JULY 7 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin said they would intensify efforts to resolve the stand-off between Azerbaijan and Armenia-backed forces over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The White House said Mr Obama and Mr Putin discussed the South Caucasus during a wide-ranging telephone conversation.
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(News report from Issue No. 288, published on July 8 2016)
JUNE 20 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – At a meeting in St Petersburg hosted by Russian president Vladimir Putin, Armenian leader Serzh Sargsyan and Azerbiajani leader Ilham Aliyev agreed to continue discussions reaching a permanent peace deal over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
They also said that an OSCE mission would be sent to the region to monitor the contact line between the two sides.
The Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe is Europe’s democracy watchdog and conflict resolution group. Its involvement in the disputed region of Nagorno-Ka- Karabakh, which suffered its worst outbreak of fighting in April since a UN-brokered peace deal in 1994, is considered vital.
“The OSCE [will] monitor the line of engagement between the Armenian and Azerbaijani troops near the village of Agdam in Azerbaijan’s Tovuz district on June 22,” Azerbaijan’s defence ministry said in a note following the meeting.
The fighting in April between Azerbaijan’s army and Armenia-backed forces killed several dozen people and looked at one time that it would drag in neighbouring countries and spread.
The two presidents had previously met in Vienna in mid-May. After the St. Petersburg meeting they are likely to schedule another summit to evaluate the progress made in Nagorno- Karabakh. Analysts have said that continued meetings between the two leaders is important.
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(News report from Issue No. 286, published on June 24 2016)
JUNE 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan and Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev will meet for talks on the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh in St Petersburg on June 20, a Kremlin spokesman said. Russian president Vladimir Putin will also host the talks. His presence increases the chances that a meaningful deal may be drawn up.
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(News report from Issue No. 285, published on June 17 2016)
JUNE 9 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia will meet in St. Petersburg later in June for a tripartite negotiation on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, a source in the Russian foreign ministry told local media. Azerbaijan’s Ilham Aliyev and Armenia’s Serzh Sargsyan met in Vienna in May and agreed to maintain the ceasefire over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region where clashes erupted at the beginning of April.
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(News report from Issue No. 284, published on June 10 2016)
JUNE 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Fighters linked to the Georgian breakaway region of South Ossetia detained a Georgian man for illegally crossing the border, said Georgia’s government. Akaki Misireli, 65, was sent to a detention centre in Tskhinvali, the capital of the de facto state that was the focus of a brief war between Russia and Georgia in 2008. South Ossetian forces released Mr Misireli later but the incident highlights just how sensitive the border around the breakaway region is.
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(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)
MAY 20 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s government accused Russian soldiers patrolling along the border of the breakaway region of Abkhazia of shooting dead one of its citizens.
The foreign ministry issued a statement which said that Giga Otkhozoria, 31, had been shot six times while he had been on the Georgian side of the border.
“This criminal act once again demonstrates the highly alarming situation in the occupied region of Abkhazia, Georgia and the full responsibility for it lies with the Russian Federation as it is effectively in control of the region,” Georgia’s foreign ministry said.
Russia denied the allegations.
“The Georgian MFA used this case for its usual propaganda exercise,” the Russian foreign ministry said.
Relations between Georgia and Russia have been improving since Mikheil Saakashvili lost power in Georgia in 2013. Under his presidency, Georgia had fought a brief war with Russia in August 2008 for control of South Ossetia.
Russia defeated Georgia and strengthened its military support to South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Over the last three years, relations between Russia and Georgia have improved although border incidents expose the unease between the two neighbours.
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(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)
MAY 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The de-facto government of the Nagorno-Karabakh breakaway region said one soldier of the Armenia-backed NKR Defence Army was killed by Azerbaijani fire. This is the first death in the disputed region since Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev and Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan met in Vienna in mid-May to strengthen the ceasefire.
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(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)
MAY 20 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan’s president, and Serzh Sargsyan, Armenia’s president, agreed to maintain a ceasefire over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region where violent clashes erupted at the beginning of April (May 16).
This was the first time the two presidents had met since four days of clashes killed dozens of people and alarmed international policymakers.
Diplomats from the US, Russia and France, including US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, also participated in the meeting in Vienna.
“The Presidents reiterated their commitment to the ceasefire and the peaceful settlement of the conflict,” the mediators said in a joint statement.
Mr Aliyev and Mr Sargsyan agreed to meet again in June to track the process of the settlement of the conflict.
The importance of the meeting was not the bland statement but the fact that the two presidents were already meeting and talking. The violence had threatened to destabilise the South Caucasus region, which hosts vital pipelines pumping gas to Europe and borders both Russia and Iran, worrying international leaders and policymakers.
Nagorno-Karabakh is officially part of Azerbaijan, but also home to a large Armenian population. An estimated 30,000 people died in fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh in the early 1990s. Only a shaky 1994 UN-brokered ceasefire held the peace.
An Armenia-backed army now controls Nagorno-Karabakh, although Azerbaijan has also said it will retake the region.
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(News report from Issue No. 281, published on May 20 2016)
May 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s government sent a bill proposing the recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent country to parliament, teeing up another flashpoint with Azerbaijan over the disputed region.
This is the first time that the parliament will formally debate the status of Nagorno-Karabakh even though it has been run by Armenia- backed forces since a UN-brokered ceasefire was imposed in 1994.
Last month the worst fighting in two decades broke out around Nagorno-Karabakh, killing several dozen people and alarming the international community.
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(News report from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)
MAY 6 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s parliament has started to debate whether to recognise Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent state. This is an unnecessary and inflammatory move at a tense time for the disputed region.
Last month the worst fighting in two decades broke out around Nagorno-Karabakh between Armenia-backed separatists and Azerbaijani forces.
Now Armenia, apparently keen to make a point, appears to be goading Azerbaijan by threatening to recognise the region as independent. It may have been controlled by Armenia-backed rebels since a ceasefire was agreed in 1994 but, officially at least, Nagorno-Karabakh is part of Azerbaijan.
If parliament goes all the way and recognises the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh, it will set Armenia apart in the international community. Armenia has sympathisers but few will back it.
It’ll also put its neighbour, Georgia, in a particularly difficult position. Georgia has to contend with two self-declared independent states on its territory — South Ossetia and Abkhazia. By discussing formalising Nagorno- Karabakh as an independent state, Armenia is stirring things up.
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(Editorial from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)
