ARTICLE: Off the Map in the Black Garden. By Russ Juskalian (travel.nytimes.com)

(travel.nytimes.com) STANDING on a limestone ridge in the foothills of the Lesser Caucasus Mountains, I surveyed the landscape that lay before me. To the west, illuminated by a late-day sun and with ever more craggy peaks as a backdrop, was Vankasar Mountain, capped by a solitary, ancient church. To the east, yellow grassland and scrub stretched to the horizon. And then there was the ghost city of Agdam, its thousands of ruined buildings representing the last exchanges of a late 20th-century conflict that many people have never heard of.

The road from Kalbajar to Armenia over the Sotk Pass. Russ Juskalian for The New York Times

I had come to the breakaway Southern Caucasus region of Nagorno-Karabakh expecting a land of extremes. Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnically Armenian enclave whose name means “mountainous black garden,” appears on few maps. Its tumultuous recent history would affect any traveler, no doubt, but for me, the experience of visiting this place had a personal dimension. My grandmother had fled Anatolia as a girl, escaping an Armenian genocide at the hands of the crumbling Ottoman Empire. To come to Nagorno-Karabakh, a place where Armenians have asserted their right to live freely — but at the cost of having forcibly removed their Azeri neighbors — generated mixed emotions, to say the least.

Once part of an ancient Armenian kingdom, Nagorno-Karabakh was made a special autonomous oblast, or administrative zone, under the authority of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, by Stalin in the 1920s. This designation temporarily calmed fighting between the predominately Muslim Azeris and mostly Christian Armenians who lived in the region. But as the Soviet Union disintegrated in the late 1980s, old ethnic feuds turned bloody, and both ethnicities were subjected to pogroms and persecution at the hands of the other. Armenians, representing around 75 percent of the Nagorno-Karabakh population at the time, sought independence from Azerbaijan. Skirmishes led to full-on war by the early 1990s, resulting in upward of 30,000 casualties and hundreds of thousands of displaced people on both sides.

In 1994, the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh effectively won that war and claimed independence with the signing of a cease-fire order. In the process, nearly the entire Azeri population was forced to flee. Today, the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (N.K.R.) is not recognized by any other country in the world. With no official borders, Armenian and Azeri soldiers are still dug into trenches on the front lines.

Though I had become interested in the region because of my ethnic heritage, once I started digging into the history of Nagorno-Karabakh, I wanted to experience what was said to be a breathtaking landscape filled with ancient monasteries, mountainous tableaus and hard-working people trying to rebuild.

So last spring I went there, accompanied by my girlfriend. I didn’t expect luxury hotels, haute cuisine or air-conditioned buses, and I didn’t find them. Instead, we stayed at local homes where running water might not be guaranteed, ate simple meals with our hosts and traveled in Soviet-era knockoffs of Fiats and antiquated minibuses with bald tires. In exchange for the lack of amenities, I was hoping not just to understand more about this little-known area, but also to understand more about my own background.

EARLY on a humid May morning, we headed to a dusty square in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, where we boarded a crowded minibus, called a marshrutka, bound for Nagorno-Karabakh’s capital, Stepanakert — a trip that would take eight hours. Aside from two Asian tourists, the bus was filled with local women carrying toddlers, and old men, a few of whom played cards on an upturned cardboard box. The final part of the route twisted almost 10 miles through the Lachin Corridor, a mountain pass that had previously been (or still is, depending on whom you ask) a part of Azerbaijan.

By the time we got to Stepanakert, it was raining. We headed to the Foreign Ministry to pick up our travel papers, checked into a simple hotel and fell asleep. Early the next morning, the sun still burning off the night’s fog, we explored the covered market in central Stepanakert. The air was filled with the scent of ripe cherries and local herbs. In one corner, two women with faded aprons and orange-tinted hair worked over a griddle. The first rolled balls of dough into discs. To each disc, the second added a small mountain of chopped herbs and then folded the dough over the filling. The grilled stuffed bread, called jingalov hats, tasted of pungent mustard greens and watercress.

A 20-minute drive away, in the town of Shoushi, we met Saro Saryan, who, with his wife, runs a homestay, which would become our base. Dressed in a blue Ministry of Civil Defense uniform and cap, Mr. Saryan greeted us in his booming voice. “Russ? Come,” he said.

Mr. Saryan walked with us around town, first showing us the old fortress walls, and then the Tolkienesque Ghazanchetsots Cathedral, built of white limestone. As we approached a massive stone building that stood gutted, Mr. Saryan said, “This used to be a university. My hope is that one day you can come back and see students here.” Past bombings had transformed the broad hallways. In one room, the ceiling had been replaced by sky, the floor was covered in kudzu-like shrubs, and tufts of wildflowers clung to empty niches.

Shoushi clearly has seen hardship upon hardship. One of the only Azeri-majority strongholds in the 1980s, then called Shusha, it was the staging site for rocket attacks on Stepanakert, which was mainly populated by Armenians. Much of the town, including the university, was damaged first by Armenian bombardment, and then by the Azeris after the Armenians took control in 1992. The capture of the town by the Armenians was a turning point in the war.

That evening, for 5,000 dram each (around $12), we slept in a room around the corner from the Saryans’ kitchen. On most days we sat down with the Saryan family to a dinner of lavash bread, fresh cheese, honey and grilled meat or stuffed grape leaves.

