South Caucasus

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili has severely criticised how funding from the European Union is being implemented in Georgia saying that ministers from European Union Member States and EU Commissioners are making unjustified critical statements about Georgia while hatred, violence, and propaganda are being encouraged in the country with EU funding. According to the Georgian Public Broadcaster, Papuashvili said he was troubled by the narrative heard from various ministers from EU Member States before the meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council held on 23rd June claiming that “disinformation is being spread about some alleged democratic backsliding or walking the wrong path”.

Pashinyan's official visit to Türkiye on June 20, 2025, marks a strategic shift from symbolic reconciliation to strategic rapprochement. Normalisation, for Yerevan, is not an end in itself but a transformative initiative to put an end to Armenia's geopolitical isolation, to diversify its transit routes, to decrease its reliance on Russia and to get access to Turkish ports, measures that reorient Armenia economically and logistically toward the West. Türkiye, on its part, is seizing the moment to strengthen its role as a regional intermediary. Consequently, by promoting normalisation, Ankara solidifies its impact in the South Caucasus and sends a positive signal to Western partners: the EU and U.S., in particular, about its evolving role in the region's stabilisation.

Armenian prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, made a well-prepared and carefully orchestrated visit to Türkiye on Friday evening (20 June), during which he held talks with the Turkish President, Recip Tayip Erdogan. Commonspace.eu political editor in a comment said that Pashinyan‘s visit to Türkiye was well prepared and carefully orchestrated by the two sides. Potentially the visit can be a game-changer in Armenia- Türkiye relations, leading to the restoration of full diplomatic relations and the opening of borders. In both Armenia and Türkiye there is increasing support for these steps.  No major breakthrough was announced after the visit, but none was expected. The day before Pashinyan’s visit, Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev also met Erdogan in  Türkiye. Aliyev continues to push Türkiye not to take any steps with Armenia before Armenia and Azerbaijan settle the differences between them. But Türkiye may decide to make a move sooner than the Azerbaijan president wants.

Armenia is set to host its own artificial intelligence data factory, with the project valued at $500 million and scheduled to begin operations in 2026. This investment initiative is being jointly implemented by Firebird, the Armenian government, and NVIDIA, JAMnews has reported. “FirebirdCloudAI is Armenia’s largest and most important tech investment the country’s ‘Stargate’. The idea was born when Jensen Huang, co-founder and CEO of NVIDIA, visited Yerevan in 2023. Today, it’s becoming reality. The AI factory, equipped with thousands of Blackwell GPUs, will spark innovation across Armenia,” Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan wrote on X.

The political crises in Georgia that started after disputed parliamentary elections at the end of last year, shows no sign of easing. The government, formed by the ruling Georgian Dream party, appears exhausted. Its strategy of wearing out the opposition failed. It is now increasingly resorting to repression. Many opposition activists have been arrested, and the Government keeps introducing laws and administrative measures that are meant to tighten its control of the country, but in practice increase the resolve of its opponents. The Georgian Dream government is at a dead end.

The latest European Political Community summit held in Tirana in May this year, featured Azerbaijan’s President Aliyev at a time when Baku’s period of bad blood with Brussels seems to be over and Europe once again is viewed as a constructive partner. It is not a coincidence that Aliyev briefly met Pashinyan in Tirana for the first time in months and even had a seemingly friendly conversation with French President Macron despite the two countries’ intense feud.

For over a week now, the Armenian public has been subjected to another unedifying spectacle between the country’s political and spiritual leadership. Tirades posted on social media by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan targeting Armenian Catholicos Karekin II, who he accuses of fathering at least one child despite an oath of celibacy, have been incendiary. The allegation is not new. Armenian media even named an alleged daughter back in 2013. However, Pashinyan’s wife, Anna Hakobyan, further ratcheted up tensions by referring to some members of the clergy as paedophiles while not presenting any evidence.