Author: Vasil Iarajuli

Hamas’s brutal October 7 attack on Israel and subsequent military operations by the Israeli armed forces in the Gaza Strip have put Azerbaijan in an extremely uncomfortable position. It is a close partner to Israel but also seeks ties to influential Muslim states across the Middle East as a priority. It has had to tread carefully. Indeed, its criticism of the violence in Gaza has been diplomatically calibrated. Baku’s relations with Tel Aviv are all too important to squander. After all, it was the Israeli high-tech weaponry such as drones that spearheaded attacks by Azerbaijani forces in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh…

Inflation keeps shrinking in France while unemployment continues to climb – a trend observed since the beginning of the year. Could Europe soon see a similar scenario? France’s inflation rate is following a similar downward trajectory to Europe’s, with a continuous drop throughout 2023. The French statistical office Insee confirmed on Wednesday that inflation stood at 4% for October, down from 4.9% in September. Energy is the sector playing the largest role behind the figures, with a 5.2% increase in energy prices in October, down from a staggering 11.9% at the same time last year. Inflation data for the EU and…

On December 7, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev unexpectedly signed a decree calling a snap presidential election for February 7, 2024. The 61-year-old autocrat has been in power since 2003. His current, fourth, term was set to expire in early 2025. Each of his re-election victories have been by comically wide margins in polls held with nothing but the faintest patina of democratic legitimacy. Now Aliyev is riding a wave of genuine popularity thanks to Azerbaijan’s victory over Armenia in the 2020 Second Karabakh War and the recent military conquest of the entirety of Karabakh, which ended centuries of Armenian habitation in the region. So at…

Jakarta, Surakarta, Berlin (7/12 – 11) Amid a generally declining period for Germany’s national football team, the 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Indonesia has been a shining light for them. Germany is one of the most successful national teams ever in international competition. They have won four World Cups (1954, 1974, 1990, 2014), three European Championships (1972, 1980, 1996), and a Confederations Cup (2017). Nevertheless, in recent years, Germany is suffering a horrid fate. In 2018, Germany suffered their first-ever first-round exit from the World Cup, since 1938. Germany became the fifth defending champions to be eliminated in the…

ARMENPRESS. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia Ilia Darchiashvili has commented on the French shipment of Bastion APCs to Armenia through Georgian territory, which has caused discontent in Azerbaijan. In an interview with Channel One of Georgia, Darchiashvili said that Georgia has allowed both countries to equally make use of its transit routes. He added that every country has the right to have defense forces, and that every country has the right to acquire armaments which are permitted under international treaties. “Tbilisi’s position is to allow both countries to use in equal conditions the transit function that our country has. Thus,…

The French armored personnel carriers Bastion, manufactured by Acmat, was shipped to the port of Poti for transportation to Armenia. Bastion components were also delivered to Georgia by the French company ARQUUS. According to French media Ouest France, the shipment is part of French military aid to Yerevan and was originally planned to be sent to Kyiv, but these 12.5-ton troop carriers were deemed too poorly protected against artillery fire and anti-tank missiles. France has also sold three Thales Ground Master 200 (GM200) radars and signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Armenia to supply the Mistral short-range air defense system. Asked to comment…

The EU appears set on including prohibitions on the sale of Russian diamonds in its upcoming 12th package of sanctions against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine. The move, aimed at exerting pressure on Russia’s economy and depriving it of financial resources to wage its war, is certain to have an effect on Armenia’s important and growing diamond-cutting industry. Whether that effect is negative or positive will depend on how the EU will manage the difficult task of tracing cut diamonds to their rough origins in Russia’s mines. Helpful or harmful? The proposed sanctions, adopted by the European Commission and…

Armenia and Azerbaijan say they will move towards normalising relations, and will exchange prisoners captured during recent fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh. The two neighbours have been involved in a decades-long conflict over the disputed territory. In a joint statement released on Thursday night, the two countries said they saw a “historical chance” for “long-awaited peace”. Both countries said they hoped to sign a peace treaty by the end of the year. Azerbaijan’s lightning military offensive in September brought an end to three decades of ethnic Armenian rule in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, recognised internationally as Azerbaijani territory. Most of its 120,000 ethnic…

London (28/11 – 58) Tajikistan’s human rights record continues to deteriorate amid an increased crackdown on freedom of expression and the political opposition, as well as the targeting of independent lawyers, journalists, and family members of opposition activists abroad. Freedom of assembly is severely curtailed with any local protests, such as a series of protests in the Gorno-Badakhshan autonomous region (GBAO), violently quashed. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Programme Office in Dushanbe, the OSCE Transnational Threats Department, and the Permanent Representation of France to the OSCE organized a study visit to Paris for government officials from…

Berlin (24/11 – 50) The Supreme Court of the Republic of Tajikistan sentenced five Pamiri leaders from the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) to life imprisonment. They are Tolib Ayombekov, Nazhmiddin Sherchonov, Imumnazar Shoishirinov, Munavvar Shanbiev and Niyozsho Gulobov. The press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Tajikistan announced their detention in June of this year, presenting everyone as “leaders of an organized criminal group in the city of Khorog” – the administrative center of GBAO. According to information from the law enforcement agency, Shanbiev and Ayombekov were among those with whom the country’s authorities signed separate agreements in October…