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.”

Woke up to the news that activist and co-author Ahmad Mammadli has been arrested under false accusations by the regime in #Azerbaijan🇦🇿... Ironically, we had written this piece together for @ispionline.bsky.social on the regime's repression of democratic movements www.ispionline.it/en/publicati...

brill.com/view/journal... [new article, paywalled] 'Struggling for Attraction: Sources of Turkish and Iranian Soft Power in Azerbaijan', by Fatma Asli Kelkitli

Today, researcher & @charlesuni.cuni.cz PhD candidate Bahruz Samadov is spending 30th birthday behind bars in Azerbaijan, where critical scholarly work is criminalized, labeled as treason. There shld be more academic voices demanding Bahruz's freedom. #FreeBahruz www.psapopulism.org/blog/news/fr...

careers.chathamhouse.org/jobs/5874896... Chatham House is looking for a new Programme Director on Europe and Russia, deadline 26 May 2025 @chrussiaeurasia.bsky.social @chathamhouse.org

We are proud to share the CFP for ASIAC 2025📕: After last year's success, yet again at Università Ca'​ Foscari Venezia. Theme: "Knowledge Production about Central Asia and the Caucasus". Please send papers, panels and from this year posters and visual contributions. www.asiac.net/eventi/xix-a...

The trial of @hbs-south-caucasus.bsky.social partner @smdov.bsky.social has begun in Baku. He never had access to any classified information, yet faces 20 years in prison on fabricated treason charges. "How can I pass on a state secret that I don't have?" www-meydan-tv.translate.goog/az/article/b...

So much going on in the world that this commentary didn't get enough attention @zaurshiriyev.bsky.social on the importance of seizing the moment for an Armenia-Azerbaijan peace deal "Without peace, Baku risks mistaking short-term leverage for lasting influence." carnegieendowment.org/emissary/202...

brill.com/view/journal... [new article, paywalled] 'Exodus by Choice: Voluntariness in Ethnic Migration Sagas', by Ilkin Huseynli @ilkinmetdan.bsky.social

Here’s the English version of my article on why the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty must be finalized ASAP before the window of opportunity closes: carnegieendowment.org/russia-euras...

newmag.am/en/post/brok... This week the Armenian version of a new anthology about the Second Karabakh War, edited by Vicken Cheterian, will be presented in Yerevan. I contributed a chapter on post-war diplomacy. English version out later this year, some info here: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/44day-war...

Azerbaijan and Turkey, very close allies, are in a rare public dispute after Turkey and Armenia agreed to temporarily open their border for Armenian humanitarian aid shipments to Syria.

bakuresearchinstitute.org/en/speaking-... Why the imprisonment of young Azerbaijani scholar Bahruz Samadov matters for both academic freedom and peace - our op-ed for the Baku Research Institute.

Just received in the mail from the US, here are first copies of my wife's book of short stories translated into English. I'm definitely proud.

In an ‘unprecedented’ interview with Turkish media, Pashinyan discussed Armenia–Turkey relations, the ongoing trial of Armenian prisoners in Azerbaijan, and the Armenia–Azerbaijan peace negotiations. oc-media.org/pashinyan-sp...

You can download my forthcoming article here. It's about voluntariness in the 1989 village exchange between Azerbaijanis from Gizil-Shafag and Armenians from Karkanj. philpapers.org/rec/HUSEBC

1 A really positive step forward in Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks… but we shouldn’t expect a signing ceremony and peace in our time soon. Some inaccurate reporting out there, this piece ooks to me objective and accurate oc-media.org/armenia-and-...

Armenia-Azerbaijan normalization talks: Today saw a potentially significant development in the reports that the text of a long-awaited normalization agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan has been completed, according to an announcement by the Azerbaijani MFA, also confirmed by the Armenian MFA.

oc-media.org/armenia-and-... This is a developing story with *a lot* still to be confirmed, but potentially highly significant. If true, it suggests Baku & Yerevan have opted for prudence in sealing an agreement before potentially major global/regional realignments cascade into the Caucasus.

www.bbc.com/russian/arti... An interesting article for @bbcrussian.bsky.social by Andrey Kozenko + Magerram Zeynalov on new fiction, memoir and film by Armenians and Azerbaijanis about the Karabakh conflict.