CATEGORY RESULTS

Aliyev and Pashinyan meet with Blinken, clash on Munich Security Conference panel

Aliyev and Pashinyan meet with Blinken, clash on Munich Security Conference panel

Unannounced until the last moment, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday facilitated and mediated a long overdue meeting between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on the sidelines of the annual Munich Security Conference in Germany. With Blinken were Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Karen Donfried and newly appointed Senior Advisor for Caucasus Negotiations, Louis L. Bono.

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Toivo Klaar: Georgia an important bridge between Armenia and Azerbaijan

Toivo Klaar: Georgia an important bridge between Armenia and Azerbaijan

In an interview with the Georgian Public Broadcaster, the European Union’s Special Representative for the South Caucasus, Toivo Klaar, has stressed the importance of Tbilisi’s role in bridging the divide between its immediate regional neighbours, Armenia and Azerbaijan. This is highly welcomed and not least because some of us have long argued for the emergence of some kind of “Tbilisi Process” given  that it would be both logical and practical.

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Expectations, Hopes, and Fears accompany new European Union Mission in Armenia

Expectations, Hopes, and Fears accompany new European Union Mission in Armenia

The International Crisis Group (ICG) has published a report on the potential role of the new European Union Mission in Armenia (EUMA) once it is deployed to patrol the country’s sometimes volatile border with Azerbaijan later this month. The mission, a dedicated deployment, is more on par with the European Union Monitoring Mission (EUMM) in neighbouring Georgia than the temporary and much shorter-term European Union Monitoring Capacity (EUMCAP) that ended on 19 December last year.

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Corridors, Highways, and Revisiting Key West

Corridors, Highways, and Revisiting Key West

Eurasianet last week published a piece on what we anyway knew were long-standing disagreements over the construction of a new highway that would connect Azerbaijan with Nakhichevan via Armenia as dictated by the November 2020 trilateral ceasefire statement. It also quoted an anonymous government official as saying that Baku expected a dedicated road in much the same way that the Lachin Corridor passes through Azerbaijan.

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Final confirmation of the European Union Mission in Armenia (EUMA) expected on 23 January

Final confirmation of the European Union Mission in Armenia (EUMA) expected on 23 January

As had been expected, a final decision on the deployment of a larger and longer-term Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) civilian monitor mission to Armenia will be made by the European Union’s Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) on Monday, 23 January. This follows a preliminary decision already taken by the Political and EU Security Committee (PSC). 

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Social, Economic, and Political Pressures increase in Besieged Karabakh

Social, Economic, and Political Pressures increase in Besieged Karabakh

Tomorrow, 17 January, residents of what remains of the besieged and breakaway Soviet-era Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) will be allocated ration coupons for basic and essential foodstuffs as control of the strategic Lachin Corridor by self-identified Azerbaijani environmental activists enters its second month. Despite their claims, however, most consider the effective but albeit partial blockade of the region, situated within Azerbaijan but populated mostly by ethnic Armenians, to be more than just about that.

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Ration Coupon system to start operation in Karabakh on 20 January

Ration Coupon system to start operation in Karabakh on 20 January

Not unexpectedly, on 20 January, certain food products in Karabakh will only be available via a rationing coupon or voucher system. This had already been announced by defacto State Minister on 8 January before it was then announced yesterday that it would brought into operation on 20 January. This is something anyway anticipated when stocks in shops started to increasingly disappear or sell out quickly. The coupons will be distributed on 17 January.

Some residents had already been quoted by media calling for such a system as the effective siege of Karabakh on the Lachin Corridor enters its second month.

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