Over the next few days we hired a taxi, so we could see more of the region’s Armenian ruins. There was the white-stone Amaras monastery, swathed in knee-high grasses and the occasional wild poppy plant; the 13th-century Gandzasar monastery, whose walls and floor, some believe, contain the head of John the Baptist, the jaw of Gregory the Illuminator and the right hand of St. Zachariah; and Dadivank, where immense Armenian steles known as khachkars, some over 1,000 years old, stood in repose.

At one point, while traveling on the Stepanakert-Martakert Highway in a battered taxi, I saw the ruins of stone buildings. “Agdam?” I asked the driver.

“Agdam,” he answered, quietly. “No photo.” Agdam had been an Azeri village that the Armenians had razed during the war. Some 40,000 people fled, and many were killed. As hundreds of abandoned homes, many reduced to foundations, came into view, the driver stepped hard on the gas.

While the Nagorno-Karabakh war was one of independence — fought within the context of a century-old genocide against the Armenians by the Turks, the fall of the Soviet Union and anti-Armenian pogroms — it was difficult for me, with my background, not to feel dismay that the same persecution the Armenians had suffered was perpetrated upon their Azeri neighbors. What about the former Azeri girls and boys, now refugees about my age, whose memory of home is fading like a photograph left too long in the sun? Most, I learned, have settled in other parts of Azerbaijan. And while I may never be able to see Azerbaijan because of my ethnicity, they may never get to see the place where they were born.

When I mentioned this to Mr. Saryan — an Armenian who fled Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, around the time of the anti-Armenian Sumgait pogrom in 1988 — he said he still had nostalgia for Baku, where he had spent most of his life. “I was part of a group of refugees who met our Azeri counterparts in Vienna,” he said. “I was just in touch with one of them on Facebook yesterday.”

WE had only two days to travel via the northern road from Kalbajar province back to Armenia — amid snow-capped peaks and over the infamous Sotk Pass and its open-pit gold mine. Joined by an Austrian named Barbara who had also been staying at Mr. Saryan’s, we charted the route with a stop at a thermal spring. As we approached the Zuar spring, Barbara gasped. The natural pool was belching soap bubbles from the soap someone had dumped in. Dozens of middle-aged men splashed about. Immediately the center of attention, we had no choice but to join them. After a quick splash, we were invited for a warm beer and a shot of throat-scorching mulberry vodka.

We continued to the town of Kalbajar, ascending a 6,500-foot plateau via a series of steep switchbacks. Like Agdam, this place was mainly non-Armenian before the war; it is now controlled by the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.

Kalbajar, too, looked like a ghost town — except that some of the homes were occupied by ethnic Armenians, many from the Armenian diaspora, coming from Georgia, Russia and elsewhere. With almost no tourism infrastructure, a doctor arranged a place for us in a hospital outbuilding where we slept on two wobbly metal beds.

In the morning, we headed back toward Armenia with two young men we had hired to drive us in a 72-horsepower Soviet-built Lada Niva. We traveled for hours, over mountains, into valleys and back up again. Finally we came to the Sotk Pass atop a rocky hill of debris dumped over the edge of the mountain by huge mining trucks. The road went from dirt to fist-size stones. Crossing this geo-industrial outpost was like passing through a portal. The earth itself seemed to be in upheaval, with whorls of dust spinning into the air by heavily laden trucks.

And then it was over. We headed back down the other side, back into Armenia without so much as a sign to mark the border.

But my mind was still running in circles around Nagorno-Karabakh. I was thinking mainly about the war, and about Mr. Saryan’s son, who, the day after graduating from high school, had led us to a gorge near Shoushi. I asked him if he could imagine having an Azeri friend. And, as if the question itself had puzzled him, he said, “Why not?”

IF YOU GO

Visiting Nagorno-Karabakh is not for the faint of heart. Every year soldiers on both sides of the front lines are killed by sniper fire. Outside Stepanakert, accommodation is mainly limited to homestays.

Visas can be arranged in advance in Yerevan, Armenia, or upon arrival in Stepanakert at the foreign ministry. If you plan to visit Azerbaijan in the future, ask for the visa to be put on a separate piece of paper that can be removed from your passport. Azerbaijan will not allow entry to anyone with a Nagorno-Karabakh Republic visa in their passport.

HOW TO GET THERE

Hyur Service (contact@hyurservice.com; 374-10-54-60-40; www.hyurservice.com/eng). With a few locations in Yerevan, Hyur can arrange rental cars, private transportation or all-inclusive trips to Nagorno-Karabakh. Prices vary. The staff speaks English.

Public minibuses leave various bus stations around Yerevan, heading to Stepanakert every morning for around 4,500 Armenian dram, or $11.30 at 400 drams to the dollar. Travel takes eight hours.

WHERE TO STAY

Saro Saryan Homestay (saro.saryan@gmail.com), in Shoushi. Mr. Saryan and his wife are regular features on the independent travel scene in Nagorno-Karabakh, and speak very good English. For 5,000 dram per person per night, you can stay at their home. Mr. Saryan has an almost encyclopedic knowledge of Shoushi, and if he has time he may offer a walking tour of the town and its ruins. He can also help arrange onward travel and accommodation throughout Nagorno-Karabakh.

Hotel Armenia (www.armeniahotel.am; (374 47) 94-94-00; info@armeniahotel.am, Renaissance Square), in Stepanakert, has 55 rooms furnished to international standards, and prices include Wi-Fi, breakfast and use of a gym. Double rooms range from 30,000 to 41,000 drams per night.

