The Caucasus Neighborhood is a weekly roundup of the important stories from the past week across the region. This time we look at a prison sentence in Turkey for an ethnic Armenian blogger, questions around the steep rise in prices for Armenians to purchase Russian gas, and the strange case of disappearing Azerbaijani points for Russia at this year’s Eurovision song contest.
This week’s episode of Insights discusses three major events impacting Armenia – the recent launching of the country’s first satellite, the vulnerabilities exposed by the country’s economic dependence on Russia, and reflections on the passing of Henry Kissinger. Host Eric Hacopian analyzes the opportunities and strategic insights provided by each development, from advances in STEM fields to lessons for diversifying partnerships and balancing geopolitical influences.
If there is one symptom of Armenia’s military defeat in the autumn of 2020, it is unquestionably this cognitive collapse: the revelation of a deep-seated crisis in political thinking characterised by an absence of a critical sense, an inability to decipher reality, or simply to accept it. Strange as it may seem, the elites of Armenia, a country at war since its independence, have failed to develop an original military doctrine or to lay the foundations for strategic thinking capable of anticipating geopolitical changes in its direct and indirect regional environment. Historiography is still strongly influenced by a national catechism […]
By Rober Koptaş Last month, just days after Hrant Dink’s murderer was released, leaving a significant wound in the public’s collective consciousness just sixteen years after the murder, a news story was published in the international press. According to the report, Russian President Vladimir Putin had pardoned Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, found guilty in the 2006 murder of Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya, due to his involvement in fighting in Ukraine. Khadzhikurbanov, sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2014 for his role in organizing the murder of Politkovskaya, who was shot dead in the elevator of her Moscow apartment in 2006, […]
November has seen President Aliyev of Azerbaijan riding high on a wave of victory after his complete ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh. Whereas in past years, there was an attempt to maintain plausible deniability that it, Azerbaijan, had been the one to instigate the attacks, as the non-use of force was stipulated by UN resolutions, the mask has come completely off now as Aliyev outright brags about having used force. This bragging came during a victory speech Aliyev made to the empty streets of Stepanakert, held on the third anniversary of the end of the 44 Day War. It was a […]
By Mark Dovich Local lawmakers from the Civil Contract party have ousted a prominent opposition mayor in Armenia, the latest in a string of instances where the ruling party has appeared to obstruct or undermine the democratic process after elections produced results favoring its opponents. Mayor Arkadi Tamazyan, a member of the Country for Living party who led the northern Armenian mining town of Alaverdi for just over a year, was brought down Tuesday in a vote of no confidence put forward by Civil Contract city councilors. Council members then moved immediately to install Davit Ghumashyan, a Civil Contract member, […]
Last month’s election of Azerbaijan to a senior position of the United Nations’ cultural body has raised concern regarding the fate of cultural monuments in Nagorno-Karabakh, given the organization’s responsibility to protect cultural heritage around the world. Following Azerbaijan’s forced displacement of more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians last month, this additional development further increases the potential that Armenian cultural heritage, which notably includes the Amaras, Gandzasar, and Dadivank monasteries as well as the “We Are Our Mountains” statue, will be destroyed or appropriated. Amaras Monastery is one of the world’s oldest Christian monuments and is the site of the first […]
