Armenia and Turkey have moved to the brink of reversing a universally welcomed thaw in their relations, with differing interpretations of a landmark fence-mending agreement signed in October 2009. Yerevan is threatening to annul the two “protocols” over Ankara’s continuing linkage between their implementation and... MORE

Since Turkey and Armenia finally signed the groundbreaking protocols for the normalization of their relations in October 2009, their progress has been far less impressive. The Turkish and Armenian governments’ inability or unwillingness to counter domestic opposition stalled the parliamentary ratification process. Recently, both parties... MORE

Part TwoThe long-term military implications of the Russian-Georgian war are addressed by Viacheslav Tseluiko. He warns that the popular conclusions regarding the weakness of the Georgian army during the conflict should not be taken as decisive evidence of the inability of Georgian forces to counter... MORE

On January 21, public protest action took place in the southern Dagestani city of Derbent. The estimated 2,000 protestors demanded the resignation of the current mayor of the city, Feliks Kaziahmedov, and a new mayoral election.The mayoral election that took place in Derbent in October... MORE

The Center of Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST) in Moscow has published a collection of essays devoted to the Russia-Georgia conflict in August 2008 (Mikhail Barabanov, Anton Lavrov, Viacheslav Tseluiko, Tanki augusta: Sbornik statei Moscow: Tsentr Analiza Strategii i tekhnologii, 2009., 144 pp., PDF:... MORE

In continuation of our last article on Russia that summed up the year 2009 in the North Caucasus (www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=35895), it is worth mentioning that Dmitry Medvedev has drawn his own conclusions as well. Russia’s president ordered purges in the top military command, firing two high-ranking... MORE

Violence and unrest continued in parts the North Caucasus over the past week, as the Kremlin picked the governor of Krasnoyarsk to serve as representative in the new North Caucasus Federal District, and a top general accused Georgia of training North Caucasus rebels.Security forces in... MORE

“The main goal of the ‘Special Presidential Commission against falsifications of the history of the Russian Federation causing harm to Russian national interests’ is to identify and fight against conscious, imprudent falsifications, aimed on the political results,” declared Sergei Markov, the deputy head of the... MORE

On January 19, President Dmitry Medvedev announced the establishment of the North Caucasus Federal District and appointed Alexander Khloponin as the president’s plenipotentiary representative in the region. The newly formed federal district will consist of Dagestan, Chechnya, Ingushetia, North Ossetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachaevo-Cherkessia and the Russian-speaking... MORE