ARTICLE: In the Back Streets of Tbilisi, A Struggle for a City's History. By Tara Isabella Burton (ireport.cnn.com)

(ireport.cnn.com) Recently, activists and government interests have clashed over the development plans for Gudiashvili Square - one of Tbilisi's most characteristic courtyards - following the victory of an Austrian architectural firm of a government-sponsored contest to "re-design" Gudiashvili square: a redesign that in this case entailed replacing traditional Georgian delicate lattice-work balconies with Europeanized facades and a branch of Prada. While the government's characteristically Byzantine approach to the issue of property rights and redevelopment - it's still unclear who owns Gudiashvili Square's buildings, and whether any permits have been granted at all - has cloaked the redevelopments in a shadow of mystery, that hasn't stopped bulldozers - or protesters - from showing up regularly in what has become the heart of this historic battleground, crystallizing tensions between Tbilisi's residents and the government that, many say, is more interested in presenting a Disneyfied facade to foreign investors than in facilitating a sustainable renovation of Tbilisi's heritage streets and squares.

The moneyed elite in charge of renovating the bright facades of Old Tbilisi are keen to advertise a fairyland of carpet-shops, balconies, and the ubiquitous "gvino." But in the narrow alleyways and cobblestoned courtyards of Sololaki, a nineteenth-century district known for its art nouveau architecture and literary pedigree (Lermontov once had a salon here), the government's eagerness to promote Tbilisi as a "modern" European capital is leaving some worried that the city's history is getting left behind in the struggle.

The colorful, panoramic "Meidan" may be the heart of Tbilisi's tourism efforts, but Gudiashvili Square, for many Georgians, represents the city's soul.

More here: www.worldarchitecturenews.com

REISE: An Karfreitag weint der Himmel. Von Ulrike Maria Hund (faz.net)

Auf jeden Fall gibt es diesen Artikel nicht online in ganzer Länge ... und auf jeden Fall kommt ihr zum Karfreitag nicht zu spät, denn dieser ist in Georgien immer genau eine Woche später ...

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 05.04.2012, Nr. 82, S. R1 

Reiseblatt: An Karfreitag weint der Himmel 

Zu Ostern ist in Georgien alles auf den Beinen. Kirchgang, Waschung und der Segen des Patriarchen gehören zum Pflichtprogramm. 
Von Ulrike Maria Hund 

Geflüster schwirrt überall durch die Stadt, Gerüchte huschen hin und her um die kleinen geduckten Kathedralen in der Altstadt, in die die Gläubigen ihre Osterkuchen zur Weihe bringen. Auf den hölzernen Balkonen, die der georgischen Hauptstadt ein südliches Gepräge geben, tuscheln die Nachbarinnen. In den teuren Hotels beraten sich Reiseleiter mit Taxifahrern und rufen befreundete Mönche an: Wann ... 

link: www.seiten.faz-archiv.de

REPORT: THE LIMITS OF GOOD INTENTIONS By Alexander Jackson (turkishpolicy.com - pdf)

full article: turkishpolicy.com (pdf)

The complexity of the challenges facing the Caucasus makes it a litmus test for Turkey’s new foreign policy. The region illuminates the strengths and weaknesses of “zero problems with neighbours”, as well as the need to encourage “zero problems between neighbours” in pursuit of Turkish interests. Turkey’s influence in the Caucasus provides a strong opportunity to help resolve the region’s political and security challenges. However Ankara’s recent efforts in the region have been largely unsuccessful, due to economic dependencies, domestic politics and the reality of regional geopolitics. Recent diplomacy in the Caucasus demonstrates that ‘zero problems with neighbours’ is not always a successful approach.

full article >>>


Alexander Jackson is Senior Editor of the Caucasian Review of International Affairs. He holds an MA in War Studies from Kings College London, with a focus on Caspian politics and security issues.

NEWS: RFE/RL Caucasus Report, January 29, 2011 - February 25, 2011 (rferl.org)

A review of RFE/RL reporting and analysis about the countries of the South Caucasus and Russia's North Caucasus region. For more stories on the Caucasus, please visit and bookmark our Caucasus page .

Who Are Kabardino-Balkaria's 'Black Hawks'? The Kabardino-Balkaria-Karchai jamaat headed by Asker Jappuyev will have to contend with a second adversary in the shape of the "Black Hawks," a band of armed, masked, black-clad men who have vowed to kill him and others for having "brought shame upon their race" by killing innocent civilians and by aligning themselves with Chechen insurgent commander Doku Umarov. More
Abkhazia Asks Georgia To Hand Over Former Guerrilla Commander The Abkhaz delegation to confidence-building talks has demanded that Georgia hand over Dato Shengelia, commander of the now-disbanded Forest Brothers guerrilla group. More
Azerbaijani Anticorruption Campaign Unfolds Before Wary Public Eyes Three weeks have passed since the Azerbaijani government launched a well-publicized anticorruption campaign, but authorities have so far failed to convince the public of the sincerity of their intentions. More
A Look Inside Kadyrov's Villa Thanks to the Internet, we now have photos of Ramzan Kadyrov's mansion in Tsentoroi. The photos don't tell us much about the man aside from a penchant for expensive, if tasteless, furnishings. More
Proposed U.S. Budget Trims Assistance To Caucasus, Central Asia While the State Department isn't experiencing the same belt-tightening pressure as other branches of the U.S. government, an effort to cut corners -- and to free up funds for Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan -- has resulted in a proposed reduction in funding for assistance programs in Central Asia and the Caucasus in 2012. More
Rift Opens In Georgia Between The Church And State Georgia's plans with Turkey to sign an accord preserving religious heritage sites in the two countries has exposed a growing rift between the government and the Orthodox Church. More

