Armenia is under fire from the United States and other Western donors over the legally questionable transfer of its electricity distribution network to Russia's Unified Energy Systems (UES). The deal could have far-reaching repercussions for the country's economic independence and hamper continued Western assistance to... MORE

Reflecting the influence of the Armenian community in the United States, the U.S. Congress is blocking yet another attempt by the White House to sizably cut long-running American assistance to Armenia. The small South Caucasus state is thus due to remain one of the world's... MORE

Armenia and Azerbaijan have reported further progress in their decade-long negotiations on the Karabakh enclave following the June 17 meeting of their foreign ministers in Paris. International mediators are now cautiously upbeat about prospects for resolving the most intractable ethnic dispute in the former Soviet... MORE

Over the past 15 years Armenians have grown accustomed to a great variety of political groups vying for power in their country. They must therefore be amazed by the glaring lack of choice in unfolding local elections across Armenia, races that are largely contested by... MORE

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

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

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

The Armenian authorities have released new data on Armenia's leading corporate taxpayers. The previously unreleased data reveal the first results of the government's new crackdown on tax evasion. The figures suggest that, while the administration of President Robert Kocharian is on course to achieve a... MORE

"Revolution" is again a buzzword in Armenia. Armenian opposition leaders, buoyed by a series of successful anti-government uprisings across the former Soviet Union, have opened a new political season with pledges to effect regime change in their country in a similar fashion. Some of them... MORE

The Armenian authorities look set to miss a June deadline, set by the Council of Europe, for enacting sweeping amendments to Armenia's controversial post-Soviet constitution. Officials in Yerevan admit that a nationwide referendum on constitutional changes put forward by President Robert Kocharian and his governing... MORE