The road closures represent the first time that Azerbaijani border guards, which have passively patrolled the road for months, have acted so assertively.
The announcement of paid tours to the region upset many of those violently displaced from the region in the 1990s, who expect to go back to live - not as tourists.
Georgia’s huge contributions to the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan were a key part of its strategy to join the West. Now there are fears about an isolationist turn from Washington.
Azerbaijan’s feminist movement is small, but it has received an outsized public backlash for a campaign calling attention to the state’s responsibility to prevent domestic violence.
Politicians in Moscow claim to be concerned that Russian-speaking citizens may be facing intimidation and aggression in Kyrgyzstan – a fact that officials in Bishkek deny.
The country already leads in vaccination rates in the South Caucasus. Many expect the new rules to drive a black market for fake vaccination passports.
The remarks earned the country’s senior Islamic official a rebuke from a senior adviser to Turkey’s president and a smear campaign in Azerbaijani pro-government media.
Fighting surges in a new area, Aliyev meets Putin in Moscow, Azerbaijan again steps up the info war against Armenia, and the EU throws its hat into the conflict resolution ring. This week’s Post-War Report.
Central Asian leaders are engaged in a balancing act, showing they are content to live with the Taliban’s ascendancy in Afghanistan while signaling they will deal firmly with any trouble that might spill over.