Latest Articles about South Caucasus
Azerbaijan Targets the Human Resource Problem
On March 10-11, a large forum of Azerbaijani students studying in foreign countries took place in the French city of Strasbourg (www.1news.az). The event was sponsored by the Azeri Ministry of Youth and Sports and organized by the newly established NGO: ASAIF (Azerbaijani Students and... MORE
Azerbaijan Clarifies View of Baku-Ankara-Yerevan Normalization Process
Interviewed by Turkish media after concluding a visit to Ankara (Hurriyet Daily News & Economic Review, March 14; CNN Turk, March 16), Azerbaijan’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Araz Azimov, has clarified his government’s view on normalizing Azerbaijan-Turkey-Armenia relations. Baku sees this as a two-track process that... MORE
The Geneva Process: A Balance Sheet Since The Russia-Georgia War (Part Two)
Two and a half years into the armistice and fifteen rounds into the Geneva implementation talks (“Georgia & The Geneva Process: A Balance Sheet Since The 2008 War,” EDM, March 10), the Geneva process seems to be leading nowhere.The armistice agreements remain unimplemented in all... MORE
Frozen Conflict Paradigm Persists in the Geneva Process (Part One)
In October 2008, two months after Russia’s invasion of Georgia, a diplomatic process was launched in Geneva to implement the armistice agreements signed on August 12 and September 8 that year. Two and a half years later, the fifteenth round of negotiations concluded in Geneva... MORE
Armenian President Faces New Opposition Offensive
Armenia’s President Serzh Sarksyan has warded off potential challenges from his predecessor Robert Kocharian but is now facing mounting street protests organized by another former president, Levon Ter-Petrosian. Buoyed by the ongoing wave of anti-government uprisings in the Arab world, Ter-Petrosian’s Armenian National Congress (HAK)... MORE
Karabakh Conflict Still Awaits its Breakthrough Moment
The March 5 meeting in Sochi between the Armenian, Azerbaijan and Russian presidents, Serj Sarksyan, Ilham Aliyev and Dmitry Medvedev, respectively, resulted in a joint declaration, but once again failed to produce the much-expected breakthrough on the resolution of the Karabakh conflict. This was the... MORE
Cost And Supply Issues Delay The Nabucco Project
The Nabucco pipeline consortium has discreetly postponed its final investment decision by another year, this time until early 2012, with construction to start in 2012 “at the earliest” (Dow Jones, February 18, 21). The investment decision had previously been postponed in October 2010 for 2011,... MORE
Turkish-Armenian Accords Pronounced Dead By Yerevan
Armenia has announced the effective demise of its Western-backed rapprochement with Turkey, which could see relations between the two historical enemies sink to a new low. Yerevan has accused Ankara of “ruining” the normalization agreements signed by the two governments in October 2009 and threatened... MORE
Georgia Provides More Security Than it Consumes
Addressing the annual international security forum in Munich –the highest-level NATO event between the Alliance’s summits–Georgian President, Mikheil Saakashvili, had the temerity to talk strategy. His address stood out in this year’s forum (February 5, 6), which focused on issues relating only indirectly to NATO... MORE
Azerbaijan’s Oldest Opposition Party Fragments
Azerbaijan’s oldest and, by many standards, the strongest opposition party –Musavat– continues to experience a massive outflow of its key members. For the first time since the party restored its functioning in Azerbaijan in 1992, four senior and dozens of ordinary party operatives have left... MORE