Energy policy continues to dominate Turkey’s political agenda, as the Turkish Energy Minister, Taner Yildiz, has outlined various projects to address the country’s energy needs. Yildiz found the performance of the Turkish energy sector in 2010 satisfactory, in many respects; the increasing energy generating capacity;... MORE

For more than a month the media was full of accounts of the latest revelations from WikiLeaks broadcasting US diplomatic cables to the world. The international speculation about the ramifications of the world reading US classified diplomatic traffic gave birth to a media frenzy and... MORE

Stakeholders in Nabucco and other Southern Corridor pipeline consortiums, as well as Shah Deniz project stakeholders in Azerbaijan, the European Commission, and many observers consider that investment decisions are a must in the first half of 2011.If finalized at this juncture, the investment decisions would... MORE

The European Commission’s President, Jose Manuel Barroso, and EU Energy Commissioner, Guenther Oettinger, are starting on January 13 an unprecedented joint visit to Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. They are responding to Turkmenistan’s recent positive signals about supplies for the EU’s Nabucco transport project, but also to... MORE

Russia and Kazakhstan have agreed to establish a joint regional air defense shield, with Moscow pledging to transfer several S-300 air defense systems to Astana. The S-300’s are designed to protect administrative, industrial, and military centers from tactical and strategic aviation attacks. Russia also invited... MORE

Moldova’s Alliance for European Integration (AEI) has won a new, and potentially longer, lease on life, after 16 months of insecure governance (EDM, January 7). Its post-election government is due to be installed on January 14. The AEI’s success, however hard-won, shows the European Union’s... MORE

After almost four years of construction, the Oguz-Gabala-Baku water pipeline was inaugurated on December 28, 2010. Costing almost $1 billion, the pipeline is already termed by many in Azerbaijan as the “second BTC,” referring to the strategically important Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline built a decade ago to... MORE

“The tribes are Yemen and Yemen is the tribes,” is a saying that is often repeated by Yemenis from the north central highlands where the tribe and tribal life are most dominant. [1] In the wake of the “underwear bomber” and the “toner bombs,” Yemen... MORE

The Turkish foreign ministry is currently holding its third ambassadors’ conference, entitled “Visionary Diplomacy: Global and Regional Order from Turkey’s Perspective,” which brings together diplomats serving in Turkish missions worldwide. These conferences, held since July 2008, have been a major component of Ahmet Davutoglu’s agenda... MORE

Despite the Russian government’s ongoing crackdown of opposition protests in Moscow and extending the politically-motivated prison term to former influential oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Kyrgyzstan has honored Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, with his own mountain. Shortly before visiting Moscow late last month, Kyrgyzstan’s newly elected... MORE