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Analysis | Can ‘New Armenia’ disentangle democratic change from geopolitics?

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Meeting between Nikol Pashinyan and Vladimir Putin on 14 May in Sochi (/primeminister.am)

Mikayel Zolyan is a historian and political analyst from Yerevan, Armenia. He teaches at the Brusov Uni­ver­si­ty of Languages and Social Sciences.

Armenia has for decades pursued a so-called ‘multi-vector’ foreign policy, main­tain­ing its security agreement with Russia while securing funding from the West. But now that real demo­c­ra­t­ic change is occurring, will the gov­ern­ment of the ‘New Armenia’ be able to maintain the balancing act?

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Opinion | The EU Parliament makes it clear — no deal for Azerbaijan unless it improves its rights record

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Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev (L) arrives for a meeting with European Com­mis­sion President Jean-Claude Juncker at the EU Com­mis­sion head­quar­ters in Brussels, Belgium on February 6, 2017. (François Lenoir /Reuters)

Philippe Dam is advocacy director for Europe and Central Asia at Human Rights Watch.

The European Par­lia­ment, the EU’s elected rep­re­sen­ta­tives, have made clear they will not ratify a deal with Azer­bai­jan unless it improves it’s human rights record. The European Com­mis­sion should now follow through with a clear message — Azerbaijan’s crackdown on dissent must end and political prisoners freed.

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Abkhazia denounces Georgia peace initiative, US and EU offer support

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Daur Kove, Abkhazia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs (/Apsnypress)

Abkhazia has denounced Georgia’s recent ‘peace ini­tia­tive’ to simplify trade and movement of people for Abkhazia and South Ossetia, while the US, EU, and a number of other countries welcomed the ini­tia­tive.

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Opinion | Armenia’s U-turn back to ‘multi-vector foreign policy’

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The Com­pre­hen­sive Economic Part­ner­ship Agreement (CEPA) signed by sides at the Eastern Part­ner­ship summit on 24 November 2017

The first U-turn

Stepan Grigoryan, is head of the Ana­lyt­i­cal Centre for Glob­al­i­sa­tion and Regional Coop­er­a­tion, Armenia.

The statement from the President of Armenian in September 2013 sounded like a bolt from the blue. He would not sign the Asso­ci­a­tion Agreement with the European Union at the planned November Eastern Part­ner­ship Summit in Vilnius, he said. Instead, Armenia would be joining the Russian led Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). This signified Armenia's departure from a multi-vector foreign policy. [Read more…]

Analysis | Georgians are increasingly unaware of what the European Union Monitoring Mission does

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(/EUMM)

As much as 81% of the pop­u­la­tion of Georgia doesn’t know what the European Union Mon­i­tor­ing Mission (EUMM) does, according to the 2017 Knowledge of and Attitudes towards the European Union in Georgia survey funded by the Europe Foun­da­tion and imple­ment­ed by CRRC-Georgia. This lack of knowledge has increased over time, as has the preva­lence of incorrect infor­ma­tion about the EUMM’s mission. This rep­re­sents a missed oppor­tu­ni­ty for the EU’s com­mu­ni­ca­tions in Georgia.

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Georgia criticises EU representative for congratulating South Ossetian president

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Meeting in Tskhin­vali (YouTube)

On 17 May, Georgian gov­ern­ment officials crit­i­cised EU Special Rep­re­sen­ta­tive for the South Caucasus and co-chair of the Geneva Dis­cus­sions, Herbert Salber, after his recent visit to South Ossetia. Salber had con­grat­u­lat­ed newly elected president of South Ossetia, Anatoly Bibilov, on his electoral victory during the meeting in Tskhin­vali (Tskhinval) on 16 May.

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Georgian politics — all circuses, without the bread [Opinion]

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(Mari Nikuradze/Archive)

Bakar Berekashvili is a lecturer in politics and critical theory at the Georgian American Uni­ver­si­ty in Tbilisi.

Georgia’s political elites are engaged in heated debates over a number of issues they claim are of exis­ten­tial impor­tance to the country. These circuses, in which different interest groups fight for their own elitist agendas, has very little relation to the views and needs of ordinary Georgians.

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Europe must engage Abkhazia on its own terms [Opinion]

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(civil.ge)

Foreign allies and inter­na­tion­al organ­i­sa­tion piled on support for Georgia’s sov­er­eign­ty and said Abkhazia’s ‘so called par­lia­men­tary elections’ do not stand up to inter­na­tion­al scrutiny. These state­ments are a token of crucial diplo­mat­ic support to Georgia. But they also mask the absence of a policy fit to overcome the current impasse.

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