www.cambridge.org/core/journal... An overview of Iran's roles in the Caucasus - by Vali Golmohammadi and Hamidreza Azizi, open access with Nationalities Papers

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... This is a very interesting paper by Sascha Nanlohy about the impacts of declining oil reserves on rentier states involved in conflicts, with Azerbaijan/Armenia as the principal case study. Stimulating analysis of what might be called 'rentier anxiety'. Recommended

www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1... This is a good survey juxtaposing connectivity initiatives in the South Caucasus with the reality of regional fracture, by Farid Guliyev.

evnreport.com/raw-unfilter... Mikayel Zolyan's article about the Soviet-era Armenian football team 'Ararat-73' as a symbol of 'apricot socialism' in Soviet Armenia.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPXI... Full recording of an interview with the renowned Azerbaijani author Akram Aylisli by @tomdewaal.bsky.social and his literary translator Katherine E. Young. Aylisli shares his humanistic and anti-nationalist views, and other memories of a remarkable life.

freebahruzcampaign.org/news/court-s... Incarcerated Azerbaijani academic Bahruz Samadov's appeal court speech from 5 February (in Azerbaijani/ English): "as an academic who promotes peace and coexistence between peoples and states, I should not be [in jail]..."

My new piece for Strategic Europe on why the EU is falling behind in the South Caucasus connectivity race and what it can do about it:

mediamax.am/am/specialpr... Now in Armenian translation - my latest piece for @agosgazetesi.bsky.social with thanks to Ara Tadevosyan and Mediamax

For the last 18 months I’ve been pretty quiet (probably a minor mercy for some), as I’ve been completing the manuscript of the second edition of my book Anatomy of a Rivalry. It’s all but ready for submission, just a final read-through to go…

www.agos.com.tr/tr/haber/erm... Now in Turkish translation - my latest piece for @agosgazetesi.bsky.social with thanks to @yozgatedirnetra.bsky.social

evnreport.com/opinion/hono... On the elusiveness of transparency and the memory politics of Armenia's calamitous defeat in 2020, by @mariatitizian.bsky.social for @evnreport.bsky.social

As always, @laurencebroers.bsky.social has essential reading for understanding and framing the dramatic events happening in Armenia and Azerbaijan: www.agos.com.tr/en/news/old-...

www.agos.com.tr/tr/haber/old... My latest on the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace process for @agosgazetesi.bsky.social

[new article, open access] brill.com/view/journal... 'Russian Eco-activists and the Question of Migrant Integration in Yerevan, Armenia', by Shushan Grigoryan

www.bloomsburycollections.com/monograph?do... Now available online and open access: 44-Day War: Armenia, Azerbaijan, and the Struggle for Nagorno-Karabakh, edited by Vicken Cheterian, to which I contributed a chapter on the diplomacy of the post-2020 period.

www.thersa.org/events/2026/... Happening on 11 February in London: 'The unquiet past: Memory, conflict and the writer’s voice', an evening dedicated to the voice of the remarkable Azerbaijani writer Akram Aylisli. Tickets are free but you need to register for them.

msh.ulb.ac.be/fr/agenda/co... Tomorrow in Brussels, I'll be participating in a panel discussion about the participation and sustainability in the peace process between Armenia & Azerbaijan at 18.30 at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. Details in link, all welcome.

irananalytica.substack.com/p/why-this-r... This is a really useful overview of the current protests in Iran and why they matter, by Hamidreza Azizi

caucasusedition.net/reworking-re... An important collection of essays outlining perspectives on Armenian-Azerbaijani-Turkish relations post-2025, recommended.

www.france24.com/en/europe/20... Thankful that this injustice at least has come to an end. Welcome back to freedom, Laurent!

oc-media.org/opinion-my-f... Gulnara Mehdiyeva hits the nail on the head: "If Armenia & Azerbaijan have initialled a text that condemns intolerance & racial hatred, then jailing a researcher whose work has been about refusing hatred is an error that must be corrected." Bahruz Samadov must be freed.

www.chathamhouse.org/2025/08/us-i... My latest, on the Washington peace summit between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

My first book, which discusses Sub-State Recognition, & co-authored with @gezimvisoka.bsky.social, is out now! #DeFactoStates link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

chaotic2000s.blogspot.com/2025/08/a-fe... If you only read one take on the Washington DC Armenia-Azerbaijan deal, make sure it is this one by the invariably insightful @drkevorko.bsky.social

www.mfa.am/en/press-rel... Text of the Armenia-Azerbaijan normalization agreement initialled in Washington on Friday now published - NB this was the product of bilateral negotiations without mediation and this isn’t yet signed - but the contents presumably now locked in.

top-center.org/en/analytics... Here is a cautiously optimistic perspective from Gulkhanim Mammadova on yesterday’s summit.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a... Iran registers its concern regarding the TRIPP… this was inevitable.

