Peter Liakhov

14 Posts

0 Followers

When he’s not busy editing an article or reporting a story, Peter dabbles in documentary film production. His interests include labour, social movements, and corruption.

A woman holds helps lift a massive flag of the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) Republic. Photo: Tamuna Chkareuli.

Armenia

In Pictures | Armenia’s not-so-velvet counter-revolution

by Peter Liakhov

•2 min read

Armenia’s opposition protesters remain steadfast in their demand for Pashinyan’s resignation, though they have few specifics on what happens next. ‘We are here in the name of Armenia and in the name of Artsakh’, Hrayr Harutyunyan, a young man hiding from a downpour in a red tenet erected by protesters the previous day, told me. ‘There are no parties here. We are apolitical people. We are here for our future, for our children.’ Ironically, the very tent he used to shelter from the rain was

Islam Melikov at Juliusz Słowacki 1st General Secondary School in Przemyśl. Photo: Tamuna Chkareuli.

Azerbaijan

Shattered glass at the Kharkiv train station

by Peter Liakhov

•3 min read

Islam Melikov was born in Baku and spent the past three decades living in Kharkiv. OC media spoke with him about his escape from the Ukrainian city and his thoughts on the war at a refugee shelter near the Polish-Ukrainian border. I spoke to Islam Melikov at the Juliusz Słowacki 1st General Secondary School in the Polish border town of Przemyśl where he was staying with his wife, his daughter, and his granddaughter — recuperating before undertaking further travel towards Germany. Islam, an e

One of the blockading lorries. Photo via Turan.az.

Azerbaijan

Trucker protest briefly shuts down Azerbaijan’s largest highway

by Peter Liakhov

•2 min read

Four lorry drivers parked their vehicles across Heydar Aliyev avenue in Baku, halting traffic on the country’s largest highway. The men were protesting being denied permits that would allow them to transport goods across the Azerbaijani border. Traffic was blocked from approximately 6:00 to 11:00 on 17 February, before traffic police arrived on the scene, and the drivers moved their vehicles and returned home. A slogan written on one of the lorries read: ‘It is Anar Rzayev, the head of the

Two Khachkar cross-stones at Dadivank Monastery. Photo via Wikimedia.

Armenia

The battle over Christian monuments in Nagorno-Karabakh

by Peter Liakhov

•4 min read

Azerbaijan’s Minister of Culture, citing a fringe historical theory, threatened to destroy Armenian inscriptions on religious monuments throughout territories Azerbaijan retook in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War. The comments have sparked panic about the future of the monuments and highlighted the contested histories between Armenia and Azerbaijan. ‘A working group consisting of specialists who know Albanian history and architecture has been set up to remove the so-called traces written by Arm

Armenia

Pandora Papers reveal South Caucasus connections to offshore tax havens

by Peter Liakhov

•3 min read

The ‘Pandora Papers’ have implicated figures in Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia in a global network of tax-havens. Two prominent figures from the South Caucasus include the founder of Georgia’s ruling Georgian Dream party Bidzina Ivanishvili, and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. The Pandora Papers are a massive leak of nearly 12 million files, obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) that reveals a globe-spanning network of offshore tax havens that has

Gianandrea Noseda conducting the Georgian Philharmonic Orchestra performing at the Tsinandali Festival on the 16 September 2021. Photo: Peter Liakhov/OC Media.

COVID-19

As Georgia reels from the Delta variant, the Tsinandali Festival plays on

by Peter Liakhov

•3 min read

The improbably held Tsinandali Festival might be a model for the revival of Georgia’s music scene — but its reduced scope shows that nothing escapes the ravages of COVID-19. A music festival in a country with one of the world’s highest COVID-19 death rates — frankly, it seemed an impossibility, or at the very least, a terrible idea. The Tsinandali Festival, held between 8–19 September, however, appears to have proved that assumption wrong, even if the ravages of the pandemic have ensured th

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