JUNE 13 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan said they made progress towards a settlement on Nagorno-Karabakh at a meeting hosted by Russia, media reported. The rare positive statement from both sides comes just weeks before a major international conference on the disputed region.
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(News report from Issue No. 44, published on June 14 2011)
JUNE 4 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s defence ministry once again warned it would one day send soldiers back into the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh to wrestle control from Armenia. It said Armenia has obstructed talks to resolve the dispute. Armenia refutes this. Armenia and Azerbaijan are due to meet in a few weeks to discuss the issue.
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(News report from Issue No. 43, published on June 6 2011)
JUNE 6 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad postponed a trip to Yerevan, media reported without giving a reason. Iran-Armenia ties have strengthened in the last year. Public Radio of Armenia quoted Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi saying that Iran-Armenia trade increased by 38% in 2010.
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(News report from Issue No. 43, published on June 6 2011)
MAY 27 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a move aimed at appeasing anti-government protests, Armenian authorities released journalist Nikol Pahinian and parliamentarian Sasun Mikaelyan from jail. Mr Pahinian and Mr Mikaelian were prominent opposition figures jailed for allegedly provoking clashes after elections in 2008.
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(News report from Issue No. 42, published on May 30 2011)
MAY 28 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will visit Yerevan on June 6 to discuss Iran-Armenia relations, said Iran’s Press TV. The report said it would be Mr Ahmadinejad’s first trip to Armenia since 2007.
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(News report from Issue No. 42, published on May 30 2011)
MAY 21 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – For years Europe has coveted Azerbaijan’s gas but until May 14 Azerbaijani pop music had been far less appreciated. Overnight that changed.
In Dusseldorf, Germany, in front of a TV audience estimated at 100m, pop duo Ell and Nikki won the Eurovision Song Contest for Azerbaijan and threw a glaring spotlight over the country.
Thousands poured out onto the streets of Baku to celebrate the unexpected win and President Ilham Aliyev was quick to praise the victory.
But winning was the easy bit. Now Azerbaijan has to put on a show worthy of the famously kitsch and super-glitzy competition which started in 1956 and has become one of the world’s most successful television franchises. Azerbaijan is the fourth former Soviet state and the second predominantly Muslim country, after Turkey in 2003, to win the contest.
Hosting the contest allows the venue city to bask in the limelight and showcase its attractions but it also lets others peer in. When Moscow hosted the contest in 2009, the gay rights lobby grabbed its moment and dominated the headlines.
This year anti-government demonstrations have already put Azerbaijan’s leadership under increasing pressure. It has contained the anti-government movement by arresting potential leaders, raiding opposition headquarters and banning demonstrations.
Now, with human rights groups already questioning their commitment to freedom of speech, Azerbaijan’s leaders will face a year of scrutiny until the Eurovision Song Contest next May.
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(News report from Issue No. 41, published on May 24 2011)
MAY 1 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – For the first time in 2011 annualised inflation in Armenia dropped below 10% and may reflect a slowdown in price rises across the region. Armenia’s annualised inflation in April was 8.6% down from 11.5% in March, its national statistics office said. Some analysts had warned that rising inflation could stir instability.
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(News report from Issue No. 38, published on May 2 2011)
MAY 2 2011 – The symbolism is striking. In 2008 and 2009 so-called soccer diplomacy helped to build a reproach between Armenia and Turkey after generations of distrust and animosity. Now, a statue commemorating Armenian-Turkish friendship is being pulled down.
Armenia and Turkey had barely spoken since Armenia supported rebels fighting Azerbaijan, Turkey’s long-time ally, in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh after the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union.
The border between Turkey and Armenia was officially closed. But by 2009 with the help of the soccer diplomacy, when the presidents of each country visited the other’s capital to watch soccer matches, they were on the brink of repairing relations. Then the process stalled.
The dispute stretches back further to the Ottoman Turks. Most Armenians say a genocide by the Ottoman Turks killed 1.5m Armenians in eastern Turkey during World War I. The Turks refute this and say hundreds of thousands died on both sides in civil fighting.
On April 26, workmen moved in to pull down a statue in eastern Turkey symbolising Turkish-Armenian friendship. The statue is about the height of a 10-storey building and was started in 2006 but had still not been completed. It depicts two people emerging out of one stone block.
On a visit earlier this year, Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan described the statue as a monstrosity and local officials have said they have always planned to tear down the statue.
Built to symbolise friendship, the statue may now be a more fitting symbol for the stalled reconciliation process.
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(News report from Issue No. 38, published on May 2 2011)
APRIL 30 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia accused Azerbaijan of shooting dead three soldiers within 48 hours in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan denied the charge but the row further escalated tension.
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(News report from Issue No. 38, published on May 2 2011)
APRIL 26 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Perhaps befitting of the stalled reconciliation process, AFP reported that Turkish workers started to dismantle a 2006 statue symbolising Turkey-Armenia friendship that the Turkish PM described as an eyesore.
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(News report from Issue No. 38, published on May 2 2011)
