Azerbaijan, which has often felt itself on the defensive abroad because of the activities of the Armenian diaspora, is counting on Azerbaijani communities abroad to “neutralize the Armenian lobby,” according to a senior advisor to President Ilham Aliyev.  On the one hand, this new reliance reflects the dramatic growth in the size and activity of the Azerbaijani groups in Europe and the United States.  And on the other, it reflects a growing recognition in Baku that the Armenian “lobby” is not as strong as it was and can be most effectively countered by the Azerbaijani d...

The countries of the South Caucasus region have demonstrated quite interesting performances in terms of economic development and competitiveness moving up and down in various indices and reports by international organizations during the last decade.  If we examine the rankings on the Ease of Doing Business of the World Bank, for example, we see that Azerbaijan, which was ranked 38th just a few years ago and named a top reformer back then is only ranked 55th in 2010 due to the fact that one of the indicators “Employment,” in which Azerbaijan has been traditionally showing top perfor...

On November 28, 1920, peace talks were supposed to begin in Gumri.  After the new government was formed, a peace delegation was formed, given plenipotentiary powers of the government and parliament and sent to Gumri.  That delegation included the former head of government and member of parliament Aleksandr Khatisyan, the former finance minister and member of parliament Abraam Gulkhandanyan, and the deputy minister of internal affairs Stepan Korganyan.  The Turkish side included Kazym Karabekir-pasha, Erzurum governor Hamid-bey, and the member of the Grand National Assembly...