On April 22, the Foreign Ministries of Turkey, Armenia and Switzerland issued a joint announcement saying that Ankara and Yerevan had agreed to work toward improving their relations within the framework of a roadmap under Swiss auspices. United States' diplomats were also closely involved in... MORE

Armenia and Iran have agreed to deepen their already close relationship by pressing ahead with several large-scale commercial projects, mostly related to energy supplies. The two neighboring states formalized these plans during Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan's recent official visit to Tehran. Iranian leaders used the... MORE

The European Union's Special Representative for Moldova, Kalman Mizsei, has made notable headway in brokering a dialogue between rival political forces in an incendiary post-election situation. The EU's High Representative for the Common and Security Policy, Javier Solana, visited Chisinau on April 25 to endorse... MORE

As crowds dwindle to near-insignificance at the Tbilisi protest rallies, their leaders are abandoning the failed tactics of mass mobilization, shifting to new efforts designed to spark violence and blame it on the authorities. The daily protest rallies outside the Parliament building since April 9... MORE

Nearly six months after Yunus-Bek Yevkurov was appointed the new president in volatile Ingushetia, the violence in the republic has shown few signs of abating.“During the two days that I stayed in Ingushetia recently, ten attacks took place in the republic, including an attack on... MORE

The Russian authorities have been trying to present the cancellation of the counter-terrorist operation as a victory over unruly Chechnya (Interfax, April 16). Yet, some 18 years have passed since the Chechen people declared independence from Moscow in 1991. This small North Caucasian republic was... MORE

The press office of the Federal Security Service (FSB) branch in Ingushetia told Itar-Tass on April 21 that an anti-terrorist operation in and around the village of Verkhny Alkun in Ingushetia’s Sunzha district had been completed. According to the office, a base under construction by... MORE

Just days after the Russian government announced that it had cancelled the ten-year-old counter-terrorist operation in Chechnya (North Caucasus Weekly, April 17), federal military authorities in the republic announced on April 24 that a new counter-terrorist operation had been launched in three districts of the... MORE

Russia has reacted angrily to the forthcoming NATO-led Partnership for Peace (PfP) exercises in Georgia. President Dmitry Medvedev called the decision to hold the exercises "shortsighted and not worthy of true partnership." He warned that tensions in the region will rise, saying: "these actions are... MORE