RFE/RL CAUCASUS REPORT
21.06.2013
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 the Caucasus, please visit and bookmark our Caucasus page . |
 Aliyev: We Have No Political Prisoners Speaking in Brussels on June 21, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said reports about restrictions on freedom of speech or media, or the jailing of political opponents in his country, were false.More  Is Television A Human Right? Vano Merabishvili, the jailed former prime minister of Georgia, this week staged a brief hunger strike, successfully demanding, among other things, that prison officials install a television set in the cell where he is being held pending trial for abuse of office. The demand might seem frivolous. But it’s not the first time that access to television has been defended as a basic human right.More  Aliyev Meets With EU Officials In Brussels Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has met with European Council President Herman van Rompuy for talks focusing on energy security, human rights, and the Nagorno-Karabakh territorial dispute. More  How Many Chechens Are Fighting In Syria? It is almost a year since the first reports surfaced that some Chechens, together with fighters from elsewhere in the Russian Federation, had joined the ranks of the armed opposition to Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad. While their numbers remain unclear, it seems that by no means all of them traveled to Syria directly from Chechnya. More  Baku's Changing Face Photographer Giuseppe Cacace visited the Azerbaijani capital to record some of the developments that are changing the face of that city, which is experiencing an often controversial construction boom fueled by an oil-rich economy. More  Mysterious 'Taliban' Video Unleashes Political Storm In Georgia Ten Georgian servicemen have been killed in Afghanistan in the last month. The appearance of a purported Taliban video threatening “jihad” against Georgia ignited a firestorm of political accusations among supporters of President Mikheil Saakashvili and Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili. More  Eurasian Deterioration 'Troubling' Countries in Central Europe and Central Asia are increasingly being ruled by autocratic governments with little regard for democracy, according to the 2013 "Nations In Transit" report by democracy watchdog Freedom House. More  Interview: Armenian PM Sarkisian On Integration, Gas Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian spoke with RFE/RL Armenian Service Director Harry Tamrazian about the country's options for greater integration with the Eurasian Economic Community, saying such cooperation would not hinder closer ties to the EU. More  Arms Caches Linked To Saakashvili Georgian investigators say they have found several caches filled with weapons, explosives, drugs, and documents targeting opponents of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili's party. More  After Years Of Secret Tapes, Georgia Mulls How To Destroy Them Georgia's Interior Ministry has pledged to destroy a secret archive of illegally obtained video and phone recordings used by the administration of President Mikheil Saakashvili to blackmail journalists, politicians, and activists. But getting rid of dirty laundry is not as easy as it seems. More  Disgraced Daghestani Official Denies Reported Suicide Attempt Makhachkala's mayor denied media reports that he was hospitalized after slashing his veins in an apparent suicide attempt. More |
