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Over the past few weeks, the South Caucasus once again came into the global spotlight, but this time for a rather unexpected reason, even for those who have long been watching the region. Relations between Azerbaijan and Russia, two authoritarian, highly-militarised countries, appeared to come close to the breaking point. Once weary allies, the cause for the seemingly sudden deterioration can be primarily connected to two separate violent incidents that have occured over the past year — the de
It’s been a week since yet another restriction for Georgian media came into force: photos, videos, and audio recordings are no longer allowed inside courtrooms, the court building, or even the courtyard. The new regulation does say that the High Council of Justice is entitled to grant permission after individual appeals from reporters, but so far, all appeals have been left unanswered — therefore, it’s been a week without any quality content from the important trials of detained protesters. Ac
A lot of bottled up emotions broke loose together with the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in the pandemic year of 2020. While not necessarily surprising, it still hit hard — to watch faces familiar from peacebuilding conferences and peace journalism circles succumb to bloodlust, cheering on advancing troops as any prospect for a peaceful resolution to the decadeslong dispute was rendered forlorn. When I studied peace and conflict studies, I remember my lecturer stressing that even in the bleakest
We may look back in the future at this time in June 2025 and say that a global conflict, perhaps something like World War III, had already begun. It certainly feels like that these days. Over the past week, a new war — between Israel and Iran — has erupted just neighbouring our region. And while as of now, it has yet to directly involve the Caucasus, the impacts have already been felt. In addition to my day job as an editor, I also write analytical articles, and I’ve been working for a while o
