On May 11, Turkish opposition candidate Muharren Ince announced that he was dropping out of the upcoming presidential elections, allegedly due to, in his words, a “smear campaign” that is “the work of the Gülenist Terror Group” (Daily Sabah, May 11). As one of four... MORE

According to the decree on May 10, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that, from May 15 on, the visa regime for citizens of Georgia visiting Russia (which was introduced back in 2001 under the rule of President Eduard Shevardnadze) has been canceled (BBC News Russian,... MORE

Israel is usually mentioned as a “third party” in the political literature of Iranian leaders and officials, especially when talking about Tel Aviv’s influence on relations between Tehran and Baku. Even so, Azerbaijan remains adamant that Israel is not using its territory for military and... MORE

From May 1 to 4, the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Ararat Mirzoyan and Jeyhun Bayramov, respectively, held four-day peace talks facilitated by United States Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in Washington (Mfa.gov.az, May 4). Reportedly, Blinken only attended the introductory and closing sessions... MORE

On May 3, speaking at an international conference in Shusha on “The Formation of the Geopolitics of Greater Eurasia: From the Past to the Present and Future,” Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev announced that “having become a military ally of Turkey, Azerbaijan has indirectly become, to... MORE

In April, the administration of the puppet regime of Abkhazia practically confirmed that Russia had begun to use its territory to circumvent Western sanctions. In particular, the media leaked the comments of Alias Labakhua, the first deputy chairman of the so-called State Customs Committee of... MORE

In an aim to make itself more independent of Russia, Kazakhstan is rapidly expanding its fleet of oil tankers so it can ship more oil across the Caspian to Azerbaijan and then onward to the West via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline—rather than using mostly Russian routes... MORE

On April 13, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev paid an official visit to Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina. While there, Aliyev met with his counterparts, the members of the Bosnian tripartite presidency, Željka Cvijanović, Denis Bećirović and Željko Komšić (Azertac, April 13). Despite the shortness of the visit—Aliyev departed... MORE

On April 10, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev paid a one-day official visit to Kazakhstan (President.az, April 10). This visit took place about six months after the first official visit of Kazakhstani President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev as the head of state to Azerbaijan in August 2022 (The... MORE

On April 5, United States Secretary of State Anthony Blinken issued a statement announcing that the US State Department has publicly sanctioned Georgian judges Mikheil Chinchaladze, Levan Murusidze, Irakli Shengelia and Valerian Tsertsvadze under Section 7031(c) of the visa restriction authority. “These individuals abused their... MORE