Aliyev Steps Up Corruption Fight Azerbaijan's president has called for more vigilance in the fight against corruption and urged people to help heal what he called the "wounds" of sleaze. More
Rally Against Iran Held In Baku A rally took place on February 9 in front of the Iranian Embassy in Baku to protest what are widely perceived to be anti-Azerbaijani statements appearing in the Iranian media and Iran’s warmer ties with Armenia. More
Facebook Lands Activist In Hot Water An Azerbaijani opposition activist has been questioned by police after using his Facebook page to call on people to protest against the government. More
Mr. Bryza: They're Locking Up Our Youth After nearly a year and a half, a new U.S. ambassador has finally taken up residence in Baku. Matthew Bryza became the seventh U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan last December and says he wants to deepen U.S.-Azeri ties. His timing is perfect. His arrival has coincided with a renewed government crackdown on youth activists. More
Armenian Daily Fined For Libel An Armenian court has found the country's leading pro-opposition daily newspaper guilty of libel and ordered it to pay a fine. More
Chechen Rebel Says He Ordered Russian Bombing Chechen Islamist rebel leader Doku Umarov says he ordered a suicide bombing that killed 36 people at Russia's busiest airport last month. More
Protests At Baku's Mubarak Statue A group of Azerbaijani youth activists staged a demonstration February 6 near a statue of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Baku, in a gesture of solidarity with anti-Mubarak protesters in Egypt, More
Azeri Activist Detained On Drugs Charges An opposition youth activist has been detained on drugs-possession charges his supporters say are trumped up. More
Foreign Investors Eye Nagorno-Karabakh A group of entrepreneurs from Austria, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia have visited the breakaway Azerbaijani region of Nagorno-Karabakh to look at investment opportunities. More
Largest Flag Flying Again In Baku The troubled Azerbaijani flag recognized as the world's largest -- when mounted -- is flying again. More

Small Corners Of Hell Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya was gunned down in Moscow in October 2006 primarily for her articles criticizing Russian policy in Chechnya, in particular the vindictiveness, intimidation, corruption and arbitrary brutality that are the hallmarks of the pro-Moscow Chechen leadership. More
Armenia To Probe Noncombat Deaths Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian said he would pay "special attention" to investigations into noncombat army deaths after being confronted by angry parents of dead soldiers. The parents are concerned that the authorities are not telling the truth or taking the deaths seriously. More
Mubarak Sitting Pretty In Azerbaijan Despite troubles at home, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is still sitting pretty in Azerbaijan. More
It May Be Too Late For A New North Caucasus Policy Faced with the galloping jihadization in the region, Russian experts are ever more frequently calling for a new state policy for the North Caucasus. Such calls are misguided insofar there can be no one-size-fits-all set of measures, only individually tailored solutions for specific republics. More
Armenian Economy Rebounded In 2010 Armenia's economy grew 2.6 percent last year as it rebounded from a sharp decline in 2009 caused by the global financial crisis. Growth in 2010 was driven primarily by industry and the mining sector, which benefited from a rally in prices for nonferrous metals. More
Was Daghestan Jamaat Behind Domodedovo Bombing? No group has yet claimed responsibility for the deadly blast at Moscow's Domodedovo airport. But Russian media have floated the idea that the suicide bomber was linked to the Daghestan wing of the North Caucasus insurgency, whose leader warned last October that his men would continue to "inflict horrors on the unbelievers" on their own territory. More
Why Is Georgia So Quiet About Tunisia’s Revolution? When I asked several Georgian politicians from the ruling party what the country’s position on the recent events in Tunisia is, they were caught by surprise. It is worth saying a few things about this Georgian indifference to the so-called Jasmine Revolution. More
Azeri Activist Held Over Military Service Police detained Baxtiyar Haciyev while he was on his way to neighboring Georgia. Haciyev told RFE/RL that police kept him in the police station in the western town of Qazax until 3 a.m. He was then transferred to the western city of Ganca. More
Georgia Offers Russian-Language Alternative To Kremlin TV Georgia begins broadcasts of a new Russian-language television station that seeks to bring balanced news about the Caucasus to Russian-speaking countries around the world. The director of the Kanal PIK station says the move is meant to shed light on the strategically important region of the Caucasus by breaking the Kremlin's near-monopoly on coverage. More
Russians Rethink Security President Dmitry Medvedev vows to destroy "the nests of the bandits" who perpetrated the devastating attack on Moscow's premier airport. More
Your Responses: 'What Boorishness...It Is To Talk Politics When People Are Dying!' Russians have reacted with shock and grief to the tragic terrorist bombing of Moscow’s Domodedovo airport on January 24. Here we present translations of some of the comments left on the website of RFE/RL’s Russian Service and other popular Russian-language websites. More
Armenia Downplays Tax Revenue Armenian Finance Minister Vache Gabrielian has downplayed a more than 13 percent rise in the tax revenues, saying more needs to be done to improve tax collection in the country. More
Azerbaijani Commits Self-Immolation An Azerbaijani villager has died after setting himself and his home ablaze in desperation after police pressured him to pay a fine for chopping down trees. More
Azeri Islamic Leader Gets 90 Days The chairman of the unregistered Islamic Party of Azerbaijan (AIP), Movsum Samadov, has been sentenced to three months in pretrial detention on charges of illegal arms possession, inciting terror, and seeking to change the constitutional system, Samadov was initially detained along with several members of his party on January 7 and was held for 13 days for allegedly resisting police. Samadov's lawyer says his client will appeal the detention. More
Armenian Soldier Killed In Karabakh An Armenian soldier was shot dead in continuing truce violations at Armenian-Azerbaijani "line of contact" around the breakaway Azerbaijani region of Nagorno-Karabakh. More
Yerevan Street Traders Protest Ban Yerevan's city administration is facing angry streets protests after its decision to ban street traders, Mayor Karen Karapetian ordered the ban after taking office last month. Police began enforcing it this week. Hundreds of traders now risk losing their sole source of income. More

