By Benyamin POGHOSYAN, PhD, Chairman, Center for Political and Economic Strategic Studies

Economic cooperation in the South Caucasus may bring lasting stability if vital interests are taken into account.
Regional economic cooperation in the South Caucasus has always been the focus of international organizations and external powers as a tangible way to stabilize the region and pave the way for conflict settlement. After the end of the first Karabakh war in 1994, in close cooperation with Turkey and under strong US support, Azerbaijan launched several regional infrastructure projects—oil and gas pipelines and railways connecting Azerbaijan with Turkey via Georgia. Azerbaijan and Turkey excluded Armenia from these projects and imposed an economic blockade, viewing this exclusion as a tool to force Armenia to give up Nagorno Karabakh. READ MORE

• February 22, 2022

By Fuad SHAHBAZOV, Baku-based independent regional security and defence analyst

Since its emergence in the 1980s, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has been a significant source of concern to the state of Turkey. With the escalation of conflict between the Turkish state and the ethnic Kurdish community in the 1990s, the level of violence explicitly increased, and the civilian death toll rose to its highest point. Though the PKK could not ensure absolute authority in large, predominantly Kurdish provinces in the southeast, it gradually shifted to a new strategy —urban violence— to undermine the Turkish state's authority in Kurdish regions.
According to theories of violent resistance, violence is the only practical and productive tool of mass mobilisation of ethnic insurgencies against political systems. In the case of Kurdish nationalism in Turkey, many scholars argue that Turkey's policy of ethnic nationalism has had a decisive role in shaping Kurdish ethnic nationalism throughout these years. READ MORE

• February 22, 2022

The head of the defensive alliance says Moscow is maintaining a massive force ready to attack Ukraine.

• February 16, 2022

Are Russian forces getting ready for war in Ukraine? At least 130,000 Russian troops are positioned within reach of Ukraine's borders as Russia demands security guarantees from the West.

• February 16, 2022

For Britons with ties to Ukraine, the current situation at its border is nerve-racking. While tensions have shown signs of de-escalation since some members of Russia's military withdrew, fears of an invasion have yet to subside.

• February 16, 2022

The Nord Stream 2 pipeline can carry enough natural gas from Russia to fuel 26 million households in Europe.

• February 16, 2022

The US president says he has issued the warning due to "increased threats of Russian military action".

• February 11, 2022

Russia has positioned about 130,000 troops - equipped with everything from tanks and artillery to ammunition and air power - close to Ukraine's border.

• February 11, 2022