Richard Giragosian holds great expectations from the “Irish Spring,” as the start of the Irish chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) offers a fresh degree of optimism from the promise of an innovative Irish approach to conflict transformation in the South Caucasus.
13 January: "Karabakh president Bako Sahakyan met the first deputy head of the General Staff of the Republic of Armenia's armed forces, Lt-Gen Enriko Apryamov, and the deputy head of the General Staff, Maj-Gen Stepan Galstyan. Issues related to
13 January: Russia is facing a serious shortage of new recruits during the spring military draft. The military expects to recruit about 300,000 men, while only 135,000 were drafted in the Autumn of last year. (Kommersant)
Armenians Azerbaijanis and Georgians, and indeed Abkhaz and Ossetians and other nationalities in the region, need to think beyond the constraints of the present situation and to start articulating ideas that can eventually be picked up by governments and politicians so that in twenty years’ time the world can look at the South Caucasus and see a prosperous and dynamic region at peace with itself and with its neighbours.
The Polish diplomat has been in the post since 1997 and provides continuity to the work of the OSCE Minsk Process dealing with the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.