
Latest Articles about South Caucasus

The US, UK and Georgia Hold joint Military Exercises on Outskirts of Tbilisi
A ship carrying United States military equipment arrived at the Georgian Black Sea port of Poti, on May 5. The equipment, which included US M1A2 Abrams Main Battle Tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles, was ferried from the Bulgarian port of Varna and will take part... MORE

Karabakh: A New Theater for Drone Warfare?
Serious renewed violence broke out between the armed forces of Armenia and Azerbaijan last month (April 2–5, 2016), with fighting in the separatist Azerbaijani region of Karabakh reaching levels not seen since the ceasefire of 1994. One the distinctive features of the recent escalation, which... MORE

Dagestan-Azerbaijan Relations: a New Flash Point in the Caucasus?
The Dagestan Days festival opens in Baku this week (May 12–13), during which ties between that republic in the Russian North Caucasus and Azerbaijan will be celebrated and new business deals announced (Azertag.az, May 7). However, relations between these two Muslim republics are increasingly tense.... MORE

Georgian Political Field Fragments Ahead of the 2016 Parliamentary Elections
Georgian politics rarely lacks drama or signs of fragmentation, but the much-anticipated recent arrival of Paata Burchuladze, a world-renowned Georgian operatic bass, to the political stage has added a fresh, new dynamic (Civil Georgia, April 29). Burchuladze has led charity work for children through the... MORE

An Unfrozen Karabakh Threatens to Ignite Entire Region
The Azerbaijani-Armenian confrontation over Azerbaijan’s breakaway territory of Karabakh has been simmering for years. The 1994 ceasefire was broken time and again, soldiers on both sides were killed year after year, and all attempts to find a political solution to the conflict ended in deadlock;... MORE

Trapped Between War and Peace: The Case of Karabakh
Large-scale armed clashes between Armenian and Azerbaijani troops, from April 2 to 5 (see EDM, April 6), drew the international spotlight back to the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Karabakh, which has commonly been perceived as “frozen” for over two decades. This armed conflict passed through different... MORE

Critics Question Decision of Georgian Minister of Defense to Abolish Conscription
Georgia’s Minister of Defense Tinatin Khidasheli stated, on April 20, that she was prepared to end conscript service and fully transition the country’s army to a professional military force. “The defense ministry of Georgia has already made this decision, and legislative support is required. We... MORE

Russia Alters Geopolitical Balance in South Caucasus With New Energy Project
On April 13, the energy ministers of Russia, Georgia, Armenia and Iran met in the Armenian capital of Yerevan, where they agreed to create a single, common electricity market among these countries. For this purpose, bilateral Russia-Georgia, Armenia-Georgia, and Armenia-Iran projects are being planned to... MORE

Georgia Fears Resumption of Armenian-Azerbaijani Conflict
After the eruption of intense hostilities around Karabakh on April 2, Georgian authorities attempted to clarify their position on this acute regional issue. President Giorgi Margvelashvili called on the conflicting sides “to resolve the conflict, which is only a hundred kilometers away [from Georgia], in... MORE

New Prospects for Development of Transport Sector in Azerbaijan
Continuing drastic declines in energy prices have given new impetus to Azerbaijan’s long-running quest to diversify its economy and develop the domestic non-oil sector. In this regard, the country’s leadership has placed particular importance on the transport sector (Abc.az, April 13; Azernews, March 10). In... MORE