Domestic Politics

Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan appeared to be well entrenched on Thursday despite the fact that the command of the armed forces called on him and his government to resign. Opposition attempts to rally round the call and force the prime minister out failed when Pashinyan called his own supporters out on the streets. Radio Liberty reporting from Yerevan estimated the pro-Pashinyan crowd to have been around 20,000.

Opposition supporters have been protesting in the Georgian capital Tbilisi after Georgian special police forces this morning stormed the headquarters of the main opposition party – the United National Movement (UNM) – and arrested its Chairman, Nika Melia.

Last week Georgia's prime minister Giorgi Gaharia resigned citing disagreements with the ruling party. A new government is likely to be approved next week, but the opposition keeps contesting the results of last October's parliamentary elections and demanding news polls. Most opposition MPs have not taken up their seats in the new parliament.

The leader of the self-declared Republic of South Ossetia has gone to Moscow amid a simmering political crisis in the territory, which seceded from Georgia. South Ossetia is currently gripped in a political crisis following the death in police detention of a young Ossetian, which sparked public protests and a boycott of parliament by some MPs.

Libya's newly appointed prime minister, Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, confirmed on Saturday that he has started work on forming a new government of national unity. The new prime minister said in his selection he will prioritise efficiency, whilst taking into account the need to include members from across Libya's diverse the political spectrum

Politics in South Ossetia often takes a Lilliputian character. The tiny territory that seceded from Georgia after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and has existed as a Russian protectorate since, is small in size, with a population of around 50,000. Yet its internal politics are often dramatic, with long standing clan feuds playing out in modern political terms. One such crisis appears to be looming in a stand-off between president and opposition MPs