Armenia
Russian border guards have withdrawn from the Agarak border checkpoint, located on the Armenia-Iran border, for the first time since 1991. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly agreed on the withdrawal during talks in Moscow in October. Just over two months ago, the Russians stopped patrolling Yerevan’s Zvartnots Airport.
Artsakh
The National Assembly of Armenia has announced plans to hold hearings that will address concerns raised by the families of persons missing since the 2020 war in Artsakh.
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has demanded that Russia formally accept responsibility and pay compensation to the survivors of Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243. On Christmas Day, the plane had departed from Baku and was bound for Grozny in Chechnya but changed course after coming under fire from the ground in Russia, before crashing in Kazakhstan. Russian President Vladimir Putin has apologized for the “tragic incident” but did not take responsibility, claiming that Ukrainian drones were in the area.
Georgia
On December 29, former soccer player and Georgian Dream party representative, Mikheil Kavlashvili, was sworn in as president amid large-scale protests. Outgoing president, Salome Zourabichvili, refused to step down, saying she was the “only legitimate president.”
Iran
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a warning to the U.S. and its military bases in Syria at a ceremony marking the anniversary of a former Revolutionary Guard commander killed by U.S. forces.
Russia
Despite increasing membership into BRICS, the rival to the Western-dominated G7 group, Russia has failed to recruit Saudi Arabia and Turkey. In another show of slipping control, gas exports from Russia to Europe via a Soviet-era pipeline in Ukraine stopped flowing on New Year’s Day, as Ukraine declined to renew a transit deal amid the ongoing war.
Syria
Ömer Muhammed Çiftçi, a Turkish mercenary with Turkish citizenship, has been appointed brigadier general of the new Syrian Army. Other military appointees include nationals from Albania, Egypt, Tajikistan and Jordan, as violence and persecution of religious and ethnic minorities intensify.
Turkey
With the ousting of Bashar al-Assad and his regime in Syria, Turkey has offered to rebuild the Syrian military, which, some experts say, could allow it to become the dominant foreign power in Syria. As one analyst told Business Insider, “Turkey will likely try to fill Russia’s role.”
Lilly Torosyan
Latest posts by Lilly Torosyan (see all)
- The Region in Brief - January 2, 2025
- The Armenian Weekly: 91 years of light, loss and hope - December 31, 2024
- Memorializing the “lost” villages of Western Armenia - November 26, 2024
Sayat Nova Hatzi Sov A, Sovietn Ov av Vor Kez Hok Da
Armenia was the first country to send condolences to Azerbaijan for the downed Azerbaijan Airlines plane. Azerbaijan thanked every country that sent condolences – except Armenia. No surprise there.
Russia is in an awkward spot, because it shot down a foreign passenger jet from a friendly country – Azerbaijan, which has angered Azerbaijan, on which Russia relies as a transit route to bust international sanctions and to sell its oil and gas. Putin apologized to fellow dictator Aliyev, but Aliyev insists that Russia acknowledges that it shot down the plane and that it compenstates all the killed and injured victims – including the Russian passengers. It will be interesting how the fallout between Azerbaijan and Russia about the shot down Azerbaijani airliner will play out.
Armenia should have done the formal and tactful thing and made no comment about the plane shootdown it’s a matter for Azerbaijan Russia and Kazakhstan. Very telling that Azerbaijan didn’t acknowledge Armenian condolences shows what an appeaser Pashinyan is and how unpleasant Azerbaijan is, not that most Armenians already knew… Remember these are the people who rejoiced in the spitak earthquake in 1988 …
Still credit should be given to the pilots who died for managing to bring down the plane on land in Kazakhstan allowing many to survive with their own and video testaments and clear shrapnel damage to the tail proving that it was damaged by anti air missiles. If it had crashed into the Caspian sea with no survivors by the time its wreckage would have been found it would have been harder to clearly prove what had happened. After all the Kremlin in its usual mendacity claimed flock of birds and gas cylinder explosion as part of its farcical disinformation. Whilst it won’t wreck relations between Russia and Azerbaijan it will definitely taint them which is of some limited benefit to Armenia.
“Armenia was the first country to send condolences to Azerbaijan for the downed Azerbaijan Airlines plane. Azerbaijan thanked every country that sent condolences – except Armenia.”
Source?