Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

RFE/RL Caucasus Report 07.09.2012 A review of RFE/RL reporting and analysis about the countries of the South Caucasus and Russia's North Caucasus region. For more stories on Afghanistan, please visit and bookmark our Afghanistan page .

 

Disabled Georgian Orphan Now A U.S. Paralympic Star American swimmer Elizabeth Stone is one of several Paralympians adopted from the former USSR. Her record of overcoming adversity began well before she hit the pool, in an impoverished orphanage in Soviet Georgia. More   NATO Chief Repeats Concerns In Baku On a visit to Baku, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said he is "deeply concerned" over the pardoning of an Azerbaijani officer who killed an Armenian serviceman in Hungary eight years ago. More   U.S. To Assess Georgian Vote Setting U.S. officials say Deputy Assistant Secretary Thomas Melia of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor will lead a delegation that will visit Georgia next week to assess the election environment ahead of the country's parliamentary vote in October. More   NATO Chief 'Deeply Concerned' At Azerbaijan Pardon In an interview with RFE/RL's Armenian Service, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen expressed concern at Azerbaijan's decision to pardon and promote Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov, who killed an Armenian officer in Hungary in 2004. More   NATO 'Concerned' At Azerbaijan Pardon NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen says he's "deeply concerned" about Azerbaijan's pardon of a soldier who who was sentenced to life in prison for the ax-murder of an Armenian officer during a NATO training course. More   Georgia Opposition TV Hires Larry King The television station owned by Georgian tycoon-turned-opposition leader Bidzina Ivanishvili says it has brought in former CNN news anchor Larry King as an adviser ahead of crucial elections next month. More   Passions, History Run Deep In Safarov Case Azerbaijanis are almost united in their approval of their government's move to pardon Ramil Safarov, the Azerbaijani soldier who murdered an Armenian with an ax in Hungary in 2004. RFE/RL explores the passions that lie behing this case. More   What Do Azerbaijanis Think Of Freed Killer Ramil Safarov? Azerbaijan has pardoned Ramil Safarov, an army lieutenant convicted in the 2004 ax murder of an Armenian soldier for allegedly "insulting" the Azerbaijani flag. Safarov had been jailed for life in Hungary, where the murder took place. But he was handed over to Azerbaijan last week and given a hero's welcome. RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service asked people in Baku how they regard Safarov. More   Iran Releases Azerbaijani Poets Accused Of Spying Iran has released two Azerbaijani poets who were arrested in May for alleged espionage. More   Mass Protest At Hungarian Parliament‎ Over Ax Murderer Thousands of people rallied on September 4 outside the parliament in Budapest to protest the government's decision to release Ramil Safarov, an Azerbaijani soldier who received a life sentence for the 2004 killing of an Armenian officer during a NATO training course in Hungary. More   NATO Chief Visiting Armenia NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen is expected to meet with Armenia's leadership during a two-day visit to Yerevan that begins on September 5. More   EU: Baku Broke Pledges In Pardon Case A spokeswoman for the European Union's foreign policy chief says Azerbaijan appears to have abandoned pledges it made to EU member Hungary ahead of the handover and subsequent pardon of an army man serving a life sentence for murdering a fellow NATO trainee from Armenia. More   U.S. Envoy To Baku Takes A Bow A photograph of the new U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan, Richard Morningstar, paying his respects at a monument in Baku to the late President Heydar Aliyev is both ruffling feathers and massaging egos inside the country. More   My President Is Taller Than Your President As Armenia and Azerbaijan squabble over the case of Ramil Safarov, the Azerbaijani Army officer pardoned by President Ilham Aliyev for the brutal ax murder of an Armenian military officer in 2006, the long-festering regional rivalry appears to have devolved into the absurd. More   Piling On A Personality Cult: The New Heydar Aliyev Film Trilogy You arrive at Heydar Aliyev International Airport in Baku, you drive down Heydar Aliyev avenue, and all the while billboards of the late national leader stare down at you. More   Georgian Locations Add Spice To Indian Movies With its rugged mountain scenery, spectacular Black Sea coastline, and historic capital city, Georgia has a vast array of cinematically attractive locations to entice international filmmakers. More   Aliyev Faces Flak For Ax-Murder