Latest Articles about South Caucasus
NINE CANDIDATES REGISTER FOR ARMENIAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION AS CAMPAIGNING BEGINS
Campaigning for Armenia’s upcoming presidential election officially kicked off on January 21 and is turning nasty amid an intensifying war of words between the country’s current and former leaders. Prime Minister Serge Sarkisian, outgoing President Robert Kocharian’s favored successor, and his most outspoken challenger, former... MORE
AZERBAIJANI PUBLIC ONCE AGAIN DEBATING FATE OF RUSSIAN LANGUAGE
On the first week of the new year, residents of Azerbaijan were shocked to discover that the popular weekly TV program “Chto? Gde? Kogda?” (What? Where? When?) was missing from TV schedules. The National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting had finally realized its long-planned... MORE
GEORGIA’S PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION: INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION ADDS TO INTERNAL LEGITIMACY
On January 14 U.S. President George W. Bush telephoned his congratulations to the reelected president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili. Summarizing Bush’s position and the two presidents’ conversation, U.S. National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley told the press aboard Air Force One that Saakashvili had “clearly won... MORE
POST-ELECTION EMOTIONS RUN HIGH AMONG OPPOSITION LEADERS
The U.S. and other statements recognizing the Georgian election’s validity come not a moment too soon. Such recognition can at least to some extent dissuade Georgian opposition leaders from resorting to risky confrontation tactics. Opposition leaders threaten to call continuous demonstrations demanding a recount or... MORE
YEREVAN REPORTS DOUBLE-DIGIT GDP FOR 2007
Armenia’s economy appears to have expanded at a double-digit rate for the sixth consecutive year in 2007 despite the unresolved conflict over Karabakh and the resulting high cost of the country’s transport communication with the outside world. Official statistics show its gross domestic product increasing... MORE
GEORGIA BETWEEN RULE OF LAW AND THE “GEOPOLITICS OF RUSTAVELI AVENUE”
On January 13 Georgia’s Central Electoral Commission (CEC) approved and released the final, official results of the January 5 pre-term presidential election. The process took longer than expected, largely because of contentious counting of disputed votes from a number of precincts, amounting to decimal points... MORE
GEORGIA: OPPOSITION THREATENS TO OVERTURN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION AMID GROWING INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION OF THE RESULTS
On January 8 the runner-up presidential candidate Levan Gachechiladze (with 27% of the votes cast, according to the provisional final returns) headed a group of opposition leaders that burst into Central Electoral Commission (CEC) offices and encircled CEC chairman Levan Tarkhnishvili. They threatened to evict... MORE
INTERNATIONAL OBSERVERS ASSESS GEORGIA’S PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION POSITIVELY
International observers’ assessment of Georgia’s January 5 presidential election is substantially positive. More than 1,000 international observers, long-term and short-term, were on hand. This is almost certainly an all-time high ratio to a country’s population for any election in former Soviet-ruled countries. The Georgian government... MORE
OPPOSITION REJECTS WESTERN OBSERVERS’ ASSESSMENT OF GEORGIA’S ELECTION
Mikheil Saakashvili seems set to narrowly win reelection as president of Georgia in the January 5 balloting. With the votes from 2,780 of the country ’s 3,511 precincts counted, the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) reported at 12 noon GMT on January 7 that Saakashvili has... MORE
BADRI PATARKATSISHVILI: FROM RUSSIAN BUSINESSMAN TO GEORGIAN PRESIDENTIAL CLAIMANT (part one)
Badri Patarkatsishvili is the most powerful, albeit not the most popular, among the opposition candidates in Georgia’s snap presidential election on January 5. The oft-used designation of Patarkatsishvili as an “oligarch” is a misnomer in the Georgian context. Oligarchy involves a group, but Georgia does... MORE