EU officials responded by saying that Tbilisi hadn’t fulfilled the conditions to get the loan. “You can't decline what you were not eligible for,” one said.
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.
The post has been empty since May, after the entire ministry leadership resigned in frustration with the country’s foreign policymaking. Now it will be filled by a political loyalist.
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 deal, brokered by the European Union, was meant to keep the political crisis in the key Western ally from reaching a fatal stage. Now the political prospects for the country are uncertain.
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.