Ilham Aliyev said relations with Iran are improving Prague, 6 August 2004 (RFE/RL) -- Azerbaijan and Iran share a border but this has not been enough to foster close relations between the two. Iranian President Mohammad Khatami is visiting Azerbaijan this week. It's the first official trip to the neighboring country by an Iranian leader in more than 10 years.
Azerbaijani President Aliyev Over the past two weeks, one former and two current top Azerbaijani officials have again affirmed their collective rejection of international mediators' insistence that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict can be resolved only on the basis of mutual concessions. Whether those Azerbaijani statements were intended primarily for domestic consumption, or whether and to what extent they should be construed as warnings to the international community not to pressure Azerbaijan too forcefully to agree to concessions that might trigger a major public backlash, is as yet unclear. Meanwhile, two senior U.S. diplomats have made clear that Washington continues to hope for a swift resolution of the conflict.
Three leading opposition politicians from Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia were among the hundreds of international figures invited to observe this week's Democratic National Convention in Boston. The three told RFE/RL's Robert McMahon that in spite of the convention's frequently stage-managed appearance, it offers some useful lessons in their own struggles to bring democracy to the South Caucasus.
(file photo) 21 July 2004 -- Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev says Azerbaijan will not agree to proposals on resolving the dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh that call for a loss of Azerbaijani land.
By Annie Bang and Michelle Townsend
As infants and toddlers, these children may have shared rooms or toys at an orphanage in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. But now these "Baku babies" are U.S. citizens with American parents. Families from across the United States with adopted Azerbaijani children recently gathered in New York to celebrate the traditions of Azerbaijan, with food, dancing, and shared memories of their adoption experiences.
Baku, 13 July 2004 (RFE/RL) -- An Azerbaijani political activist today said in a Baku court that he and six other opposition activists in detention have started a three-day hunger strike.
At Moscow's instigation, the six CIS states that are members of the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization (Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan), together with Moldova, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan, issued a statement in Vienna on 8 July harshly criticizing the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and calling for a fundamental refocusing of its priorities and activities.
9 July 2004 -- Police in Azerbaijan today broke up prayers outside a historic mosque in the capital Baku and proclaimed the building "closed for repairs."
Janez Potocnik, a junior EU commissioner working with enlargement commissioner Guenter Verheugen, today begins a four-day tour of the South Caucasus. He will meet the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia to talk about the EU's recent decision to include the three countries in its "new neighborhood" policy.
Prostitution is a subject that officials in the United Arab Emirates do not want to talk about. Officially, prostitution does not even exist in the U.A.E., a conservative Muslim federation of autonomous emirates. But in fact, prostitution is a multimillion-dollar industry there. Many of the women involved have traveled or been brought to the U.A.E. from poor countries abroad. And many say they suffer abuse and other difficulties in the emirate's sex trade.
Prague, 1 July 2004 (RFE/RL) -- Several items in the media today focus on the upcoming trial of Iraq's former leader, Saddam Hussein, as he made his first appearance in a Baghdad court today. Touted by some as the "trial of the century," many observers note that the kind of justice Hussein receives will be indicative of Iraq's commitment to building a just civil society on the ashes of his regime. Other issues addressed today include the sacking of 60 Bosnian Serb officials for the government's failure to locate and apprehend Radovan Karadzic and other indicted war criminals; taking the time to get nation-building projects right; Russia's bid for influence among its neighbors and beyond; and whether targeted assassinations -- in Chechnya, the Gaza Strip, or Afghanistan -- undermine the chances for peace.
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