In recent months, Iran has engaged in active foreign policy in the South Caucasus to push its geo-economic interests forward. Meanwhile, Western-led economic sanctions have pushed Russia to realize the significance of the North-South trade route. Iran defused and refreshed its relations with
As the “frozen conflict” with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) persists, the Ukrainian crisis poses a different challenge for Azerbaijan. “Neutrality” appears to be the watchword as Baku seeks to preserve its ties with both Moscow and Kyiv. While Baku is concerned about the developing
Clash of Histories in the South Caucasus: Redrawing the map of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Iran By Rouben Galichian Bennet & Bloom, 2012 232 pp. It is widely acknowledged that history is often manipulated and revised by authoritarian states. History textbooks have been used
I wanted to write about this a long time ago, even before the war. But the Artsakh War, its devastating outcome on the Armenian nation and its political ideology pushed me to raise some provocative questions and arguments. What kind of Artsakh do
Caretaker PM Nikol Pashinyan and his party’s euphoria from election victory will soon disappear, since for them, the post-election period will be full of foreign policy challenges linked to the post-war regional dynamics in the South Caucasus. These challenges range from Armenia’s balancing
On June 15, 2021, during his visit to occupied Shushi, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed the Shushi Declaration with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev to cement “allied relations” between the two countries. The declaration consists of many important points including mutual defense guarantees and
The recent Azerbaijani border line encroachment towards Syunik should not surprise us at all. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s threats after the war over Artsakh to forcibly open a “corridor” connecting Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave via Syunik, the role of Azerbaijani media in mobilizing its people for
On March 8, the Indian Ambassador to Iran Gaddam Dharmendra announced that India is planning on connecting the Chabahar port (a seaport in southeast Iran, heavily invested in by India) and the Indian Ocean with Eurasia and Helsinki through the territory of Armenia, creating an International
“NEVER, WITHOUT SYUNIK, WITHOUT THIS STRONG GEOGRAPHIC BACKBONE OF ARMENIA, OUR ENTIRE HOMELAND CANNOT EXIST.” — KAREKIN NJTEH Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is taking advantage of the domestic instability in Yerevan and once again using a threatening tone against Armenia. On the 6th
In his book “Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Conflict in the South Caucasus: Nagorno-Karabakh and the Legacy of Soviet Nationalities Policy” (2012), Dr. Ohannes Geukjian analyzes how ethnicity and nationalism became a catalytic cause of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and how they have affected Armenian-Azerbaijani relations