Today, European Friends of Armenia published a paper "Oil and democracy in the UK-Azerbaijan relations - an opinion poll analysis", in addition to a shortpaper "The EU's assistance and development programmes in Armenia - an introduction with concrete examples" on EU aid in Armenia, issued on Wednesday 31 August 2011. Both documents are available on EuFoA's website here. "We prepared the EU aid shortpaper because our own opinion poll from November 2010 has shown that most people in Armenia have... Read more

In a recent interview with Turkish media, the Azerbaijani Deputy Prime Minister Hasanov has made a shockingly open statement, admitting that "Baku is negotiating with Yerevan solely for the sake of negotiating, as Azerbaijan would be labelled an 'anti-democratic state' if it did not participate in the meetings". He then went on to speculate about Turkey's role in a new war about Karabakh: "We always say that if things keep going this way, we could declare war. We would have liked to see Turkey... Read more

Hopes had been flying high ahead of the Kazan summit of 25 June, with the Minsk Group Co-Chairs repeatedly stating that the document for a solution of the Karabakh conflict now balances postulates of all parties to the conflict. However, despite the intensive pressure of the Co-Chairs, the Kazan summit did not offer the expected breakthrough. "It was visible in Kazan and even before that Azerbaijan does not agree to the package of the Basic Principles proposed by the OSCE Minsk Group.... Read more

During the European Parliament (EP) hearing of 15 June 2011 on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the OSCE Minsk-Group Co-Chairs Robert Bradke (USA) and Bernard Fassier (France) expressed hope for the upcoming Kazan trilateral summit, saying that an agreement on the Basic Principles for settling the conflict is within reach. "I asked whether the Co-Chairs have received any new signal from Azerbaijan that they might now really accept all of the Madrid Principles, including a legally binding vote on... Read more

Over the past 3 days, almost all European organisations hailed the amnesty passed by the Armenian National Assembly on 26 May 2011 and implemented within less than 24 hours. With this, the government has made a good-will gesture following demands of the Armenian National Congress (ANC), the most vocal of the three major opposition blocks. The amnesty follows an unprecedented dialogue between the ANC and the government, which already led to an agreement over allowing demonstrations on the most... Read more

Following a week of unusually conciliatory statements from government and opposition representatives, European Friends of Armenia hails the first steps towards a real political dialogue between the two camps. Traditionally, the political climate in Armenia has been very polarised and personalised, rather than one of dialogue and respect for different views. "This is a totally new tone in Armenian politics, driven by the personalities involved. If the healthy variety of political blocks in... Read more

European Friends of Armenia strongly welcomes the new European Parliament (EP) resolution on the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). The plenary adopted the text yesterday, 7 April 2011, which is a review of the Eastern Dimension of the ENP and summarises the EU's policy vis-à-vis Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus*, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. "Today is EuFoA's second anniversary and we are very happy about this present, because the resolution is a strong signal by the EU to support the ENP... Read more

Tomorrow, 5 March 2011, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan will meet in Sochi at the invitation of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev for a tripartite meeting on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The latest meeting in that format was held in Astrakhan on 27 October 2010. European Friends of Armenia strongly welcomes this initiative and reminds that the entire international community must now realise their interests in the region, all of which... Read more

European Friends of Armenia is relieved about the decision by Yerevan police to avoid any clashes and allow yesterday's demonstration of the Armenian National Congress (ANC) to move onto Opera Square, even though it was not authorised in that place. "The development is still very fresh, but Armenia today seems to be more democratic and the current authorities seem to act differently from those in March 2008. Generally positive developments were also noted yesterday by the Council of Europe... Read more

European Friends of Armenia strongly welcomes the concrete results achieved in this weekend's trilateral summit in Sochi and now calls for their word-by-word implementation, under the lead-management of the OSCE. "Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan should be congratulated, as this is another concrete achievement of the peace negotiations in recent years, following in particular the presentation of the so-called Madrid Principles and the l'Aquila declaration on July 2009. At the time, this good result was watered down by the unwillingness to accept the Madrid Principles as a whole, which so far only Armenia is ready to do. This time, Azerbaijan has the chance to regain its credibility by co-operating with the OSCE Minsk Group fully in the implementation of the points all parties agreed to in Sochi", comments Michael Kambeck, EuFoA Secretary General. Read more