FERNSEHEN: Im Land der Weisen und der Schlitzohren - 19.08.1986 (zdf.de)

Joachim Holtz bereist 1986 Georgien, Aserbaidschan und Armenien und stellt die Bewohner der Sowjetrepubliken südlich des Kaukasus vor.

Video in der Mediathek des ZDF >>>

RUSSLAND: Lage in Russlands Unruheregion Pulverfass Nordkaukasus - arm, instabil und gesetzlos (tagesschau.de)

Kurz nach dem Anschlag in Moskau stand für die Behörden fest: Der Täter kommt aus dem Nordkaukasus. Doch warum bietet die Region solchen Nährboden für militanten Islamismus? Russland sei an der Entwicklung mitschuldig, sagt Jens Siegert, Leiter der Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung in Moskau. Diese Sichtweise sei zu einfach, widerspricht Russland-Experte Alexander Rahr von der Gesellschaft für Auswärtige Politik im Gespräch mit tagesschau.de. Der Nordkaukasus muss wirtschaftlich und politisch stabilisiert werden - darin sind sich beide einig.

Von Wenke Börnsen, tagesschau.de

Der ganze Beitrag >>>

Mehr zum Thema
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REPORT: Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia: Political Developments and Implications for U.S. Interests (fas.org)

By Jim Nichol, Specialist in Russian and Eurasian Affairs
December 21, 2010

Congressional Research Service, 7-5700
http://www.crs.gov/
RL33453
~~~
CRS Report for Congress
Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress

Summary
The United States recognized the independence of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia when the former Soviet Union broke up at the end of 1991. The United States has fostered these states’ ties with the West in part to end their dependence on Russia for trade, security, and other relations. The United States has pursued close ties with Armenia to encourage its democratization and because of concerns by Armenian-Americans and others over its fate. Close ties with Georgia have evolved from U.S. contacts with its pro-Western leadership. Successive Administrations have supported U.S. private investment in Azerbaijan’s energy sector as a means of increasing the
diversity of world energy suppliers. The United States has been active in diplomatic efforts to resolve regional conflicts in the region. As part of the U.S. global counter-terrorism efforts, the U.S. military in 2002 began providing equipment and training for Georgia’s military and security forces. Troops from all three regional states have participated in stabilization efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq. The South Caucasian troops serving in Iraq departed in late 2008. The regional states also have granted transit privileges for U.S. military personnel and equipment bound for Afghanistan.

Beginning on August 7, 2008, Russia and Georgia warred over Georgia’s breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Russian troops quickly swept into Georgia, destroyed infrastructure, and tightened their de facto control over the breakaway regions before a ceasefire was concluded on August 15. The conflict has had long-term effects on security dynamics in the region and beyond. Russia recognized the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, but the United States and nearly all other nations have refused to follow suit. Russia established bases in Abkhazia and South Ossetia—in violation of the ceasefire accords—that buttress its long-time
military presence in Armenia. Although there were some concerns that the South Caucasus had become less stable as a source and transit area for oil and gas, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan are barging oil across the Caspian Sea for transit westward, and the European Union still plans to build the so-called Nabucco pipeline to bring Azerbaijani and other gas to Austria.

Key issues in the first session of the 112th Congress regarding the South Caucasus may include Armenia’s independence and economic development; Azerbaijan’s energy development; and Georgia’s recovery from Russia’s August 2008 military incursion. At the same time, concerns may include the status of human rights and democratization in the countries; the ongoing Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over the breakaway Nagorno Karabakh region; and threats posed to Georgia and the international order by Russia’s 2008 incursion and its diplomatic recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Congress may continue to scrutinize Armenia’s and Georgia’s reform progress as recipients of Millennium Challenge Account grants and the region’s role as part of the Northern Distribution Network for the transit of military supplies to support U.S. and NATO operations in Afghanistan. Some members of Congress and other policymakers believe that the United States should provide greater support for the region’s increasing role as an eastwest trade and security corridor linking the Black Sea and Caspian Sea regions, and for Armenia’s inclusion in such links. They urge greater U.S. aid and conflict resolution efforts to contain warfare, crime, smuggling, and terrorism, and to bolster the independence of the states. Others urge caution in adopting policies that will increase U.S. involvement in a region beset by ethnic and civil conflicts.

Contents:
Most Recent Developments ... 6
Background ... 6

Overview of U.S. Policy Concerns ... 6
Regional Responses After the September 11, 2001, Terrorist Attacks on the United States ... 9
Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan ... 10
Azerbaijan and the Northern Distribution Network (NDN) ... 10
U.S. Policy After the August 2008 Russia-Georgia Conflict ... 10
The South Caucasus’s External Security Context ... 12
Russian Involvement in the Region ... 12
Military-Strategic Interests ... 13
Caspian Energy Resources ... 14
The Roles of Turkey, Iran, and Others ... 15
The Armenia-Turkey Protocols of 2009 ... 15
Iran ... 16
Others ... 17
Obstacles to Peace and Independence ... 17
Regional Tensions and Conflicts ... 17
Nagorno Karabakh Conflict ... 18
Civil and Ethnic Conflict in Georgia ... 20
