Latest Articles about The Caucasus
BAKU-TBILISI-CEYHAN OIL PIPELINE INAUGURATED
The first stage of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil export pipeline was officially inaugurated on May 25 at the Sangachal shore terminal, south of Baku. The presidents of Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Kazakhstan, as well as BP President Lord John Browne, U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman,... MORE
BAKU AND ASTANA PLAY IT SAFE IN CASPIAN OIL BATTLE
Until Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev made a landmark trip to Baku on May 25, marking Kazakhstan's decisive move towards joining the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline project, bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan had shown few signs of progress. Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliev visited Kazakhstan in March 2004,... MORE
WILL BAKU-TBILISI-CEYHAN PIPELINE CARRY REVOLUTIONARY IDEAS ALONG WITH CRUDE?
During the opening ceremony on May 25, oil started flowing into the U.S.-backed Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, which will bring Caspian hydrocarbons to Western markets and break Russia's monopoly on energy exports from the Caucasus and Central Asia. But some Russian political analysts contend that the... MORE
TALYSH ISSUE, DORMANT IN AZERBAIJAN, REOPENED IN ARMENIA
On May 20-22, in Armenia's resort town of Tsaghkadzor, an event billed as the "First International Conference on Talysh Studies" was hosted by Yerevan State University's Iranian Studies Department and the Yerevan-based Center for Iranian Studies. Almost certainly, some political circles in Armenia were behind... MORE
ASSASSINATION IN DAGESTAN DAMAGES KREMLIN ATTEMPTS TO ATTRACT FOREIGN INVESTMENT FOR THE CAUCASUS
Early last year Russian President Vladimir Putin solemnly declared, "Armed confrontations and conflicts are becoming history. Even in the most difficult territory, the Chechen republic, the peace process is becoming irreversible" (grani.ru, March 3, 2004). Putin then called for investment in the North Caucasus. However,... MORE
AMENDMENTS TO KEY LAWS UNLIKELY TO FOSTER ARMENIA’S DEMOCRATIZATION
The Armenian authorities claim to have taken a further step toward meeting their membership commitments to the Council of Europe with the May 20 passage of amendments to the country's controversial laws on elections and rallies. President Robert Kocharian's leading political allies say the move... MORE
JAVAKHETI REGION COMPLICATES GEORGIAN RELATIONS WITH ARMENIA
In April Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and his Armenian counterpart Robert Kocharian held talks in Tbilisi following unrest in Georgia's predominately Armenian-populated southern region, Samtskhe-Javakheti. The disturbances, which calmed down soon, coincided with a parliamentary resolution about the withdrawal of Russian military bases from Georgia,... MORE
RUSSIAN POLICIES DRIVE NORTH CAUCASUS INTO ARMS OF REBELS
On May 16 the separatist Kavkazcenter website published a decree from Abdul-Khalim Sadulaev, the new Chechen rebel leader after Aslan Maskhadov's death in March. Sadulaev ordered the insurgents to establish a new front in the North Caucasus. According to the decree, the "Caucasus Front" will... MORE
GEORGIA AND RUSSIA MARCH TOWARD DIPLOMATIC WAR
On March 10, the Georgian Parliament passed a resolution that set a May 15 deadline for progress in the bilateral negotiations about the terms for closing the two remaining Russian military bases in Georgia. Since the parties have failed to make any progress, beginning May... MORE
U.S. RELUCTANT TO PRESS YEREVAN DESPITE FREEDOM PLEDGE
U.S. President George W. Bush's emphatic endorsement of Georgia's 2003 "Rose Revolution" and its consequences was meant to demonstrate U.S. support for similar change elsewhere in the world. But it exposed a fundamental contradiction in his administration's stated pursuit of democratization across the South Caucasus... MORE