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Opinion: Research and Public-Private Partnerships Necessary For Any Future Armenia-Azerbaijan Border Markets
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Opinion: Research and Public-Private Partnerships Necessary For Any Future Armenia-Azerbaijan Border Markets

17 February 2025
Armenian passport control at the Bagratashen border checkpoint was confused and chaotic, quite unlike the experience on the other side at Sadakhlo in Georgia. Instead of the few minutes it should have taken, it took over twenty. It never had in the past. Perhaps preparations for a visit by the European Union delegation taking place just a few days later to develop a much anticipated Visa Liberalisation Action Plan (VLAP) had preoccupied them.
Onnik James Krikorian
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Opinion
Opinion: Musical Outcry in Yerevan Echoes Urgency of Armenia-Azerbaijan People-to-People Contact
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Opinion: Musical Outcry in Yerevan Echoes Urgency of Armenia-Azerbaijan People-to-People Contact

4 February 2025
On the evening of 30 January, a Facebook post by the Independent Centre for Strategic Studies sparked outrage in Armenia. The post featured a 29-second video showing a group of men singing a 1972 Azerbaijani song with the chorus, Jan Karabakh, in Yerevan’s Republic Square. Though a song has been performed in the Armenian language with the same phrase actually in Karabakh, this short recent public rendition triggered a wave of anger on social media in the country.
Onnik James Krikorian
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Opinion
Opinion: In Armenia, Strategic Diversification Clashes With Geographic Realities
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Opinion: In Armenia, Strategic Diversification Clashes With Geographic Realities

27 January 2025
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has signalled plans to seek European Union (EU) membership. Though framed as an attempt to diversify away from decades of dependency on Russia, Moscow instead sees it as a western attempt to simply oust it from the region. Such a move is supported by some in Armenia amid disillusionment with Russia and the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) following the 2020 war with Azerbaijan and a 2022 incursion into Armenia itself.
Onnik James Krikorian
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Opinion
Opinion: From Key West to Key Failures - The Demise of the OSCE Minsk Group
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Opinion: From Key West to Key Failures - The Demise of the OSCE Minsk Group

14 January 2025
When I moved to Yerevan in October 1998, it was rare to hear much positive conversation about the future of Armenia or Karabakh. That had also been the case when I visited the country on a research trip earlier that June. Many were already tired of the conflict and few seemed enthused with a new regime that had just come to power after the ousting the country's first president earlier that year. Levon Ter-Petrosyan had chosen to resign following a palace coup staged by his inner circle opposed to a concessionary peace deal with Azerbaijan. They thought the deal proposed by a troika of France, Russia, and the United States was a betrayal. Ter-Petrosyan warned that it might well be the best Armenia could ever hope for.
Onnik James Krikorian
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Opinion
Opinion: Elections in Georgia Highlight Ethnic Minority Exclusion and Frustration
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Opinion: Elections in Georgia Highlight Ethnic Minority Exclusion and Frustration

6 January 2025
After the controversial victory of the ruling party in Georgia’s parliamentary elections on October 26, it initially appeared as though the opposition was in disarray. Many observers expected widespread protests and a dramatic confrontation between the two sides, but that did not materialise straight away. Instead, two days later, a solitary protest took place, drawing no more than 19,000 participants that appeared downtrodden and forlorn.
Onnik James Krikorian
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Opinion
Opinion: Georgia’s Political Crisis Risks Unraveling Its International Relationships
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Opinion: Georgia’s Political Crisis Risks Unraveling Its International Relationships

7 December 2024
Georgia is once again embroiled in turmoil, its central Rustaveli Avenue literally alight with protests sparked by a wave of political and geopolitical tensions. Following controversial parliamentary elections held 26 October, tensions have escalated, with many citizens accusing the government of pivoting away from the European Union in favour of closer ties with Russia. They demand a new vote.
Onnik James Krikorian
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Opinion
Opinion: The Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict Has Changed. So Must Civil Society
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Opinion: The Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict Has Changed. So Must Civil Society

30 November 2024
Four years after the Second Karabakh War, civil society initiatives between Armenian and Azerbaijan remain arguably less impactful than ever before. On the surface, they appear few and far between, but many are often held in secret. The reason given is often security but that argument is no longer as credible as it was before. Indeed, nearly all projects that do exist remain largely untouched and unhindered. Instead, mirroring the situation before 2020, many Armenian practitioners refused to meet with their Azerbaijani counterparts, especially while Baku still held prisoners and other detainees from the war. That number is significantly less now. Time has passed and there may finally be the realisation that dialogue is the only way forward.
Onnik James Krikorian
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Opinion
Opinion: Pashinyan proposes partial withdrawal of EUMA from Armenia-Azerbaijan border
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Opinion: Pashinyan proposes partial withdrawal of EUMA from Armenia-Azerbaijan border

26 November 2024
With the conclusion of the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP29 in Azerbaijan, discussions with Armenia on normalising relations are expected to resume in December. However, it remains uncertain whether an agreement will be reached anytime soon, as past attempts to finalise talks have consistently fallen short. That said, there may now be some clarity regarding the three key issues believed to be preventing a breakthrough. In early November, Farid Shafiyev, Chair of the Centre for Analysis of International Relations (AIR) in Azerbaijan, shared on X what he claims are the specific points left unresolved.
Onnik James Krikorian