South Caucasus

In April 2022 a group of Armenian and Azerbaijani experts published their report “The South Caucasus from war to peace: 30 measures between now and 2030” in which they outlined their vision for the process of building trust and confidence between Armenia and Azerbaijan and between Armenians and Azerbaijanis, in order to contribute to lasting peace in the South Caucasus. One year later, in this joint paper, Ahmad Alili and Benyamin Poghosyan, co-rapporteurs of the group, reflect on events and developments over the eventful past twelve months. They say peace remains within reach, but more hard work is needed.

The Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili and the President of the European Council Charles Michel met in Brussels on Tuesday (25 April) to review Georgia's progress towards membership of the EU. According to a press release from the Georgian government, "Irakli Garibashvili briefed the President of the European Council about Georgia’s efforts toward fulfilling the European Commission’s 12 priorities and pointed out that, in this process, the authorities maintain continuous consultations with EU institutions and member states, also the Venice Commission and OSCE/ODIHR." Garibashvili also stressed the importance of granting Georgia candidate status by the end of the year because "a large portion of the recommendations has been fulfilled". The Georgian Prime Minister also argued that EU-Georgia Association Agreement, the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (DCFTA) with the EU, visa-free travel, and the recently granted European perspective "demonstrate Georgia’s progress toward European integration". 

The last two weeks have seen missed opportunities for the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace process, and for the Georgian government to establish facts and proving the truth over the US sanctioning of four Georgian judges, writes commonspace.eu in this editorial. Instead of building trust and confidence, the burning of the Azerbaijani flag at the European Weightlifting Championships in Yerevan "further entrenched the enemy imagery". Meanwhile in Georgia, "by obstructing the establishment of a parliamentary investigative commission to assess the US accusations against Georgian judges, the Georgian government missed an opportunity to deal openly and transparently with what is clearly a very sensitive and controversial issue."