A US congressional committee's approval of a non-binding, draft resolution to recognize Ottoman Turkey's 1915 slaughter of ethnic Armenians as genocide has sparked optimism among some Armenian analysts and pro-government politicians that the measure will push Turkey to reconcile with Armenia.
Kazakhstan is redoubling efforts to get two important holdouts - the United States and Uzbekistan - to endorse an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe summit in 2010. EurasiaNet recently sat down with Anthony Pahigian, deputy director of the US State Department's Office of European Security and Political Affairs, to get Washington's diplomatic take on the summit idea.
Internet users in Azerbaijan began experiencing problems accessing Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Azeri-language website the day after the news service posted its coverage of a Washington Post story about alleged real estate transactions involving the children of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, the head of the station's Azerbaijani service tells EurasiaNet.
In response to Afghan government concerns, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander of US troops in Afghanistan, issued a directive last July making the protection of civilian life a top priority during combat operations.
Afghan journalists have a mixed reaction to a government ban on live broadcast coverage of Islamic militant terror attacks. Many in Kabul say the ban places Afghan media outlets on the slippery slope of state censorship.
The responsibility of running the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe may be having a moderating effect on Kazakhstan, Vladimir Shkolnikov, an expert on the workings of the Vienna-based multilateral organization tells EurasiaNet.
The development of Afghanistan's agricultural sector has been overlooked by the international community, despite the fact that roughly 80 percent of the Afghan population lives in rural areas and scratches out a meager existence from the land. In trying to rectify the existing situation, the international community would do well to look to Brazil for answers.
The Dariali border crossing, perched 1,700 meters high in the Caucasus Mountains between Georgia and the Russian republic of North Ossetia, is the only direct land route left between Russia and Georgian-controlled territory. Russia closed the border in 2006 amid growing tensions with Western-leaning Tbilisi that spiraled into war two years later.