Economic Conditions, Blockades, and Stoppages ... 26
Recent Democratization Problems and Progress ... 27
Armenia ... 28
Azerbaijan ... 28
Georgia ... 31
U.S. Aid Overview ... 32
U.S. Assistance After the Russia-Georgia Conflict ... 33
U.S. Security Assistance ... 34
U.S. Trade and Investment ... 37
Energy Resources and U.S. Policy ... 38
Building the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and South Caucasus Pipelines ... 39
Regional Energy Cooperation with Iran ... 41

Figures
Figure 1. Map of Caucasus Region ... 45

Tables
Table 1. U.S. Foreign Aid to the South Caucasus States, FY1992 to FY2010, and the
FY2011 Request ... 43
Table 2. U.S. Humanitarian Assistance to Nagorno Karabakh ... 44
Table 3. The $1 Billion in Added Aid to Georgia by Priority Area ... 44

Contacts
Author Contact Information ... 45

full text (pdf) >>>

NEWS: RFE/RL Caucasus Report, December 17, 2010 - January 7, 2011 (rferl.org)

A review of RFE/RL reporting and analysis about the countries of the South Caucasus and Russia's North Caucasus region. For more stories on the Caucasus, please visit and bookmark our Caucasus page .

Azeri Villagers Protest Hijab Ban Several thousand people taking part in an Ashura ceremony in a village near Baku have protested a ban on the wearing of hijabs in schools. More
Daghestan's President Tries To (Re)Make History On December 15, a congress of Daghestan's various nationalities took place in the capital, Makhachkala, which the republic's authorities touted as the third such congress in Daghestan's recent history. More
Gas Chief Named Yerevan Mayor Yerevan has a new mayor, a week after the Armenian capital's top official resigned following allegations he beat up a member of the president's staff. More
Independent Armenian TV Loses Another Frequency Tender Armenia's embattled A1+ TV company, which has been off the air for almost a decade, has been defeated in another frequency tender administered by the state regulator after allegedly submitting fraudulent documents. More
Armenian Military Launches Hotline For Complaints Armenia's Defense Ministry has launched a hotline for reporting complaints, following a recent surge of violent incidents and non-combat deaths within the armed forces. More
Armenia Approves Army Plan Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian and his National Security Council have approved a five-year plan to modernize the armed forces, including the acquisition of long-range, precision-guided weapons. More
Armenia: Would Recognize Karabakh Armenian President Serzh Sarksian says his country will recognize Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent country if Azerbaijan uses force to resolve their dispute over the breakaway region. More
Armenian Justice Minister Fired Over 'Violent' Subordinate Armenian Justice Minister Gevorg Danielian has been dismissed for what the government describes as a failure to punish one of his high-ranking subordinates allegedly involved in violent conduct. More
A Daunting Challenge With globalization multiplying the avenues by which corrupt practices span the globe, experts are debating the nature of corruption and how to stop it. More
As Corruption Rises Worldwide, Georgia Proves The Exception Corruption is on the rise worldwide, as highlighted in Transparency International's latest Global Corruption Barometer. The surprise exception? Georgia, where only 3 percent of residents say they've paid a bribe in the past year. More
Corruption, And Outrage About It, Is On The Rise Corruption is on the rise in many countries, but so is the number of people willing to report incidents of it, according to a new report by the watchdog group Transparency International. More
Yerevan Mayor Quits In Scandal Yerevan's controversial mayor has resigned following allegations he beat up a member of President Serzh Sarkisian's staff. More
Armenian Oppositionist Set Free Another Armenian opposition activist jailed on charges stemming from postelection unrest in Yerevan in 2008 has been granted parole and released from jail. More
NATO Reassures Russia Over Plans NATO has reiterated that the alliance and Russia pose no threat to each other. More
Ukraine May Ease Georgia Travel Curb Meeting with a visiting delegation from Georgia's Finance Ministry, Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said it was necessary to allow Georgian citizens to stay in Ukraine for one year without a visa. More
Chechens Praise European Court Ruling A Chechen woman has welcomed a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that awarded her and more than two dozen others record compensation for a deadly Russian air raid on their village. More
Armenia Threatens To Recognize Karabakh Armenia has threatened to formally recognize the breakaway Azerbaijani region of Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent state if Baku tries to use force to win back the disputed enclave and other Armenian-controlled territories near it. More
'No Armenia Effect' On U.S. From Leaks U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Marie Yovanovitch says the publication of thousands of leaked U.S. diplomatic documents will not have a negative impact on Washington's "very close" relations with Yerevan. More

U.S. Woman Said Detained In Iran 'Did Not Use Armenian Territory' Armenian authorities have insisted that a U.S. woman reportedly detained in Iran on suspicion of espionage did not travel to Iran from neighboring Armenia. More
New Azerbaijani Youth Group Aims At 'Positive Change' Counting on the power of example, a group of young people were trying to advocate standing in queues in Baku, notorious for its allergy to such orderliness. This was an action by a new youth group -- one aimed at positive change. More
Daghestan's President Suffers Further Rebuff The Daghestan wing of the North Caucasus Islamic insurgency's rejection of calls by President Magomedsalam Magomedov to lay down its arms calls into question the relevance of the government commission recently created to "help" repentant fighters readapt to civilian life and of the appeal to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev adopted last month at a Congress of Peoples of Daghestan to declare an amnesty for fighters who surrender. More
