Author: Vana Vratsyan

Berlin (06/12 – 67.67) Asliddin Sherzamonov, an activist from Tajikistan, strongly believes that the United Nations (UN) should assess the actions of the Central Asian country’s security forces during the events of 2021 and 2022 in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO). Speaking at the UN session on minorities held in Geneva on December 1, Asliddin said that an independent international commission should be established to evaluate the activities of Tajikistan’s security forces. In the operations carried out by security forces in 2021 in Roshtkala and Khorog, three people died. In another operations in the spring of 2022 by the security…

Armenia has been elected a member of the committee of the UNESCO 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and its 1999 Protocol. The election took place on December 12 during the committee’s meeting in Paris. Armenia has been elected for a 4-year term. The Armenian delegation to the meeting was led by Alfred Kocharyan, the Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport. In his remarks, Kocharyan warned that the Armenian cultural heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh is endangered and underscored that in the past three years Azerbaijan has been blocking a UNESCO mission…

Huge reforms are underway in the Armenian military, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said. The prime minister was asked at an online press conference by a citizen why Armenia wasn’t using the Swiss military model, or that of any other developed country, in its armed forces. “Huge reforms are taking place in the Armenian Armed Forces,” Pashinyan replied. “The reforms are taking place by studying international experience, among others.” He mentioned the certification procedure for servicemembers, which enables them to raise the salary of those passing the tests. Pashinyan also mentioned the 24-day training program for military reservists, which in…

Azerbaijan believes there is no other alternative to normalizing its relations with archrival Armenia, according to its Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov. “We currently await Armenia to respond to our suggestions, and if they accept our terms, we are prepared to continue our dialogue,” Bayramov told a news conference alongside his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock in Baku on Saturday. The top diplomats met in the Azerbaijani capital during a regional visit by Baerbock, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said, to discuss the current cooperation agenda between their countries and regional and international security issues. The ministers also exchanged updates on the current…

Markets rallied again Monday following another strong performance on Wall Street, as below-forecast US jobs data fanned optimism that the Federal Reserve had reached the end of its interest rate hiking cycle. After a tough year for traders, the bank’s decision last week to pause on monetary policy for a second meeting and hint that it would not tighten further has provided some much-needed vigour, and sparked talk of a new year cut. Those hopes were given a boost Friday by figures showing far fewer jobs than expected were created in October, while other data pointed to a slowing economy,…

Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-06) submitted the following testimony to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs during the annual Member Day Hearing: “Chairman McCaul and Ranking Member Meeks, thank you for this opportunity to share several of my priorities that are under the jurisdiction of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. As Co-Chair of the Armenia Caucus, I would like to highlight the grave and urgent need for humanitarian assistance for more than 100,000 refugees who were forced to abandon their homeland in response to Azerbaijan’s violent military aggression against the Armenian population of Nagorno Karabakh. I would also like…

Brussel, Frankfurt (16/11 – 23) A levying of embargoes and export bans, the imposition of sanctions, erection of fearsome “license” (= restriction) protocol: there’s nothing new about this back-and-forth in world trade, in the eternal jousting for advantage among markets and nations. The clever Chinese imagined they had the world tea market all locked up until an earnest Scottish botanist carrying the telling name of “Robert Fortune” snuck into the Middle Kingdom to observe their agriculture, steal tea plants, and pick up tricks of tea processing. The Chinese global tea monopoly was busted wide open. The fortunate Mr. Fortune was…

With El Nino in full force, officials are bracing for the worst transboundary haze in southern Southeast Asia since before the pandemic in 2019. At a time when climate change is presenting an existential threat to human beings, the fear is that these seasonal haze situations will worsen as intensifying global warming renders the peatlands and forests even more combustible in the dry season. Southeast Asia is home to about 40% of the world’s total peatlands, and these fires and resultant emissions and toxic haze are turning out to be a serious driver of climate change. This further complicates the perennial…

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said France would be to blame for any new conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, following Paris’ promise to deliver military equipment to Armenia last week. “The provision of weapons by France to Armenia was an approach that was not serving peace, but one intended to inflate a new conflict, and if any new conflict occurs in the region, France would be responsible for causing it,” according to the Azerbaijani readout of a call between Aliyev and European Council President Charles Michel. Aliyev also blamed France for his absence at a summit of the European Political Community last week…

Paris (08/11 – 75) Sri Lanka’s economic and political crisis of 2022 left the country bankrupt. Ranil Wickremesinghe took over as President of Sri Lanka in July 2022 when the country was in the middle of its worst economic and political crisis since independence in 1948. His predecessor, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, had been forced out of power after facing mass protests prompted by 12-hour power cuts and persistent fuel and food shortages. The nation was bankrupt.Wickremesinghe brought in the International Monetary Fund and has focused on reaching macroeconomic stability and driving tough but much-needed structural reforms. Today, as Sri Lanka embarks…