Georgia's The Financial has a great story up about a Georgian company's failed efforts to break into Azerbaijan's banana market. Encouraged by Azeri President llham Aliyev's recent calls to streamline the country's customs procedures, the company registered itself as an importer in Azerbaijan and sent truck laden with bananas to the border, only to be denied entry.
According the the article, Azerbaijan's banana business is controlled by a monopoly. Says a representative of the Georgian company: "We will not be discouraged and will keep our trucks at the Azeri border for as long as it takes to break the monopoly no matter our financial losses; I find it laughable reading a statement from the Azeri Ambassador to Georgia claiming that there are no monopolies in Azerbaijan and that the market is open to everyone.
We will invite all the Georgian and Azeri press next week to the Azeri border to witness how our trucks are prohibited from entering the country; I will also personally invite the Ambassador of Azerbaijan to attend the event along with the media."
[UPDATE -- It's been pointed out to me that this blog may have slipped on a banana peel by quoting The Financial, which doesn't have a very good reputation in Georgia as a news source. Point well taken.]
An intergovernmental meeting between China and Armenia was just wrapped up in Yerevan, with the Chinese expressing their wish to see trade between their two countries grow, specifically through the import of Armenian cognac and wine. More details here.
How to gain influence and win over neighbors? The Uzbek government seems to think the answer to that question lies in "banquet diplomacy," most recently treating the Pakistani Prime Minister to an evening of non-stop food and entertainment. More here.
It appears that Greek Cyprus has opened up another front in its ongoing battle with Turkey to claim certain traditional food items as its own. Before it was baklava and Turkish (or, if you prefer, Cypriot) coffee. But now Turkish food makers are crying foul over Cypriot attempts to stake a claim as the creators of lahmacun -- a baked thin round of dough covered with a savory minced meat paste (and which actually has Syrian roots). From the Hurriyet Daily News:
Recent Greek Cypriot claims that lahmacun, a thin-crust snack food topped by minced meat, is a Greek dish have angered Turks, adding a new chapter to a long-running culinary battle about who invented what food.
Greek Cyprus attendants at the International Food and Drink Event in London this week presented “lachmazou” to visitors, defining the food as a “traditional Cyprus home-made pastry.” The culinary claim reportedly angered Turkish visitors to the fair.
“I won’t say anything about Greeks copying baklava and lahmacun from us [Turks] but they can’t manage to make either,” said businessman Hüseyin Özer, who was attending the fair. According to Özer, the “lachmazou” lacked taste in comparison to lahmacun made in Turkey.
Lahmacun belongs to the area from around the southeastern Turkish provinces of Şanlıurfa and Gaziantep, Özer said.
More here. And click here for a recommended lahmacun spot in Istanbul.
Could the opening of a Georgian restaurant in Moscow in a spot previously occupied by an Italian joint -- serving khachapuri instead of pizza -- be the sign of some thawing between Russia and Georgia? The Moscow News thinks so, in this report.
A short video clip from RFE/RL has great footage from the Azerbaijan/Iran border, where thousands of Azeris now line up every day in order to get to the other side to buy basic food staples, which have become prohibitively expensive on their side of the border. You can watch it here.
With some suggesting that the recent wave of revolution and unrest in the Middle East and other regions is directly tied to the recent surge in the price of food, the scene at the Iranian border is likely making Azeri officials nervous. Which may help explain this.
A Wall Street Journal article from a few days ago about the return of fast food joints to military bases in Afghanistan is filled with delicious little nuggets of information.
Turns out that Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the previous commander of U.S. and coalition forces in the country, had banished fast food chains such as Burger King and Pizza Hut from the bases because he felt they were luxuries unbefitting the military. As the Journal piece says, "he told senior officers that he was shuttering the fast-food franchises because he didn't want to be the first American general to tell a grieving mother that her son died delivering frozen pizza."
Much to the relief of Whopper loving grunts, McChrystal's successor, Gen. David Petraeus, has decided to bring the junk food suppliers back onto the bases.
While McChrystal banned fast food for his own troops, he appears to have realized the limits of American power when it came to other coalition forces' eating habits. As the Journal reports: "The Canadian doughnut chain Tim Hortons at Kandahar Air Field was also allowed to stay, though it had to move from its prime location on the boardwalk to a more discreet locale near the Canadian section of the base."
Did petty regional squabbles lead to the demise of 150 Georgian sheep that were about to be exported to Qatar but instead ended up freezing to death on the tarmac in Tbilisi? From Georgia's The Financial:
Azerbaijan State Company in Georgia interfered with its contractor to sell fuel to an Armenia registered air-company. Last week a Georgian oil importer refused to fill the tanks of New Georgia, an Armenia registered Georgian airline, which was hired by Qatar state company Sheep & Livestock, importing live sheep from Georgia. It’s reported that 150 lambs died Friday at Tbilisi International Airport during the night because of cold weather conditions, putting under threat one of the most promising business relations between Georgia and Qatar.
Don't expect to learn how to make your favorite French or Italian dishes while watching Iranian television. Turns out the state broadcasting authority there has issued a ban on cooking show that feature "foreign recipes." More details here and an article looking at the "foreign" roots of some classic Persian dishes here.
The tense and deteriorating relations between former allies Turkey and Israel could certainly use some help. After Turkey sent fire extinguishing airplanes to help Israel fight a deadly forest fire in December, there was some hope that the two countries could use the event for a kind of "fire diplomacy." That effort went nowhere, but could the two countries' beekeepers pick up where firefighting failed? Israel's Ynet takes a look at one of the few places where Turkish-Israeli cooperation is still going strong: bee growing.