Ruling Azeri Party Touts 'Young' Base The ruling Yeni Azerbaijani Party (YAP) has claimed an increase in the number of young people who joined the party last year. More
Georgian Veterans Fined Over Protest Eleven people arrested when police dispersed a war veterans protest in Tbilisi were fined today in court for petty hooliganism. More
U.S. And Azerbaijan: Best Friends With Dirty Faces The state-owned "Azerbaijan" newspaper published an article at the end of 2010 that criticized U.S. foreign policy as “dishonest and immoral." Titled “USA: Tempting 'Liberty,'” the article also accused several U.S. presidents and lawmakers of having illicit sexual relationships. More
Ten Days In Baku That Shook My World Contributor Christel Fricke says her experience in Azerbaijan has given her a better understanding of what it is like to live on the front lines of the wrong life without any ticket of escape. More
Armenian PM Lays Out Economic Goals Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian says manufacturing, information technology, and infrastructure projects will increasingly replace agriculture and construction as the driving forces of economic growth in the country. More
Grozny In The Holiday Spirit After an unsuccessful search far and wide for a suitably ostentatious tree, Grozny's planners decided to fasten together smaller trees together to produce a massive centerpiece that lacked only a dusting of snow during unseasonably warm temperatures in the area. More
Armenia Grapples With Galloping Inflation, Mushrooming Foreign Debt President Serzh Sarkisian predicts the country will fully emerge from its recession in 2011. But a report compiled by the Civilitas Foundation in Yerevan, offers a more nuanced and less optimistic picture, highlighting such pernicious trends as high inflation, a budget deficit, and the huge increase in Armenia's foreign debt over the past three years. More
Sidelined Azerbaijani Opposition Plans 'Public Chamber' Two months after the elections in which Azerbaijan's mainstream opposition parties lost their tiny handful of parliament mandates, veteran political figures have adopted a new strategy for promoting democratization and consensus-building. More
Georgian Opposition Leader Agrees To Defends IDPs' Interests While Georgia's Minister for Internally Displaced Persons, has said that "a fantastic amount" has been done this year to alleviate the plight of tens of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in temporary accommodation in Tbilisi. Many IDPs diagree. More
A Cake Fit For A 'King'? For the fifth year in a row, the Azerbaijani city of Ganca has baked a 49-meter cake in honor of President Iham Aliyev's 49th birthday. More
In Azerbaijan, Hijab Debate A Mounting Challenge For Government In Azerbaijan, a recent ban on schoolgirls wearing the hijab, or Muslim head scarf, has sparked angry public protests that are taking on an increasingly political flavor and raising the specter of religious extremism in a country that is both Muslim-majority and largely secular. More
Russia's Minorities Have Plenty Of Questions For Putin In his recent, nationally televised question-and-answer session, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin claimed that "the state exists to provide for the interests of the majority." Fair enough, but what about minorities? Who will protect them from the majority? More

VIDEO: Importance of Caucasus for the United States (youtube.com)

The US interests in the Caucasus are related to the Azerbaijani and Georgian geographical positions, natural resources, economic influence, energy routes and the Afghanistan Plan. The indispensable strategic position of Azerbaijan makes the country unique. As the country is located between Russia and Iran it serves as a transit state but also a buffer zone for the two. No other country can offer the United States a stronghold that can play a double role. Now consider the economic influence and natural resources of the country and the importance of Azerbaijan increases. Add to this the alternative energy route for Europe that passes through Azerbaijan and Georgia. Then think of the crucial role Azerbaijan plays in the Northern Distribution Network, and the immense value of Azerbaijan and Georgia for the United States is revealed.
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NEWS: RFE/RL Caucasus Report, November 18, 2010 - December 3, 2010 (rferl.org)

A review of RFE/RL reporting and analysis about the countries of the South Caucasus and Russia's North Caucasus region. For more stories on the Caucasus, please visit and bookmark our Caucasus page .

Caspian Nations Avoid 'Definitions' Leaders of the five Caspian littoral states are holding a summit in Baku starting November 18. They haven’t agreed on much in the past, and now there really doesn’t seem to be much to talk about. More
Georgia Gears Up For Election Reform Talks Georgian opposition and the ruling party reached partial agreement last week on the format for long-anticipated talks on election reform. But President Mikheil Saakashvili has already vetoed one of the most important draft proposals the opposition unveiled last month as a basis for discussion. More
Controversial Daghestan Government Commission Holds First Session A Daghestan government commission intended to "help" Islamic insurgents who admit to the error of their ways and wish to return to a normal law-abiding way of life held its first session. But it remains unclear what legal guarantees, if any, it is empowered to offer. More
Armenian Army Scrambles To Tackle Abuse After Spate Of Deaths Armenian Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian this month faced the uneasy task of comforting parents whose sons were found dead after suffering vicious treatment in the army. More
Kazakhstan's Jihadists Solicit Assistance From Ingush Insurgency Website More


