Author: Vasil Iarajuli

Georgia’s National Agency of State Property has prepared amendments for the Law on the Maritime Space in order to regulate issues related to use of artificial islands and peninsulas created in the territorial seas of the country. The Government said the amendments would delineate rules for management and disposal of artificial islands and peninsulas to encourage investment on the territories. The development follows an ongoing, $100-million state project for a palm-shaped artificial island near the Black Sea city of Batumi, construction of which started in 2022. The Ambassador Batumi Island project involves the creation of two artificial peninsulas and one…

Senior Advisor to the US State Department for Negotiations in the South Caucasus, Louis Bono, met with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov, the Press Service of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry reports. “During the meeting, the situation in the region, normalization and peace process between Azerbaijan and Armenia, current threats and challenges were discussed,” the statement said. Bayramov told Bono that “the obstacle to the implementation of the agreement on the simultaneous opening of the [Akna-Stepanakert] Agdam-Khankendi and [Berdzor] Lachin Corridor, reached during the conversation between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on September 1, is…

In 2022, there was a palpable optimism for direct Western involvement in resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, as multiple negotiations took place between Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders in various Western capitals, including Brussels, Prague and Washington. However, optimism turned into disappointment when Baku launched a military offensive in its breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region on 19 September. After nearly 10 months of observing the West’s response, which included orchestrating eco-protests, establishing a checkpoint along the Lachin Corridor (the only supply route connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia) and eventually blocking it entirely, Baku came to the conclusion that the West was unwilling to guarantee the security of…

The deadlocked negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the blockade of the Lachin corridor and the military build-up at the borders — fears of a new war in the South Caucasus are spreading. In this dangerous situation, Armenia is relying on diplomatic confrontation with the supposedly allied Russia, as neither political support nor weapons can be expected from Moscow. The Russian leadership feels pressured to assert its own role in the South Caucasus. Armenia, on the other hand, is slowly turning towards the West. The increasing tensions are also a sign that the time of Russian regulatory power in the region…

TEHRAN — Iran said Monday it opposes any “geopolitical changes” in the Caucasus, where it has long been angered over Azerbaijan’s desire to set up a transport link along the Armenian-Iranian border. Foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanani, while voicing support for Azerbaijan’s reclamation of the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh region last month, said Tehran is “against making geopolitical changes in the region and this is our clear position.” He was referring to the Zangezur land corridor which would connect mainland Azerbaijan to its exclave of Nakhchivan and then to Turkey. Relations between Baku and Tehran have been traditionally sour, as Turkic-speaking Azerbaijan is…

One year on from Iran’s protests against the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody and the subsequent bloody crackdown by authorities, European views have hardened toward the Islamic Republic, but nuclear policy has barely been affected by the unrest. Amini’s death in police custody on Sept. 16, 2022, sparked waves of protests across the country against the regime of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over alleged human rights violations and attitudes toward women. Many female protesters removed their hijabs or cut their hair at the demonstrations. Iran’s notorious morality police ruthlessly cracked down on dissenters, killing at least 476 people.…

Poland has joined the Baltic countries and Finland in prohibiting vehicles with Russian registration plates from entering its borders. This decision, which comes into effect from Sept. 17, aligns Poland with all European Union countries that share a land border with Russia and have already implemented such a ban. Polish Minister of Internal Affairs, Mariusz Kaminski, announced this on Sept. 16, as reported by PAP. The ban on Russian vehicles entering Polish territory will come into effect from midnight on Sept. 17. The date is a significant one — on this day in 1939 the Soviet Union executed part of its…

For decades, Russia has been an important political player in the South Caucasus and was perceived as a mediator between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. However, after the Nagorno-Karabakh war of 2020, Armenia began to lose faith in Russia as an ally and protector. With the latest Azerbaijani escalation and the dissolution of Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenian separatist government, Russian-Armenian relations appear to have reached the most tense point in their history. In this episode, we will discuss why Russian peacekeepers did not intervene when Azerbaijan launched its offensive and how the crisis changes the balance of power…

A major European tech regulator has ordered TikTok to pay a €345 million ($368 million) fine after ruling that the app failed to do enough to protect children. The Irish Data Protection Commission, which oversees TikTok’s activities in the European Union, said Friday that the company had violated the bloc’s signature privacy law. An investigation by the DPC found that in the latter half of 2020, TikTok’s default settings didn’t do enough to protect children’s accounts. For example, it said, newly-created children’s profiles were set to public by default, meaning anybody on the internet could view them. TikTok didn’t sufficiently disclose these…

One of the main problems facing Azerbaijan is related to the missing persons as a result of the Girst Karabagh War. For thirty years, up to 3900 Azerbaijani citizens have been registered as missing, Azernews reports that the sector head of the Foreign Policy Affairs Department of the Presidential Administration Habib Mikayilli telling at a briefing dedicated to the problem of missing persons in Azerbaijan. “We can say that the missing persons were severely tortured and buried in mass graves for many years. So far, 10 mass graves have been discovered. Mines, unfortunately, hinder our efforts in this matter as well,” he…