Podcast | Domestic abuse in the North Caucasus and Stepanakert's mass protest

2 November 2022

In this week’s episode of the Caucasus Digest, Anna Edgar talks to Svetlana Anokhina, a women’s right activist from Daghestan, about the recent escape of four young Daghestani women from a life of domestic abuse in their home republic.

Four Daghestani women flee to Georgia citing domestic abuse

Ani Avetisyan talks about the tripartite meeting between Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Russia in Sochi, and the mass demonstration that took place in Stepanakert over the weekend.

Thousands rally in Nagorno-Karabakh over fears for region’s future

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Azerbaijan

Biden calls on Aliyev to finalise peace agreement before 2025

Xandie (Alexandra) Kuenning

••2 min read

US President Joe Biden has encouraged Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to finalise a peace agreement with Armenia before the end of 2024. Biden also emphasised his personal commitment to achieving this goal, while referencing the ‘steps’ the US was willing to take. In a letter hand-delivered to Aliyev on Monday, Biden highlighted what he called the ‘steady progress’ Azerbaijan and Armenia had made towards finalising a peace agreement which would normalise relations between the two countries

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Khojali. Image via president.az.

Armenia

Azerbaijan to settle Stepanakert in September

Aytan Farhadova

••3 min read

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has announced that Baku intends to begin to settle the deserted city of Stepanakert (Khankendi) in September. His statement came during a visit to Khojali on Tuesday, where he met with Azerbaijani families displaced during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War who have now returned to the town. During a meeting with local residents, Aliyev also said that the reconstruction of the Aghdam-Khankendi railway was being prepared. ‘From here, you will be able to go in a

A protest in Stepanakert on 15 September. Marut Vanyan/OC Media.

Armenia

Protests break out in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh

Ani Avetisyan

••4 min read

Protests have erupted in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh over what appears to be a miscommunication by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan regarding a possible peace deal with Azerbaijan. Several thousand protesters started gathering in the Armenian capital Yerevan on the evening of 14 September to demand Prime Minister Pashinyan’s resignation over his controversial statements about a potential peace agreement with Azerbaijan. The agreement, as Pashinyan said in a televised speech in parliament that

Erdoğan at press conference. Photo via Anadolu Agency.

Armenia

Erdoğan: Georgian Prime Minister told me Pashinyan asked for dialogue

Ismi Aghayev

••2 min read

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan welcomed an apparent proposal to start negotiations between Turkey and Armenia made by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. The proposal, Erdoğan said, was passed on to him by way of Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili. Erdoğan made the comments during a press conference held on 19 September. ‘If (Pashinyan) is really sincere on this issue, I will show our sincerity and start diplomacy’, the Turkish President said. ‘I hope positive approach