Gulsara Rysulbekova, a retailer at Bishkek’s Osh Bazaar, refuses to buy Chinese foodstuffs. “Chinese rice is made out of plastic,” she says. She then points to a sack of red-brown rice grown in Kyrgyzstan’s Uzgen province. “That is what real rice looks like. If I stock Chinese rice, my customers won’t buy it. How can they make plov with Chinese rice?”
A couple of weeks ago, a 75-year-old Georgian villager, Hayastan Shakarian, became an overnight media sensation because she allegedly severed Internet connections in Georgia and Armenia while using a shovel to scavenge for copper. But the real story has less to do with the interruption in Internet service than with the decidedly low-tech, low-glamor topic of scrap metal.
Hit by low harvest yields and double-digit inflation, hundreds of Georgia’s 700,000 small-scale farmers are confronting the start of the spring planting season without the money to purchase seeds.
As the ouster of former president Kurmanbek Bakiyev demonstrated last spring, Russia is not afraid of meddling in Kyrgyzstan when the Kremlin feels its interests are at risk. These days, Moscow appears to be using energy exports as leverage against the Kyrgyz government.
In his first deal in the former Soviet Union, American property developer Donald Trump is bringing his trademark to Georgia as part of a large-scale luxury housing project. But while Tbilisi is hoping Trump’s star power helps draw investment in the country, analysts caution that there may be a limit to The Donald effect.
Only a few weeks ago, Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was in the vanguard of those calling for political change in Egypt. These days, Erdogan’s government in Ankara is taking a very different approach toward the uprising in Libya.
With the approach of spring, Kyrgyzstan’s traditional season for airing public grievances, food prices are skyrocketing. Many now fear that rapid inflation could spark fresh instability and street protests. While some officials want to impose price controls, economists warn that such action could foster shortages.
In one of Istanbul's numerous chic cafes in the central Beyoglu district, Eleni Varmazi sits drinking a coffee, savoring city life. Varmazi teaches media studies at one of Istanbul's numerous private English-speaking universities. She’s also a member of the vanguard of Greeks coming to Turkey to work.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu declared a successful end February 28 to what he called "the most comprehensive evacuation operation" in Turkey's history, as the arrival at an Istanbul airport of 132 Turks caught in Libyan fighting pushed the total number of Turks repatriated during the past week to over 17,500.
