Latest Articles about The Caucasus
GEORGIA OFFERS FAR-REACHING AUTONOMY TO ABKHAZIA
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has proposed a reunification of Abkhazia with the rest of Georgia on terms of far-reaching autonomy and with the assistance of international guarantors (Civil Georgia, Rustavi 2 TV, March 28). All elements of a political settlement are to be placed on... MORE
NATO MEMBERSHIP ACTION PLANS: “NOT IF BUT WHEN”?
Ahead of NATO’s April 2-4 Bucharest Summit, the alliance is preoccupied with maintaining the principles on which it interacts with aspirant countries. The core principles may be summed up as: the open door, membership action plans on the road to that open door, merit-based assessment... MORE
AZERBAIJAN’S RELATIONS WITH MINSK GROUP HIT NEW LOW
Azerbaijanis have long distrusted the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Minsk group, co-chaired by Russia, France, and the United States. All three countries have large Armenian diasporas and are considered to favor Armenians in the Karabakh conflict. Many Azerbaijanis accuse the Minsk group... MORE
NATO MEMBERS STATING THE CASE FOR GEORGIAN AND UKRAINIAN MEMBERSHIP ACTION PLANS
The German government’s all-out, public campaign against Georgian and Ukrainian Membership Action Plans (MAPs) risks splitting NATO ahead of the alliance’s April 2-4 Bucharest summit. Germany alone has embarked on such a public crusade, in the avowed expectation that other NATO countries would follow Berlin’s... MORE
U. N. GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLUTION SEEKS TO FILL GAPS IN THE KARABAKH “PEACE PROCESS”
On March 14 the United Nations General Assembly adopted an Azerbaijan-authored resolution, calling for: • “immediate, complete, and unconditional withdrawal of Armenian forces from all the occupied territories of Azerbaijan”; • “respect and support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan within its internationally... MORE
YEREVAN CONTINUES POST-ELECTION WITCH-HUNT
Armenia’s embattled leadership has unleashed an unprecedented crackdown on the opposition following the bloody suppression of street protests against the official results of last month’s disputed presidential election. More than a hundred supporters of the main opposition presidential candidate, former president Levon Ter-Petrosian, have been... MORE
GERMANY TORPEDOES UKRAINIAN, GEORGIAN MEMBERSHIP ACTION PLANS AHEAD OF NATO SUMMIT
With only three weeks remaining for necessary damage repair prior to the NATO summit, the German government has perhaps irreparably damaged the Membership Action Plan (MAP) goals of Ukraine and Georgia. Chancellor Angela Merkel has turned down those two countries’ MAP candidacies, thereby following the... MORE
U.S., NEW MEMBERS BACKING NATO MEMBERSHIP ACTION PLANS FOR GEORGIA AND UKRAINE
NATO debates on Membership Action Plans (MAPs) for Georgia and Ukraine have entered the final stage in the run-up to the alliance’s April 2-4 summit in Bucharest. With NATO’s approval rating in Ukraine at merely 20-25% in the fourth year of the Yushchenko presidency, political... MORE
HARD DEBATES AT NATO ON GEORGIAN MEMBERSHIP ACTION PLAN
Several West European governments cold-shouldered Georgia’s and Ukraine’s applications for NATO Membership Action Plans (MAPs) during the meeting of NATO countries’ ministers of foreign affairs on March 6 in Brussels. Intended to prepare for the NATO Summit due in early April in Bucharest, the Brussels... MORE
ARE KARABAKH SKIRMISHES MEANT TO DRAW ATTENTION FROM YEREVAN?
Azerbaijanis increasingly see the recent wave of cease-fire violations in Karabakh as an attempt by Yerevan to divert attention from the domestic turmoil that has erupted since Armenia’s February 19 presidential election. Reportedly, four soldiers from the Azerbaijani side and eight from the Armenian side... MORE