South Caucasus

On August 11-12, 2012, the representatives of the European Movements of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, together with the European Movement International, met in Tbilisi, Georgia. After having jointly analyzed the situation of the South Caucasus region and the ways in which the prevalent conflicts, especially Nagorno Karabakh, negatively affect its populations and states, they have agreed to work together towards a shared vision of their common future.

West has faced an obstacle at the current stage in Syria, for it has failed to enlist the support of Syrians who still prefer President Assad to it, says Andrey Areshev, political expert, fellow at the Institute for Political and Social Studies of the Black Sea and Caspian Region, in an interview with ArmInfo.

Traditional military sports camp has opened at Gandzasar Monastery, Martakert region, NKR. The organizer is the Motherland Defender youth organization, ArmInfo's correspondent to Stepanakert reports.

In case of war in Nagorno-Karabakh, Turkey will support Azerbaijan even if the latter requests no military aid, SalamNews reports with reference to Sinan Ogan, Turkish MP, Director of the Turkish Centre for International Relations & Strategic Analysis (TURKSAM).

"A curious election took place recently in the Caucasus. It attracted very little notice but deserved more. In the tiny, unrecognized territory of Nagorny Karabakh-entirely Armenian but still regarded by the world as de jure part of Azerbaijan-an opposition candidate for president did extremely well", expert Thomas de Waal says in his article "Competitive Caucasus Elections" in The National Interest.

The recognition of Karabakh's independence by the State of Massachusetts demonstrates the importance of Nagorno-Karabakh to Washington, Head of the Regional Studies Center Richard Giragosian said at a press conference.

Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey Bulent Arinc and representatives of the national minorities of Turkey have discussed the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey in 1915 among other issues.

"I think one cannot expect Moscow to repeat the 08.08.08 scenario in case the Karabakh conflict develops into a large-scale war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. I do not think any scenario may reoccur with 100% probability, however, I think it is possible to observe some features in common. Anyway, I suppose Moscow will try to gain stoppage of the military actions in every possible way", he said.

Russia expects positive tendencies in Nagorno-Karabakh peace process in 2012-2013, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told Golos Rossii.