Coronavirus Presents Armenia with Difficult Challenges By Benyamin Poghosyan, PhD, Chairman, Center for Political and Economic Strategic Studies
The COVID-19 pandemic has confronted governments with two massive simultaneous challenges. They have to contain the virus through large scale social distancing to prevent the uncontrolled growth of infected people and collapse of the health system. Meanwhile, each day that passes with economic activity virtually suspended puts an enormous pressure on businesses, and contributes to a possible social and financial collapse. Armenia faces the same dilemma. READ MORE
- EGF Editor |
Published on EGF: 15.04.2020
| External Relations
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Covid-19 Is an Important Test for Azerbaijani Unity By Ahmad Alili, Head of Research, Caucasus Policy Analysis Center, Baku
The COVID-19 pandemic has created interesting qualitative and quantitative changes at the top of Azerbaijan's public agenda. Following the snap parliamentary elections in February, the newly elected Parliament, which includes a number of new faces, is tasked to address the challenges the country is facing. In a speech at the opening of the Parliament, President Aliyev sent clear messages to the public servants, political parties and youth. READ MORE
- EGF Editor |
Published on EGF: 15.04.2020
| External Relations
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The Karabakh Elections Go to Second Round By Benyamin Poghosyan, PhD, Chairman, Center for Political and Economic Strategic Studies
Elections were held in Nagorno-Karabakh on 31 March but since no candidate secured the necessary amount of votes a run-off is now expected between the two leading candidates in two weeks-time.
On March 31, 2020 Presidential and Parliamentary elections were held in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh). Elections are not something new for Karabakh. Since the mid-1990s regular general as well as local elections have been held there. However, this time almost everything was different, such as the record number of candidates (14 running for the office of President and 10 parties and 2 blocks for Parliament) and the fully proportional electoral system. However, the key difference was the ambiguity of the position of Republic of Armenia's leadership. READ MORE
- EGF Editor |
Published on EGF: 06.04.2020
| External Relations
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Covid19 Outbreak - A Test to Global Governance By Ong Tee Keat, Chairman, Center for New Inclusive Asia, Kuala Lumpur
On March 11th , 2020, Robert Redfield, the director of US Center for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), dropped a proverbial bombshell when he testified to the US Congress admitting that numerous Corona virus deaths might have been miscategorized as flu. This belated admission of misdiagnosis has further lent credence to the earlier speculation that many pulmonary fibrosis cases which resulted in deaths due to patients' inability to breathe might in fact have been caused by the Corona virus. These cases, where symptoms might have been masked by attributions to e-cigarette or vaping, happened well before the virus outbreak in Wuhan, China. READ MORE.
- EGF Editor |
Published on EGF: 01.04.2020
| External Relations
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Will Armenia Withstand the Global Economic Turmoil? By Benyamin Poghosyan, PhD, Chairman, Center for Political and Economic Strategic Studies
The world economy has been in troubled waters since late 2018. The US – China trade war rattled the markets and triggered the significant changes in global supply chains. Many industrial giants were actively discussing the dislocation of production facilities from China to South East Asia nations such as Vietnam and Cambodia seeking to decrease the negative impact of the trade war.[…] However, the novel Coronavirus (COVID – 19) outbreak, which started in Chinese Wuhan city, has launched its seemingly unstoppable march around the globe since late January 2020. READ MORE
- EGF Editor |
Published on EGF: 26.03.2020
| Markets
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Military Cooperation between Israel, Greece and Cyprus
By Eugene Kogan, Tbilisi-based defence and security expert
The trilateral military cooperation, begun in November 2017, has all the necessary components to become decisive for the three countries in the eastern Mediterranean in the long-term. In addition, the US is fully behind the three countries, sending a clear signal to Ankara not to provoke conflict in the region.
Turkey, which is still a member of NATO, is not in a position to prevent Israel from cooperating with NATO, although such cooperation is a thorn in the side of Turkey. Although Cypriot military exercises with Israel upset Turkey, it cannot prevent the two countries from cooperating. That is why we see a new military architecture in the Eastern Mediterranean, which will shape the security relations of the three countries in the coming years. READ MORE
- EGF Editor |
Published on EGF: 26.03.2020
| Security
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Special but Not Quite Strategic By Benyamin Poghosyan, PhD, Chairman, Center for Political and Economic Strategic Studies
Two key topics concerning Georgia dominated the attention of the international media and expert community interested in the South Caucasus in past week. One was the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus and the growing number of cases identified in Georgia; the second issue was connected with domestic politics.[…] However, from regional perspective the key event of the past week was the official visit of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to Georgia on March 3 - 4. READ MORE
- EGF Editor |
Published on EGF: 17.03.2020
| External Relations
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Precarious Situation in Iran Doesn’t Mean State-collapse Soon By Benyamin Poghosyan, PhD, Chairman, Center for Political and Economic Strategic Studies
On February 21, 2020 Iranians went to polling stations to elect their new parliament. Despite all the statements of Iran's leadership, including of the Supreme Leader Khamenei, of the importance of a high turnout, only 42 percent of registered voters casted their ballots, the lowest figure since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Many inside and outside Iran saw this low turnout as a tacit protest of a large part of the electorate against the Guardian Council's decision to cancel the registration of many moderate and reformist candidates. Supreme Leader blamed the low turnout on the "negative propaganda" about the new coronavirus by Iran's enemies. READ MORE
- EGF Editor |
Published on EGF: 02.03.2020
| External Relations
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What Next in Idlib? By Benyamin Poghosyan, PhD, Chairman, Center for Political and Economic Strategic Studies
In recent weeks the Syrian province of Idlib has been transformed into the hot spot of the Middle East. There were frantic flows of calls, meetings and visits between Russian, Turkish and Western officials. Some were seeking to deescalate the situation and prevent direct confrontation between Russian and Turkish troops, others were trying to use this situation and drive a wedge between Moscow and Ankara. Everything is pretty much clear – Turkey wants to keep Idlib under its control and use it as a tool to secure its influence in post–war Syria, while Russia is interested to finish the active phase of military operations and speed up the political process. READ MORE
- EGF Editor |
Published on EGF: 25.02.2020
| Security
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Rivals in the Midst of Domestic Transformations By Benyamin Poghosyan, PhD, Chairman, Center for Political and Economic Strategic Studies
On February 9, 2020 early parliamentary elections were held in Azerbaijan. According to preliminary results the ruling "New Azerbaijan" party has won a clear majority, while, some representatives of opposition, such as Erkin Gadirli from REAL, have entered the Parliament. However, the main speculation around the elections was not the name of the winner; few if any had expectations that ruling party may lose the elections, or that the process will be in full compliance with liberal democracy requirements. The key question is on the implications of these elections for the domestic balance of power in Azerbaijan, and the future development of the country. READ MORE
- EGF Editor |
Published on EGF: 17.02.2020
| External Relations
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