Armenia

Let Our Fame be Great: Journeys Among the Defiant People of the Caucasus
By Oliver Bullough
Basic Books
528pp

Armenian leaders are ecstatic that Russia is getting involved in the construction of a new nuclear power plant at Metsamor. Environmentalists and technical experts are far less enthused, saying that a new Metsamor unit poses considerable risks.

Amid a grand display of Russian flags in Yerevan, Russian and Armenian leaders on August 20 signed an agreement that extends Moscow’s lease on its Gyumri military base near Turkey to 2044. Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan framed the deal as a way to guarantee peace in the South Caucasus, but critics contend that the pact is not a partnership between equals.

Plans to grant Russia a 49-year lease on its base in Armenia have sparked heated opposition criticism of the Armenian government for allegedly selling short the country’s independence. The agreement is expected to be signed next week during Russian President Dmitri Medvedev’s state visit to Yerevan on August 19.

These two blog posts by Global Chaos and Scary Azeri were originally published as part of a series for an online project giving space to alternative voices on the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the dis

These two blog posts by Scary Azeri and Global Chaos were originally published as part of a series for an online project giving space to alternative voices on the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over t

Amid a downturn in Turkish-Israeli relations, political support in Israel for a parliamentary vote on the recognition of Ottoman Turkey’s 1915 slaughter of ethnic Armenians as genocide appears to be growing.

An effort to remove Georgia’s North-South gas pipeline from a list of strategic state-owned properties is stirring controversy. Officials in Tbilisi maintain that full privatization of the pipeline is not an option, but some economic analysts contend that even the projected sale of a minority stake in the route could threaten Georgia’s energy security.

WASHINGTON -- Following Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's trip last week to Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus, RFE/RL’s Washington correspondent Heather Maher asked US Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner, the top US diplomat for human rights and democracy, for an assessment of what Clinton accomplished and of the rights situation throughout the region as a whole.

She came, she saw, but did she conquer? United States Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s July 4-5 visit to the South Caucasus was all about emphasizing an active US interest in the region’s development, but local reactions to her message appear mixed.