Azerbaijan's opposition National Council has nominated celebrated screenwriter Rustam Ibragimbekov as its presidential candidate in the October election. Revered by the cultural elite for films such as "White Sun of the Desert" and "Burnt by the Sun," Ibragimbekov also enjoys support in Russia and the United States and may go far in shaking up Azerbaijan's election season as autocrat Ilham Aliyev seeks a controversial third term.
Twenty-nine people have gone on trial in Azerbaijan for allegedly plotting terrorist attacks, including a plan to assassinate President Ilham Aliyev, during last year's Eurovision Song Contest in Baku.
Azerbaijan's political opposition groups have united to nominate a single candidate for October's presidential election.
RFE/RL Armenian Service correspondent Sargis Harutyunyan spoke with author Thomas de Waal, a senior associate of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, to mark the 10th-anniversary edition of his book "The Black Garden: Armenia And Azerbaijan Through Peace And War." He talked about how the conflict over the ethnic-Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan has changed over the last decade.
According to British journalist and writer on the Caucasus Thomas de Waal, a resumption of hostilities in the Nagorno-Karabakh region is unlikely. (RFE/RL's Armenian Service)
Croatia, which joined the European Union on July 1, is likely to be the last addition for some time. Other Balkan states are likely to follow suit, but it's likely to take at least another decade. As for the EU's neighbors to the east, their journey to membership is rockier still.
The U.S. State Department statement called the move “another important step in the process of advancing Europe’s energy security."
Authorities in Azerbaijan's southern district of Lankaran have arrested an adviser to the leader of opposition Musavat (Equality) party.
The Nabucco pipeline was once the keystone of EU hopes to obtain large amounts of natural gas from the Caspian and the Middle East. But as the developers of a key oil field are expected to announce that they have chosen a rival pipeline, Nabucco's future may be in doubt.
Austrian energy company OMV has announced that the consortium developing Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz-2 natural-gas and oil field has rejected using the proposed multibillion-dollar Nabucco West pipeline.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev says his country will continue to increase its military strength until the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Armenia is resolved.
Speculation has emerged in Baku that a pro-government party in Azerbaijan nominated the country's first lady, Mehriban Aliyeva, to run against her husband, President Ilham Aliyev, in elections this fall. The party now says the nomination was a mischievous stunt by political rivals. But the rumored nomination has fueled talk about how the powerful, high-profile first lady would fare as president.
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