Having watched the ceremony and read the text that they signed, a few additional thoughts. tl;dr: it was a positive event, but a lot of pitfalls lie ahead.

Some further reflections on yesterday’s White House summit between President Aliyev, PM Pashinyan and President Trump. It was by all accounts an extraordinary day, whose time-honoured optics and symbolism could seduce all but the most hardened observers of the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace process.

evnreport.com/evn-security... Here is a positive analysis of today's Armenian-Azerbaijani meeting in the White House from Nerses Kopalyan for @evnreport.bsky.social (though I'd prefer to avoid the Pax Americana framing)

Later today Donald Trump is meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev; Trump promises that it will be an “official Peace Signing Ceremony.” Will it be? A background thread.

🇦🇲 🇦🇿 What are the outstanding issues that might challenge any peace deal struck at today's trilateral meetings between Armenia, Azerbaijan and the United States? Read an analysis by Mehriban Rahimli: www.gmfus.org/news/armenia...

It is another big day for Armenian-Azerbaijani diplomacy. Today President Donald Trump receives Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan at the White House in what has been trailed as a historic meeting.

Truly energised by the #iccees2025 roundtable devoted to my new book, "Unfinished Empire". Huge thanks to Yuliya Yurchenko, Ostap Kushnir, @laurencebroers.bsky.social‬) & Sofya du Boulay for their incisive and generous comments - and to the engaged audience who joined the discussion.

brill.com/view/journal... Gülfem Alıcı's book review of Empire of Refugees. North Caucasian Muslims and the Late Ottoman State written by Vladimer Hamed-Troyansky.

brill.com/view/journal... [new article, paywalled] Reinterpreting the 1917 Revolution in Daghestan: Conflicting Narratives and the Vernacular Perspective of Ali Kaiaev, by Shamil Shikhaliev and Naira Sahakyan.

www.zmo.de/en/events/sc... Happening this Friday in Berlin: a discussion of academic freedom and the future of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations. All welcome!

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/%... This is a very useful survey (in Russian) of where things stand in Armenia, with the always excellent @olesyavart.bsky.social

Ulviyya Ali interviewed Bahruz Samadov in prison, translated by @cavid.info. Bahruz tells her with regard to the case against him: "At the State Security Service, I was told the issue was Armenians citing my articles.” A sad, tragic state of affairs...

www.amnesty.org/fr/documents... “Academics dealt long prison sentences on spurious charges” in Azerbaijan - Amnesty International @amnesty.org

www.zmo.de/en/events/sc... Public event being held in Berlin on 11 July: 'Scholars, Academic Freedom and the Future of Armenian-Azerbaijani Relations', followed by a reception. All welcome (registration required).

www.bbc.com/russian/arti... Armenia's 2026 election season is now definitively opened with the arrest of 14 figures associated w/ opposition circles, including archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan. PM Pashinyan has said this network is involved in a Russian-sponsored coup attempt planned for this summer.

oc-media.org/azerbaijani-... Outrageous news from Baku as young scholar and peace activist Bahruz Samadov is given a 15-year jail sentence for "treason." I'm afraid I hear that the news is even worse: Bahruz tried to take his own life by hanging in his cell over the weekend. He must be freed.

Yesterday young Azerbaijani scholar Bahruz tried to commit suicide after learning that the prosecutor had requested a sentence of 16 years; today he was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment, on account of his contacts with Armenian analysts and journalists.

Researcher and OC Media contributor Bahruz Samadov has attempted to take his own life in prison, after prosecutors demanded he be sentenced to 16 years on charges of treason. ➡️ Read more: oc-media.org/azerbaijani-...

⭕ BREAKING: The Baku Court of Grave Crimes has handed out sentences of between 7-9 years in prison to the management and journalists of Abzas Media, one of the last independent Azerbaijan news sites operating in the country. oc-media.org/azerbaijan-h...

www.sessizolmaz.org/blog-88-dyna... Today PM Nikol Pashinyan makes the first official visit by an Armenian leader to Turkey since Armenia's independence. This overview of the state of play in the Armenia-Turkey-Azerbaijan by the brilliant @dibanigar.bsky.social is one of the best I've read.

brill.com/view/journal... [new article, paywalled] 'Shifting Landscapes: Informal Economic Practices in Georgian Port City of Poti', by Esma Berikishvili #Georgia

schedule.sxswlondon.com/session/ther... I highly recommend this remarkable film by Emily Mrktichian about the lives of 4 women living in Karabakh before 2020. Poignant, humorous, beautifully made and deeply moving. It’s showing this Saturday 7 June at the Curzon Hoxton.

A formal peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia would cement a “new order in the South Caucasus,” writes @zaurshiriyev.bsky.social. “Yet it is unclear whether Azerbaijan will embrace the opportunity.”