Executive Summary: Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has returned to proposals for extensive constitutional reforms, citing the need for a new constitution to enhance Armenia’s competitiveness amid changing geopolitical conditions. Armenian officials have asserted that the primary focus of constitutional reforms is to restore the... MORE

Executive Summary: On January 26, Armenia and Georgia signed a joint agreement establishing a strategic partnership between the two countries. Armenia seeks to reduce its dependency on Russia with the new declaration and become more active in regional transit activities, while Georgia may hope to... MORE

Executive Summary: Frustrations in Baku, Yerevan, and Moscow are growing over delays in Armenian-Azerbaijani peace negotiations, as key differences remain on unblocking regional transit corridors. Azerbaijan remains committed to opening the Zangezur Corridor, while the Kremlin calls for Russian border guards to oversee administration of... MORE

Executive Summary: Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has proposed a new constitution to address matters of external security and territorial integrity, which continue to hold up peace negotiations between Baku and Yerevan. Azerbaijan and Armenia have expressed the necessity of unambiguously recognizing one another’s sovereignty... MORE

Executive Summary: Iran has granted Armenia access to its Chabahar and Bandar Abbas ports to facilitate Yerevan’s trade access to India. The proposed east-west transit route will serve as a supplemental component of the International North-South Transport Corridor in facilitating greater regional trade. Armenia has... MORE

In December 2023, Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mehrdad Bazrpash announced that Iran and Azerbaijan would sign an official agreement on the development and opening of the Aras Corridor (Trend.az, December 18, 2023). Bazrpash stated that development of the corridor will begin with... MORE

On December 11, during the EU Eastern Partnership ministerial meeting, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan welcomed the European Council’s decision to grant candidate status to Georgia and initiate membership talks with Moldova and Ukraine. Mirzoyan emphasized that Yerevan is aligned with the idea of closer... MORE

On  December 14, 2023, the European Union granted official candidate status to Georgia (Twitter.com/CharlesMichel,December 14, 2023; European Commission, accessed January 2). The decision will presumably have a significant impact on the geopolitics of the South Caucasus. Inspired by Brussels’ pronouncement, Georgia intends to overtake Ukraine... MORE

Yerevan is seeking to resettle some of the more than 100,000 Armenians who fled Karabakh following the restoration of Azerbaijani control there to Armenia’s Syunik Oblast, according to Yevgeny Mikhailov, a Russian specialist on international conflicts (Svpressa.ru, December 10). The region, sandwiched between Azerbaijan proper... MORE

On December 13, Armenia and Azerbaijan exchanged prisoners that each side had detained at different times since the end of the Second Karabakh War in November 2020 (Turan.az, December 13). This historic exchange was made possible thanks to a significant breakthrough between the two countries... MORE