South Caucasus

21 March is celebrated as International Nowruz Day. Nowruz marks the first day of spring and is celebrated on the day of the astronomical vernal equinox, which usually occurs on 21 March. It is celebrated as the beginning of the new year by more than 300 million people all around the world and has been marked for over 3,000 years in the Balkans, the Black Sea Basin, the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Middle East and other regions.

In an emotional address to the nation on the occasion of the start of the traditional Novruz holiday, Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev addressed his countrymen from the city of Shusha in Nagorno-Karabakh, which has recently reverted back to Azerbaijani control following the 44-day Karabakh war.

The EU facilitated talks between Georgian political parties were paused on Friday after a 10 hour meeting mediated by Christian Danielsson, the special envoy of the president of the European Council, ended in the early hours of the morning without agreement.

After weeks of political turmoil, it now seems that early parliamentary elections will be held in Armenia on June 20th.

OSCE Chairperson-in-office, Ann Linde, visited Yerevan on Tuesday for talks with the Armenian leadership. Linde, who is also Swedish foreign minister, met president Armen Sarkissian, prime minister Nikol Pashinyan and other officials.

Georgian prime minister Irakli Garibashvili arrived in Brussels on Monday and had two meetings with the president of the European Council, Charles Michel.

The Azerbaijani president told the visiting head of the OSCE that his country's conflict with Armenia was "already in the history and we need to look to the future".