Dozens Quit Armenian Party's Youth Wing Twenty-six members of the youth wing of one of Armenia's key opposition parties, including its leader, have resigned en masse. More
Armenian Oppositionist Freed A well-known Armenian opposition figure has been set free after spending more than 30 months in prison on controversial charges stemming from the 2008 postelection unrest. More
Interview: Georgia 'On Its Way' To NATO, EU, Top Official Says Georgia is pushing ahead with reforms aimed at joining the European Union and NATO -- and ready to talk to Russia. That's the message from Giorgi Baramidze, Georgia's deputy prime minister and state minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration. More
Minister's Son Brings Suit Over Shashlik The son of Azerbaijan's transportation minister is suing two opposition newspapers over allegations that he paid a restaurant $1.2 million to make him a Shish kebab from a bear on display at the eatery. More
Kremlin Replaces Kabardino-Balkaria Interior Minister Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has fired Kabardino-Balkaria Interior Minister Lieutenant General Yury Tomchak, replacing him with Sergei Vasilyev, a career Russian police officer from Kemerovo with no previous experience of the North Caucasus. More
What Happens In Lisbon Stays In Lisbon NATO delegates attending the alliance's annual summit last weekend in Lisbon have left a bit of a scandal in their wake. More
Saakashvili, At EU Parliament, Calls For Dialogue With Kremlin Seven years to the day after the Rose Revolution, the bloodless uprising which brought Mikheil Saakashvili to power in Georgia, the Georgian president delivered an impassioned speech in front of the European parliament in Strasbourg, in which he offered the Russian leadership a "deep and comprehensive dialogue." More
Georgia Names New Ambassador To U.S. Georgia has announced a high-profile personnel reshuffle that will impact crucial aspects of domestic and foreign policy, including relations with Washington and ongoing efforts to bring the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia back under the control of the central government. More
NATO Prepared For 'Global Threats and Challenges' Following the Lisbon summit, U.S. Ambassador to NATO Ivo Daalder spoke with RFE/RL about NATO's new mission statement and the beginning and meaning behind of its new relationship with Russia. More
Caspian Summit Fails To Clarify Status, Resource Issues Third attempt in eight years fails to advance vital questions as Caspian summit has ends in Baku apparently without major breakthroughs. More
Freed Azerbaijani Blogger Says Year Without Internet Was 'Torture' Azerbaijani opposition blogger Emin Milli has been released early from prison, one day after fellow blogger Adnan Hajizada walked free. The jailing of the two men, widely attributed to their video clip mocking the government, had drawn international condemnation as a gross violation of free speech. More
Georgia Walks A Line Between Washington And Tehran It's unlikely that the warming of Georgia's relations with Iran will lead to a cooling of relations with the United States or Europe. The real danger is that politicians who are already bothered by Georgia's policies and problems or who understand them poorly will be handed another bone to chew. More

Chechens Praise European Court Ruling A Chechen woman has welcomed a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that awarded her and more than two dozen others record compensation for a deadly Russian air raid on their village. More
Armenia Threatens To Recognize Karabakh Armenia has threatened to formally recognize the breakaway Azerbaijani region of Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent state if Baku tries to use force to win back the disputed enclave and other Armenian-controlled territories near it. More
'No Armenia Effect' On U.S. From Leaks U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Marie Yovanovitch says the publication of thousands of leaked U.S. diplomatic documents will not have a negative impact on Washington's "very close" relations with Yerevan. More
OSCE Summit Concludes Without Deal On Action Plan Delegates at the OSCE's two-day summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, had hoped for a breakthrough deal on a new OSCE action plan to strengthen the organization in the future. More
Armenian Official Denies 'Leak' A leading member of President Serzh Sarkisian's Republican Party (HHK) has denied recently disclosed U.S. claims that Armenia re-exported weapons to Iran. More
Insurgents In Daghestan Threaten Further Strikes On Russian Targets The man named three months ago as commander of the Daghestan sector of the North Caucasus insurgency has warned that his group will continue to "inflict horrors" on Russian territory -- an allusion to the suicide bombings in the Moscow subway in which 40 people were killed. More
Interview: UN's Ban Favors Expanded Security Council UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says he is in favor of adding more members to the UN Security Council. In an exclusive interview with RFE/RL, Ban said it was the prevailing view among UN members that the current format of 15 council countries -- including five permanent veto-wielding members -- needs to be reformed. More
Abkhaz, South Ossetian Officials Dismiss Georgian President's Assurances Officials in the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia have reacted with skepticism to Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili's pledge not to resort to military force to bring those regions back under the control of the Georgian central government. More
Can Ukraine Follow Georgia's Lead In Reforms? When Mikheil Saakashvili came to power in 2003, Georgia was widely seen as one of the most corrupt countries in the former Soviet Union. Saakashvili battled corruption, streamlined bureaucracy, and pushed through successful economic reforms. What can other post-Soviet countries learn from Georgia? More