistan

Last night, on Jan. 29, six journalists, photographers and activists have been detained by Uzbek police and taken to an unknown location in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. Their names are Umida Akhmedova, Timur Karpov, Alexei Ulko, Ashot Danielyan, Ilgar Gasymov and Gulsum Osmanova. All the detained are our fiends and colleagues, participants of a rally held on Jan. 27 in Tashkent in support of the Euromaidan, an ongoing series of street protests in Ukraine. On that day, they held a brief protest near the Ukrainian embassy building and submitted a petition in support of the Euromaidan in which they urged the government of Prime Minister Azarov to step down (which, in fact, happened in a day). They expressed their support to the people of Ukraine that “rallied against the inhuman, corrupt and totalitarian regime of President Viktor Yanykovych,” according to their petition. They condemned the use of force to the protesters in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, and other Ukrainian cities and the reluctance of Ukrainian authorities to start a constructive dialogue with political opposition and the public movement at the Maidan.

Uzbekistan: Non Format club photos censored (photo, video)

28.01.2014 10:18 msk Human Rights Arts Uzbekistan

The Non Format photographers club launched the Odno Prostranstvo (One Space) exhibition at the House of Photography in Tashkent on 25 Jan 2014. Initially, 12 photo-artists were to participate, but the works of two were prohibited from being displayed at the very last moment; a number of other artists’ works were partially covered with blank sheets of paper. Chairman of the Academy of Arts of Uzbekistan Akmal Nur and Deputy Chairman Ravshan Mirtajiyev have personally censored said works.

IT break, or Why Migrants Need Internet

19.01.2014 11:15 msk Human Rights Migration Internet Russia Uzbekistan

The Sankt-Peterburg Center for Independent Sociological Research issued a report on communicative strategies and information resources, which Uzbek migrants in Russia mostly use. The report is entitled “Uzbek Migrants in Russia: Information Space and Social Communications” and is based on a research held between August 2011 and February 2012. The research in question was held in three Russian cities—Sankt-Peterburg, Pskov, and Kazan, and in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. A total of 46 migrants were interviewed (13 in Kazan, 12 in Pskov, nine in Sankt-Peterburg, and 12 in Samarkand) and editors of three mass media outlets targeting migrants from Central Asia were interviewed.

Uzbek prisoned writers’ books issued in UK

17.01.2014 23:48 msk Arts Uzbekistan

A former inmate in Uzbekistan: Everything in penitentiaries is aimed at destroying humans

15.01.2014 11:32 msk Human Rights Uzbekistan

Nematjon Siddikov was persecuted several times for his human rights advocacy. For his activism in the Human Rights Alliance of Uzbekistan (HRAU), the Fergana Region resident was threatened with death and arson at his house; his family members were assaulted by hired hooligans several times; unknown people threw stones at his house. A year ago, on February 5, 2013, about a hundred people arrived at the Siddikovs family house in several vehicles and threw stones at his house, beat his family members, and later trumped up charges against the head of family and his three sons. Several days prior to this attack, Mr. Siddikov and his sons informed the local authorities about a criminal group engaged in contraband across the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border.

Gulnara Karimova: “I am not using the word ‘democracy,’ mind you!”

04.01.2014 22:53 msk Analytics Politics Uzbekistan

What would happen if the “war” between the Uzbek secret services and the president’s elder daughter ends with Gulnara Karimova’s victory? Head of the Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights Umida Niyazova maintains that such an outcome would certainly not lead to an alteration of the country’s authority system, which Islam Karimov shaped and consolidated.

Ex-Osh Mayor certain in victory at reelection

17.12.2013 08:29 msk Analytics Politics Kyrgyzstan

On 4 Dec 2013, the former mayor of the Kyrgyz capital, Isa Omurkulov, “voluntarily resigned” from his post; his counterpart in Osh was dismissed from post the very next day. The two events stirred a lot of emotions in the two largest Kyrgyz cities. Elections for the vacant positions are scheduled for January 2014. The issue of just who will preside in the Osh city hall is not only a pressing one for Osh resident, but it is also a sensitive one for the central authorities in this mountainous country. Obviously, Bishkek wants to have “a reliable handyman” in Osh, not a rebel—an unconditionally complying official, in short. However, one could perhaps be sure that opposition-minded Melisbek Myrzakmatov will recapture his former chair and will be a new, yet old head of the city.

Family Ties: What Enriches Uzbekistan Secret Police Chief’s Family

11.12.2013 00:35 msk Analytics Human Rights Business Politics Uzbekistan

First daughter Gulnara Karimova’s Twitter updates are the only insight into certain recent events in Uzbekistan. The closure of her charity, Forum Fund, suspension of her TV and radio stations’ licenses, and her hysterics on Twitter in response to those developments point to how powerful Uzbekistan’s National Security Service (NSS) and its chief, Rustam Inoyatov, are.

Uzbekistan: Erk Party… Is there such a party?

09.12.2013 09:49 msk Human Rights Politics Uzbekistan

The six assembly of the Erk party was scheduled in Tashkent for 3 Dec 2013. But it was not meant to happen: a local café, the venue point for participants, was suddenly closed on that day due to gas cutoff while many regional delegates were prevented from reaching Tashkent. Why are the authorities so afraid of the Erk Party, whose nominee, Muhammad Salih, ran for president in 1991? What kind of party is it anyway, and what issues was the assembly to discuss? Our observer in Tashkent sheds light on such matters in the article below.