This week, commonspace.eu speaks with Mehman Aliyev, a co-founder of the Turan İnformasiya Agentliyi (Turan Information Agency), Azerbaijan’s first independent news agency, established in 1990 after the Soviet crackdown in Baku known as Black January. Turan has long been one of Azerbaijan’s few independent media voices, reporting on political, economic and social developments in the country. Aliyev himself was detained in 2017 on charges that international watchdogs linked to pressure on Turan’s work; his detention prompted concern from the EU, Council of Europe, Human Rights Watch and press freedom organisations. He is also member of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Expert Strategic Platform, a LINKS Europe initiative to support dialogue in the South Caucasus. Aliyev reflects on the origins of Turan, the difference between independent and opposition media, and the pressures created by Azerbaijan’s media law. He also discusses the importance of Western pressure in protecting journalists, and looks at the prospects for a durable Armenia-Azerbaijan peace following the initialling of the Washington peace agreement in August 2025. (Read the full interview by clicking on the image above.)

This article is part of the Armenia Season on commonspace.eu between 1 May and 15 June 2026. The first Armenia-EU summit was held in Yerevan on 5 May 2026. Alex Verge, was commonspace.eu special correspondent at the summit in Yerevan, and he filed this report: In a landmark diplomatic moment, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan hosted the first-ever bilateral summit between Armenia and the European Union at the presidential residence in Yerevan on 5 May. While it did not deliver any major announcements, the summit reflected the ongoing deepening of the bilateral  relation and a show of support from Europe for Pashinyan, who is seeking re-election in parliamentary elections in June. EU Commission President Ursual von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa were representing Europe at the summit. Both gave significant credit to Pashinyan personally for his role in bringing Armenia closer to the EU, underlining shared values and commitments to democracy, rule of law, peace and stability.  The current prime minister has indeed overseen a significant rapprochement. In 2025, the Armenian parliament adopted a law that officially mandated the government to pursue EU integration. Accession remains a very distant prospect however. Pashinyan himself commented at the summit that Armenia faced a long road before it could align itself to EU standards, including regarding judiciary independence, and that there was no guarantee that the EU wanted to expand further. He added that a deeper bilateral relationship was highly valuable in and of itself. Alongside the European Political Community gathering that took place the day before, the EU summit will have contributed to the international credibility of Pashinyan and may therefore serve his re-election prospects well. Domestically, it remains to be seen whether Pashinyan will receive similar support from the Armenian electorate come the June parliamentary elections. Outside the presidential palace, a crowd was gathered to call for the release of Armenian prisoners of war held by Azerbaijan - one of the number of issues where large parts of Armenian society have been critical of their current government. Much more than this weekend’s summits, it will be the elections in June that will shape the trajectory of Armenia’s foreign policy. This article is part of the Armenia Season on commonspace.eu between 1 May and 15 June 2026. The first Armenia-EU summit was held in Yerevan on 5 May 2026. Alex Verge, was commonspace.eu special correspondent at the summit in Yerevan, and he filed this report. Press the image to read the full report.