The Armenian leader said that the issue of Karabakh joining the Eurasian Economic Union as part of Armenia was never under discussion. He described the comments of the Kazakh President in Astana as "unpleasant" but not damaging.

In the self declared Republic of Abkhazia opposition leader Raul Khadzhimba has said the President, Alexander Ankvab, is no longer legitimate and his powers have been transferred to the parliament and the Provisional Council of People’s Trust. The local security forces however seem to remain loyal to Ankvab who is reported to have taken refuge in the Russian base in Gudauta. Russian officials who arrived from Moscow on Wednesday, are continuing with efforts to broker an agreement between the two sides. The politicial stand-off is an embarrassment for Russia which is one of a handfull of countries that recognises Abkhaz independence.

At a meeting with international experts, held in Bern earlier this week, the diplomats were encouraged to take bolder measures in their efforts to break the current impasse, and help bring the sides to the next step of negotiations.

The Parliament in the self-declared Republic of Abkhazia has passed a resolution calling on President Alexander Ankvab to resign from his post ahead of schedule. The MPs also delivered a vote of no-confidence in the republic's Prime Minister Leonid Lakerbaya. Twenty members of parliament voted for the adoption of the resolution and one parliamentarian abstained. Fourteen members did not attend the parliament meeting. The resolution passed by the parliament said that the decisions were made "in view of the tense socio-political situation that developed in the country and for the purposes of keeping national accord and stability in the state".

Russia's Deputy Security Council Secretary Rashid Nurgaliyev and Abkhaz leader Alexander Ankvab met on Wednesday evening to discuss the political crisis in the self-declared republic. The Abkhaz opposition still controls the building of the presidential administration in the capital, Sukhumi..

In the first in a series of reports for commonspace.eu, Tbilisi based freelance journalist Joseph Alexander Smith examines the political landscape ahead of the poll.

In a tough speech marking the anniversary of the establishment of the first Azerbaijani Republic in 1918 the President said that "the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh regime will never be given a legal status"

Armenian and Azerbaijani sources accuse each other of trying to infiltrate across the line of contact.

Parliament is meeting in emergency session after opposition supporters stormed government buildings yesterday in what has been described as an attempted coup.

The Armenian President met the three Armenian Patriarchs and later chaired a meeting of the Commission preparing the centenary anniversary events, due in April 2015