On January 11, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian met at a trilateral summit in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin, at the latter’s initiative (Kremlin.ru, January 11, 2021). The four-hour-long talks served as an important follow-up to the ceasefire statement... MORE

Thirty years ago tomorrow (January 13), Soviet forces fired at unarmed Lithuanians in Vilnius, killing 15 and thereby accelerating the recovery of the full independence of the Baltic countries as well as the demise of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Both the details... MORE

It is worth recalling that 2019 was a year marked by domestic politics, reforms and broad caution about the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Experts and observers on all sides avoided rushing to quick judgements about whether the so-called Velvet Revolution that overtook Armenia in... MORE

*To read Part One, please click here. The Armenian government has yet to unveil the number of military casualties sustained during the Second Karabakh War (September 27–November 9, 2020). Almost two months after the ceasefire, the search for bodies is still ongoing across the theater;... MORE

The Armenian government of Nikol Pashinian represents the first case of a “color revolution”–emanated government lightheartedly going to war (Armenia-Azerbaijan war, September 27–November 10, 2020). Irrationally, this government waged a war of choice to perpetuate Armenia’s territorial gains achieved in 1994 at Azerbaijan’s expense. The... MORE

The Second Karabakh War (September 27–November 9, 2020) resulted in a decisive military victory for Azerbaijan, which was actively supported by Turkey in the bloody conflict against Armenia. Since the ceasefire, Russian military and foreign policy experts have sought to assess the results of this... MORE

As almost everywhere else, the coronavirus pandemic overshadowed and affected everything across the North Caucasus during the last year. Due to its direct impact on the population (see EDM, April 2, 2020), officials exploited the disease to tighten control and hide problems like abuse of... MORE

On December 11, the newly elected parliament of Georgia gathered for its opening session. Of the legislative body’s 150 deputies, only 88 attended the event. All represented billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili’s ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party (Civil.ge, Kommersant December 11, 2020). Georgian Dream has governed the... MORE

The year 2020 was marked by a range of both long-continuing and entirely novel trends in the Northeast Caucasus. Insurgency violence simmered in the region albeit at a lower scale than in previous years. But at the same time, both international and domestic Russian scandals... MORE

The drastically upended situation along the southern edge of the South Caucasus has affected Iran in several complex ways. Among the three large powers surrounding the region—Iran, Russia and Turkey—only Iran borders on the formerly Armenian-occupied Azerbaijani territories of Zangilan, Jabrayil and Fuzuli, which adjoin... MORE