caucasus

Nagorno Karabakh: the reasons for a war

The long-term reasons for the conflict in Nagorno Karabakh are well known. But what caused such an extensive military intervention as the one we are seeing these days, over 25 years after the ceasefire? And what can and should be done now? An analysis

Nagorno Karabakh: sarà (nuovamente) guerra?

An online event on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict organised by ISPI [in Italian]

“Abchazja” and other untranslated bits of Wojciech Górecki's Caucasus trilogy

Górecki spent a lavish amount of time in the Caucasus, meeting people across the region and hearing their stories. His Caucasus trilogy makes for excellent reading. Yet, not all of it is accessible to the international readership it deserves

On the beach, Lake Sevan

Somewhere in Armenia, not so far from the border with Turkey

Didn't realize how close to the Turkish border the Yerevan-Tbilisi train goes until my phone connected to Turkcell... pic.twitter.com/NZwzvKRPxF — Giorgio Comai (@giocomai) July 20, 2013

Gagra, Soviet war memorial

Why don’t you like girls? #caucasus #gendercide

Recently, “The Economist” has published a cover story about gendercide, i.e. the practice of selective abortion in order not to have female children. En passant, “The Economist” mentioned that Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia are three among the four top countries in the world rankings of countries by sex ratio at birth (male/female). The article mostly focussed on China and India, that are numerically much more important, and didn’t explain why this phenomenon is widespread in the South Caucasus.

McDondald’s on the beach and a cruiser

yep, still in Abkhazia… I took this one in Novyj Afon, about 20 km north of Sukhumi…

On a train to Rostov