A veteran Georgian diplomat has chosen to enter his country's disputatious political arena. A hard decision that had to be made, says Tedo Japaridze.
A diplomatic process designed to normalise relations between Armenia and Turkey led to the signing of two protocols in 2009. Its failure is rooted in the miscalculations of both sides, says Vicken Cheterian.
The story of a powerful and ambitious Armenian oligarch is also a case-study in the flaws of European Union policy in the small Caucasian republic, says Armen Haykyan.
The Black Sea republic of Abkhazia has elected its third president since securing effective independence from Georgia in 1993. The tiny country faces economic and social difficulties, in part deriving from its lack of international recognition. But its democratic experience deserves more attention
The authorities’ destruction of a building and precious archive of human-rights workers in Baku is an act of mindless cruelty that damages Azerbaijan itself, says Thomas de Waal.
A divisive period in Georgian politics has pitted a range of forces - the opposition, the Orthodox church, the media, and civil society - against Mikheil Saakashvili’s government. The disputes carry important messages for the future of democracy in the country, says Ghia Nodia.
The authorities in Baku seem intent on building a new Dubai on the Caspian. But there is a dark side to the boom in Azerbaijan’s capital, finds Thomas de Waal.
Many Georgians displaced by the Abkhazia war of 1992-93 now live in rudimentary centres around the country. They face great difficulties in building their lives. But a survey of their views and aspirations contains some surprises, says Magdalena Frichova Grono.
The success of self-determination efforts in Kosovo and now South Sudan heightens the aspirations to statehood of small Eurasian territories such as Abkhazia. But with the status of this Black Sea entity trapped in a geopolitical limbo, Abkhaz and Georgians will need more than the patronage of the
In Tbilisi, memories of the bitter conflict with Russia in August 2008 are fresh, but everywhere too are signs that forces of change are pushing Georgia in new directions. Jonathan Wheatley takes the measure of a fluid political moment.
In 2014 Russia will host the Winter Olympics in Sochi, once upon a time the capital of independent Circassia. The city has 20,000 Muslims, but no mosque. Sufian Zhemukhov considers the historical reasons for official antagonism to building a mosque and its implications for the Winter Olympics.
The process of dialogue between neighbours locked in an enduring dispute over the events of 1915 is already in trouble. But in assessing what has gone wrong, Vicken Cheterian sees history still on the move.
