Latest Articles about South Caucasus
WEST SILENT AS YEREVAN STEPS UP PRE-ELECTION CRACKDOWN ON OPPOSITION
With just over two months to go before a fateful presidential election, Armenia’s leadership is stepping up what increasingly looks like repression against supporters of its most formidable opponent, former president Levon Ter-Petrosian. The authorities in Yerevan have been busy in recent weeks harassing his... MORE
MORE UNANSWERED QUESTIONS ABOUT IMEDI TELEVISION
Unanswered questions persist and are even multiplying about the relationship between Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation and Imedi Television, the vehicle of Georgian tycoon and presidential contender Badri Patarkatsishvili. Co-owned by News Corp. and Patarkatsishvili, but controlled de facto by Patarkatsishvili-appointed program managers, Imedi TV agitated... MORE
AZERBAIJAN: REGIONAL LOCOMOTIVE NOT ONLY FOR THE RAILROAD (part two)
Azerbaijan’s decisive role in launching the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (Turkey) railroad project to link Asia and Europe (see EDM, November 27) underscores the country’s surge to regional leadership on energy and transport projects. Barely one year into full-scale operation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, Azerbaijan has begun... MORE
U.S. MOVES TO HELP ARMENIA BUILD NEW NUCLEAR PLANT
The United States has voiced support for the ambitious idea of building a new nuclear power station in Armenia in place of an aging Soviet-era facility, boosting the chances of its realization in the near future. Moreover, the U.S. government announced last week that it... MORE
MOMENTOUS IMPLICATIONS OF AZERBAIJAN-GEORGIA-TURKEY RAILROAD (part one)
Ignoring the anti-constitutional opposition’s calls for immediate regime change, Georgia began construction work on its section of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (Turkey) railroad on November 21. The railroad will connect Asia and Europe via the South Caucasus. The Georgian section is the linchpin to the entire project.... MORE
REOPENING IMEDI TV: NOT WHETHER, BUT HOW
The state of emergency was lifted in Georgia on November 16, but the pro-opposition Imedi Television remains sealed off by the authorities, its broadcasts temporarily suspended, under decisions by the Tbilisi city court and the National Communications Commission. The authorities took Imedi TV off the... MORE
RUSSIAN SOLDERS LEAVE SOUTH GEORGIA, OTHERS DEPLOYED IN THE NORTH
This week Russian military officially transfer control of Russia's last significant permanent military base in southern Georgia. The base was located along the Black Sea at Batumi, home of a major Caspian oil-exporting terminal near the Turkish border. On Thursday November 15, the last train,... MORE
ARMENIAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION SCHEDULED FOR FEBRUARY
Armenia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) has set the date for the upcoming presidential election, which will seal the end of President Robert Kocharian’s ten-year rule. The vote, scheduled for February 19, is increasingly shaping up as a two-horse race between Kocharian’s long-time chief lieutenant, Prime... MORE
IMEDI TELEVISION: USE AND MISUSE OF A GEORGIAN TELEVISION CHANNEL
The anti-government Imedi TV was taken off Georgia’s airwaves, along with the pro-government Rustavi-2 TV and other television channels, on November 7 when Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili declared a 15-day state of emergency. The move helped end the rallies and disturbances in downtown Tbilisi, instigated... MORE
GEORGIA AND UKRAINE: SIMILAR REVOLUTIONS, DIFFERENT TRAJECTORIES
The ongoing political crisis in Georgia shares similar roots with the September 2005 crisis in Ukraine (see EDM, September 8, 14, 16, 2005). The Georgian crisis began when former defense minister Irakli Okruashvili accused President Mikheil Saakashvili of money laundering, misuse of power, and instigating... MORE