Executive Summary:  Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev called for snap presidential elections to be held on February 7, citing the need for fresh elections following the restoration of the country’s territorial integrity over Karabakh. Aliyev faced little competition as he is perceived as widely popular after... MORE

Executive Summary: Iran and Russia have steadily strengthened their bilateral cooperation over the past couple of years, primarily based on the destruction of common adversaries, a shared ideological alignment, and expanded military collaboration. Tehran and Moscow have intensified their arms trade and technical assistance on... 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

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 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

Russia forced what it calls “the collective West” into significant concessions for this year’s Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) annual meeting of foreign ministers. Using its statutory veto and blocking powers, Moscow forced the organization to replace Estonia with Malta to chair... MORE

On November 28, Alen Simonyan, head of Armenia’s National Assembly, told journalists that “the ball is in Azerbaijan’s court” regarding peace negotiations between the two countries. He added, “Armenia fully supports the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. … If desired, the peace agreement can be signed... MORE