South Caucasus

Since February 2020, it is not uncommon for the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to appear on the same stage at international events – or at least at the Munich Security Conference. The same has not been true for their foreign ministers. That changed on April 12 at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum, a notable moment just weeks after the finalisation of a long-overdue treaty aimed at normalising relations between the two countries. While the road ahead remains uncertain, the meeting carried clear symbolic significance.

A trilateral meeting between Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia was held in Tbilisi on April 17, with the participation of Georgian deputy foreign minister Lasha Darsalia and his counterparts, Azerbaijan’s Elnur Mammadov and Armenia’s Vahan Kostanyan, along with their delegations. The Foreign Minister of Georgia Maka Botchorishvili also took part in the talks.

The Antalya Diplomacy Forum, held on April 11-13 in the resort Turkish town of Antalya, presented a rare opportunity for trilateral engagement among the foreign ministers of the three South Caucasian countries. The candid exchange between Azerbaijan’s Jeyhun Bayramov, Armenia’s Ararat Mirzoyan, and Georgia’s Maka Bochorishvili, facilitated by Türkiye, offered a fragile yet meaningful sign that this fractured region may be inching toward regional peace and prosperity. Importantly, each minister underlined the significance of overcoming dividing lines in the South Caucasus and opening a new chapter for intraregional cooperation.

Armenia's Minister of Foreign Affairs Ararat Mirzoyan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov had an exchange about the pending peace agreement between the two countries during a high level diplomatic forum in Antalya. The two debated the current political situation in the region during a panel discussion titled “Challenges and Opportunities for Regional Cooperation in the South Caucasus” held during the 4th Antalya Diplomacy Forum.

The Azerbaijan Mine Action Agency (ANAMA) released a statement last week detailing demining operations that have been carried out from March 31 to April 6. Over the course of the week, 2000 hectares were demined, clearing 107 anti-personnel mines, 13 anti-tank mines, and 870 unexploded ordnances.

The inaugural meeting of the two co-chairs of the thematic group on Peace and Security was hosted in The Hague by LINKS Europe in parallel with the Armenia-Azerbaijan Expert Political Dialogue Platform. During the meeting held on 2 April and chaired by LINKS Europe, Leonid Nersissian (Armenia) and Murad Muradov (Azerbaijan) discussed the work plan for the next nine months.

On Thursday 3 April the “National Mine Action Coordination Platform,” in collaboration with the UN Development Programme (UNDP), held its annual workshop in Armenia to mark the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action observed globally on 4 April.

The Central Election Commission (CEC) of Georgia has adopted amendments to the rules and procedures for voting using electronic means. Under the changes, persons authorised to be present at polling stations are prohibited from requesting voters to present ID cards or from confiscating them. Additionally, photo and video recording inside the precinct election commission building is now restricted.

With just over a year left before parliamentary elections in Armenia, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan finds himself grappling with a rapidly changing political landscape. At the end of last month, voters in the country’s second largest city of Gyumri went to the polls to elect a new municipal council that would then select a mayor. While local elections might not seem as important as national votes, the results were anything but insignificant. With Pashinyan’s approval ratings around 11 percent according to a survey conducted in January, the results and how the vote was conducted could prove a useful barometer to assess his political future.