Latest Articles about South Caucasus
FAILED STATE NO MORE: GEORGIA’S PRESIDENT ADDRESSES JAMESTOWN EVENT
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili addressed an audience of prominent businessmen and other distinguished Americans and Europeans at a special event hosted for him by the Jamestown Foundation in New York on September 20. Saakashvili spoke on Georgia's state consolidation, its security problems, and its Euro-Atlantic... MORE
GEORGIAN PARLIAMENT DEBATES RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA
On September 16, Georgian television broadcast live parliamentary debates on recent events in South Ossetia and how they fit into the broader context of Georgian-Russian relations. The pointed debate suggested that Georgia's political opposition has awakened from its long hibernation following the November 2003 Rose... MORE
Tbilisi Sends Interior Troops To Prove Pankisi Is Terrorist Free
The fallout continues over the recent public statement by Richard Miles, U.S. Ambassador to Georgia, about the presence of terrorist groups in Georgia's Pankisi Gorge (see EDM, September 16). On September 21, Georgian Interior Ministry forces, in cooperation with the Security Ministry, inspected the Pankisi... MORE
U.s. Officials Give Conflicting Assessments Of Pankisi Effort
The U.S. Ambassador to Georgia, Richard Miles, has weighed in on Russian media and official allegations that Georgia is harboring terrorists and thus is a possible target for preemptive strikes. Miles surprised the Georgian political establishment and reporters with critical remarks about the Georgian government's... MORE
Tbilisi Weighs Response To Abkhazia’s Latest Shift Toward Moscow
For the first time in eleven years, the entire rail line between Moscow and Sukhumi, the capital of Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia, resumed operation on September 10. Gennady Fadeyev, chief of the state-run Russian Railway Company, participated in the ceremony, giving it an air of official... MORE
Azerbaijan’s Nato Aspirations Suffer A Self-inflicted Setback
On September 13 the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, U.S. General James Jones, canceled the Cooperative Best Effort-2004 exercise, which was scheduled to be held September 14-26 in Azerbaijan and involve almost 1,000 personnel from more than 20 NATO member and partner countries. The exercise... MORE
As Russia Seeks Revenge, Tbilisi Is Likely To Find Itself On The Front Line
Regional analysts predict that the recent comments from Russia's top brass that Moscow will preemptively strike "terrorist bases" anywhere in the world will likely cause alarm in all neighboring countries, particularly Georgia. On September 12, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov confirmed that Russia is prepared... MORE
Commentary: Illegitimate Peacekeeping — A Sphere-of-influence Tool
The existing Russian "peacekeeping" operation for Abkhazia is a legacy of the 1993 Russian military intervention in Georgia, the subsequent military advance to the Inguri River, and the ethnic cleansing of the Georgian plurality of Abkhazia's population by the Russian-backed Abkhaz minority. International organizations and... MORE
Commentary: From Geneva To Sochi To Dead End In Abkhazia
The Jamestown Foundation's recent visit to Abkhazia showed the results of a decade-long failure by international organizations and the West to initiate genuine peacekeeping and conflict-resolution efforts in the region. Back in 1994, along with the Russian "peacekeeping" deployment, the UN initiated what became known... MORE
Commentary: The View From Sukhumi
Led by the Jamestown Foundation, a group of international analysts and journalists held in-depth talks recently in Sukhumi with self-styled "prime minister" Raul Khajimba, "minister of foreign affairs" Georgii Otyrba, and other Abkhaz representatives. The Sukhumi leaders are citizens of Russia and seem imbued with... MORE