Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan has set about forming his new government in a significantly changed political configuration that emerged from the May 6 parliamentary elections won by his Republican Party (HHK). The cabinet currently taking shape will be missing a key political player, the Prosperous... MORE

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to Georgia delivered some potentially significant results (see EDM, June 11). These look, however, not nearly as impressive as Clinton’s lavish praise for Georgia’s performance on economic reforms.Two features stand out in Clinton’s praise. First, it credits Georgia’s... MORE

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton paid a visit to Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey on June 4-7, almost two years after her first South Caucasus tour in early July 2010. That tour was billed as a “get-acquainted” trip, midway through her tenure. The just-completed... MORE

The Azerbaijani-Turkish Trans-Anatolia gas pipeline project (TANAP) has become the basic component of the EU-backed Southern Corridor for Caspian gas to Europe. Shortly after the signing of the Azerbaijan-Turkey memorandum of understanding (MOU on December 26, 2011), the European Commission incorporated TANAP into the planning... MORE

US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron have endorsed the Azerbaijani-Turkish project, Trans-Anatolia gas pipeline (TANAP), in their June 5 messages to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. The two messages were read out at the opening of the Caspian Oil and Gas conference... MORE

On May 30, the Ministry of National Security (MNS) of Azerbaijan reported that two weeks earlier it had neutralized an armed group of Sunni Islamist militants who planned to kill the President of Azerbaijan and carry out bomb attacks during the Eurovision Song Contest. Azerbaijani... MORE

NATO’s Open Door Policy is as old as the Alliance itself, and remains to date a core principle of the Alliance. Under NATO’s founding treaty, the “Allies may, by unanimous agreement, invite any other European state in a position to further the principles of this... MORE

On May 21, over 50 people from Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachaevo-Cherkessia and Adygea chose to commemorate the anniversary of the Russian-Circassian war in the 19th century in Georgia. “In practice the issue of the Russian-Caucasian war’s results should be discussed in Russia, by Russian scholars,” the head... MORE

NATO’s summit on May 20 in Chicago has brought Georgia slightly closer to the “open door” of membership in the Alliance. The Chicago summit’s declaration reaffirms earlier decisions, committing NATO to positive consideration of Georgia’s membership aspirations. The Chicago document reads: “At the 2008 Bucharest... MORE

During his four-year rule, Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan has had little contact with Vladimir Putin, and the Armenian head of state’s most recent trip to Moscow only reinforced a growing sense in Yerevan that he is distrusted and possibly disliked by Russia’s most powerful man.... MORE