Pardon Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev faces growing international criticism for pardoning an Azerbaijani army officer who was sentenced to life in prison for the 2004 ax murder of an Armenian military officer. More   The Tragedy At Beslan On September, 1, 2004, 32 Chechen militants stormed School No. 1 in the North Ossetian town of Beslan and held 1,100 pupils, their relatives, and teachers hostage for three days. The militants demanded the withdrawal of federal forces from Chechnya. In the end, more than 330 of the hostages died, including 186 children, after a rescue attempt by Russian security forces. (Photo gallery originally published in 2009) More   Russian Activists Accuse Kremlin Of Trying To 'Forget Beslan' As Russia marks the eighth anniversary of the tragic hostage-taking at a school in the North Caucasus town of Beslan, advocates for victims say the government has stalled the investigation into the handling of the case. They say Moscow's attitude is essentially to "forget Beslan." More   Identity, Motives Of Intruders Onto Georgian Territory Remain Unclear Official Georgian accounts of the incursion into Georgian territory last week of a group of armed men from Daghestan leave many key questions unanswered. More to the point, the interpretations offered by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and Security Council Chairman Giga Bokeria are at odds. More   Baking Bread The Old-Fashioned Way Some business ideas never get stale. Ali, an entrepreneur in Baku, has fired up a tandir -- a clay oven -- to make traditional-style Azerbaijani bread. He's finding that he can't keep up with demand. (RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service) More   Bows, Bells, Balloons, And Butterflies -- It's Back To School The first day of school -- a time of butterflies in the stomach and big bows in the hair. RFE/RL photographers went back to school themselves to capture children in some of our broadcast countries on their first day back after the summer holidays. Even though September 1 fell on a Saturday this year, schools in countries throughout the former Soviet Union still welcomed students, while in other regions children started the school year on September 3. More   Has Daghestan Reached A Point Of No Return? The Daghestani wing of the Riyadus Salikhiin suicide battalion, formed by renegade Chechen field commander Shamil Basayev in 1999, has claimed responsibility for the killing on August 28 by a female suicide bomber of Sufi Sheikh Said Efendi Chirkeisky, Daghestan’s most respected cleric. More   Postcards From The Edge: Daghestan In Pictures Russia's restive province of Daghestan has had a tough time of late. The assassination last week of a moderate Muslim leader threatens to add new fuel to a cycle of insurgent attacks and government crackdowns, which have seen scores of people die in recent months. Nonetheless, as Reuters photographer Maria Turchenkova discovered on a recent visit, life goes on for inhabitants of the troubled Caucasus region, despite the precarious security situation. More   Armenia Protests Killer's Pardon; Baku Promotes Him Armenian officials say they will send letters to states co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group to protest the pardoning by Azerbaijan of a convicted killer immediately after he was repatriated from Hungary. More   Ramil Safarov Welcomed In Baku (in Azerbaijani) Family and well-wishers greeted confessed ax murderer and Azerbaijani military officer Ramil Safarov on his return to Baku on August 31 after Hungary handed him over despite a life sentence for the 2004 killing. More   Not So Fearsome: Grozny Tops Poll As Russia's Happiest City It might seem strange for a city that was only recently the epicenter of two detrimental and demoralizing wars, but a new survey by the NewsEffector website indicates that Grozny is now Russia's "happiest" city. More   Grozny: Russia's 'Happiest' City Chechnya's capital, Grozny, has surprised many by topping a recent "happiness index" for Russian cities. The poll's organizers have attributed Grozny's success in the survey to the fact that many of its denizens are hopeful about the direction their city is taking as it gradually emerges from decades of war and chaos. More   Int'l Row Erupts Over Azerbaijan Pardon The quick pardon by Azerbaijan's president of the repatriated killer of an Armenian army officer has sparked a diplomatic maelstrom involving arch foe Armenia and European Union and NATO member Hungary. More   Azerbaijani Train-Bus Crash Officials in Azerbaijan say at least six people have been killed in the collision of a passenger bus with a train in a suburb of the capital, Baku. More   6 Dead In Baku Bus-Train Crash Officials in Azerbaijan say at least six people have been killed in the collision of a passenger bus with a train in a suburb of the capital, Baku. More