After the eruption of intense hostilities around Karabakh on April 2, Georgian authorities attempted to clarify their position on this acute regional issue. President Giorgi Margvelashvili called on the conflicting sides “to resolve the conflict, which is only a hundred kilometers away [from Georgia], in... MORE

The outbreak of clashes along the line of contact in the separatist region of Karabakh, which began early in the morning on April 2 and lasted until April 5, was the most dangerous since the 1994 ceasefire agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The number of... MORE

On the night of April 2, the Armenian-Azerbaijani line of contact around the separatist region of Karabakh erupted in the worst violence for two decades until a tenuous ceasefire ended hostilities three days later. What is notable about the brief violent conflict is that both... MORE

In February, Russian sources confirmed a $200 million loan to Armenia. The loan—extended by Moscow to allow Armenia to buy up-to-date Russian weapons—had been promised in June 2015 (see EDM, June 29, 2015). In a rather unusual manner, and contrary to the agreement’s confidentiality clause,... MORE

In mid-February, the troubled electricity producer Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA) once again made headlines when Armenia’s Energy Minister Yervand Zakharyan announced the government’s decision to seek a 30-year loan from the World Bank to cover ENA’s outstanding debts (A1Plus, February 18). Zakharyan refused to... MORE

On February 8, a number of units of Russia’s Southern Military District as well as the Black Sea Fleet and the Caspian Flotilla were put on a high alert, and massive snap exercises followed. According to Russian officials, this and similar such snap exercises would... MORE

As oil prices have gone down significantly, the consequences may go well beyond the depreciation of the Russian ruble and Russia’s economic decline. Armenian Deputy Minister of Finance, Pavel Safaryan, recently stated that some of loans previously promised by Russia, including the $270 million loan... MORE

Tbilisi and Moscow’s negotiations over the expansion of Russian Gazprom’s share of the Georgian energy market heightened the political fever in the country over the last several weeks. The negotiations that started largely in secrecy in September 2015 (see EDM, October 21, 2015), have continued... MORE

In Yerevan, on December 23, the energy ministers of Armenia, Georgia, and Iran as well as the chief executive of the Rosseti joint-stock company, which manages Russia’s power distribution grids, signed a memorandum on cooperation in the energy sphere. According to the Armenian Ministry of... MORE

“ ‘All progressive humanity’ is concerned by the periodic reports about the disappearance of this or that type of plant or animal, [but] we are much less concerned about the disappearance of nations and nationalities,” Armenian expert Gevork Pogosyan says. Yet, as the post-Soviet period... MORE