Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières
Yesterday Azerbaijan launched a military offensive against the Armenian enclave of Nagorno- Karabakh, bombing its cities and villages in a so-called “anti-terrorist operation”. Last night, in a televised address, Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, claimed complete victory.
Around 200 (...)
Amid the growing suppression of the few remaining vocal critics of the government, a fierce campaign has been launched against “no war” activists in Azerbaijan.
The breakout of the Second Karabakh War in 2020, saw the emergence of a “no war” discourse and activism in Azerbaijan as an (...)
The siege of Karabakh imposed by the authorities of Azerbaijan is nearing its ninth month. Cases of death from lack of food, fuel and medication has been recorded. As winter approaches the entire population of Nagorno Karabakh – or the Armenian Artsakh – is threatened by the policies of Azeri (...)
Over a thousand people, mostly Georgian ethnic Azerbaijanis, have signed an online petition calling on Azerbaijan’s President, Ilham Aliyev to restore at least limited movement across the Georgian-Azerbaijani land border.
The petition was launched by Samira Bayramova, a civil activist based (...)
Three Armenian mothers tell of their struggles after eight months living under Azerbaijan’s restrictions
Mary Grigoryan’s day starts when the electricity is switched on, so she can heat up sugarless tea for her children’s breakfast.
Energy use in the disputed territory of (...)
In places where existing trade unions fail to organise workers, new unions will often emerge to fill the gap. And those new unions will sometimes be the subject of state repression as a result.
This is what appears to be happening today in Azerbaijan.
The existing trade unions in the (...)
A member of the Workers’ Table Trade Unions Confederation taking part in ongoing protests by delivery couriers has been arrested on drug charges, the third member of the group to be detained this month.
Aykhan Israfilov, who is also a member of the Democracy 1918 Movement, was detained on (...)
After the invasion of Ukraine, thousands of Russians fled to Tbilisi. But the graffiti that has sprung up across the city suggests not everyone is pleased to see them
Dima Belysh stood in the empty park amphitheatre in his orange hoodie and dirty white sneakers. It was November in Tbilisi, (...)
While military service is mandatory in Armenia, the prospect comes with many dangers for queer Armenians. Faced with a system that labels them mentally ill while both denying and mocking their existence, there appears to be no easy way through.
For Artak Adam, the threat of military service (...)
This internal polarisation of Georgia is so tense that it is on the top of the “12 priorities” that the EU wants to see change before it can address Georgia’s accession candidature.
Political in-fighting risks costing Georgia its European dream. The Russian invasion of Ukraine put has (...)
Villagers demand end to construction of a second reservoir for a local gold mine.
Tension remains high in the village of Soyudluin in western Azerbaijan following a heavy-handed response to protests against the construction of a reservoir intended to hold waste from a gold mine.
On June (...)
The Patriarchate of the Georgian Orthodox Church has called for the country to adopt a law prohibiting queer ‘propaganda’.
In a statement on Saturday, the Church noted that ‘today it may be particularly timely to call on the public to discuss the regulation of the [queer ‘propaganda’] (...)
Ruben Vardanian was struggling to find a good mobile connection for his iPad as he spoke over Zoom from his dark residence in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“Sorry, we have no electricity,” he said. “It’s a challenge.”
Rolling blackouts in Azerbaijan’s breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh mean regular (...)
In recent months, senior figures in the ruling Georgian Dream party have increased and intensified their homophobic rhetoric, accusing a fast food restaurant of distributing ‘LGBT propaganda’, and suggesting that students need to enter heterosexual relationships and ‘reproduce’.
Georgia’s (...)
Three feminist activists and one journalist were detained by security at the US Embassy in Baku and handed over to police after holding and live-streaming a peaceful protest against police brutality in Gadabay.
The activists were attending an early Independence Day event at the US Embassy (...)
Independent Armenia has several unresolved structural problems, even before the “Velvet Revolution” of 2018, and the war and defeat of 2020. Its economy is small and inefficient. Its population is declining and aging. The country has unresolved conflicts with two of its neighbours: a war with (...)
‘Green’ Azeri energy isn’t a magic bullet for EU dependence on Russia, experts say.
“Since the beginning of Russia’s war, we have decided to turn our back on Russian fossil fuels and to diversify toward reliable energy partners.”
Ursula von der Leyen’s comments in December last year came (...)
In an effort to regulate foreign influence in Georgia, the Georgian parliament, People’s Power, as it is called, introduced two bills in late February, “On the registration of foreign agents” and “On the transparency of foreign influence.” People’s Power broke away from the ruling party, (...)
Baku speaks with one voice in support of the Aliyev regime’s aggressive campaign – but change may be in the air
More than a hundred days into the blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijani protesters, it’s hard to escape two facts.
Firstly, the protesters, who claim to be environmental (...)
Pushback against ‘foreign agent’ laws in Georgia should not stop us from asking whether countries have a right to limit foreign influence
The spectre of “foreign agent” laws resurfaced in Georgia a few weeks ago.
Georgia, which has long allied with the West against Russia, seemed set on (...)
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