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Latest Articles about The Caucasus
PROTESTS, ACCUSATIONS, AND RIOTS SHAKE GEORGIA
The rapid succession of crises this week in Georgia suggests that President Mikheil Saakashvili's government and its policies are at a critical juncture. On March 27 the government announced that it had prevented a nation-wide prison riot plotted by criminal kingpins. Minister of Justice Ghia... MORE
AZERBAIJAN SPEARHEADING INITIATIVE ON TRANS-CASPIAN GAS PIPELINE
Addressing an international energy conference in progress in Baku, Azerbaijan's Industry and Energy Minister Natig Aliyev outlined the advantages of a trans-Caspian gas pipeline from Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan via the South Caucasus to European markets. Natig Aliyev underscored the project's value for diversifying supplies and... MORE
NEW TENSIONS COMPLICATE RELATIONS BETWEEN BAKU AND TEHRAN
More than 600 representatives of Azerbaijani diaspora organizations in 49 countries assembled in Baku on March 16 for the second World Azerbaijani Congress. The event was organized by the State Committee on the Affairs of Azerbaijanis Living Abroad, which was established in 2003 by a... MORE
UN SECURITY COUNCIL SHUTS EYES AND EARS TO GEORGIA
At Moscow's request, the United Nations Security Council excluded Georgia from the March 28 session that discussed prolonging the mandate of the United Nations Missions of Observers in Georgia. UNOMIG has been stationed in Abkhazia since 1994 as a passive, largely irrelevant bystander that never... MORE
MOSCOW HINTS IT MAY FORMALIZE INCORPORATION OF SOUTH OSSETIA
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov's aide, Gennady Bukayev, told a joint session of North Ossetia's and South Ossetia's leaderships in Vladikavkaz on March 22 that Moscow has "decided in principle" to merge the two entities into a single one within Russia. The question is not... MORE
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DESECRATION OF KORAN COULD PROVOKE ATTACK IN DAGESTAN
On March 3 Russian security officials swept through several villages in the Khasavyurt district of Dagestan, North Caucasus. According to RIA-Dagestan, "Officers of the Ministry of Interior Affairs [MVD] and the Federal Security Service [FSB] are combing the Khasavyurt area adjacent to Chechnya with the... MORE
GEORGIA EXTRICATING FROM GAZPROM’S BEAR HUG
The winter now ending was almost certainly the last one during which Georgia had to face Gazprom's commercial blackmail and supply cutoffs. Within the coming months, Georgia will begin receiving Azerbaijani gas through the Shah Deniz-Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum (Turkey) transit pipeline and will also have an opportunity... MORE
NEWFOUND U.S. INTEREST IN AZERBAIJAN PROMISES MORE HEADACHES FOR BAKU
On March 13-14, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Daniel Fried and U.S. Special Negotiator for Eurasian Conflicts and U.S. Minsk Group co-chair Ambassador Steven Mann visited Azerbaijan for a two-day official trip. During their visit, the U.S. officials held talks... MORE
KOSOVO IMPEDES SETTLEMENT OF ABKHAZ SITUATION
Talk of possible independence for Kosovo, Serbia's separatist enclave, is markedly hampering the Georgian government's efforts to find a mutually acceptable model for the reintegration of its breakaway regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The Abkhaz separatists argue that the possible recognition of Kosovo's independence strengthens... MORE
KARABAKH CONFLICT HANGS OVER GEORGIA’S ARMENIAN-POPULATED REGIONS
Tensions are running high in Tsalka and Akhalkalaki, two regions of Georgia that are predominantly populated by ethnic Armenians. The latest problem began in Tsalka on March 9, when a trivial brawl at a restaurant between local Armenians and Georgians resulted in the death of... MORE