The president of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, Samvuel Shahramanyan, has signed a decree providing for the dissolution of the self-declared state as of 1 January 2024. The decision comes after a series of military defeats against Azerbaijan, most recently on 20 September. Keep reading
The assault by Azerbaijani forces on 19-20 September on what was left of Nagorno-Karabakh, which already lost much of its territory in 2020, puts the Armenian people on the brink of a historic abyss, one more on their long list of misfortunes. The possibility that the centuries-old presence of Armenians in Karabakh is living out its last days is unfolding before everyone. The surrender of Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenian authorities in the early hours of the 20th leaves the Armenian side in a position of enormous weakness. Keep reading
For centuries, some in the West have been surprised to see that African regions have their own dynamics and political and social characteristics. But one should not try to explain changes in Africa —such as the one happening now in the Mali-Burkina-Niger triangle— without taking them into account autonomously. Keep reading
The 23 July election to the Spanish Congress of Deputies has left a correlation of forces in which obtaining support from substate parties —pro-independence, federalist, autonomist...— will be critical for the formation of the upcoming Spanish government. Current Spanish President and PSOE candidate Pedro Sánchez needs to strike deals with most of those parties to re-edit the coalition government he has commanded in Spain since 2019. If he does not, a snap election might be in sight. Keep reading
Of all the nations that make up the Russian Federation, Tatarstan is by far the one that has best preserved its cultural heritage, if ethnic Russians are not to be considered. Tatar is the second most spoken language of the Russian Federation (with nearly 3 million speakers, according to the latest official statistics), Tatars are the second-largest nationality in the country, and the territory where the majority of them live —Tatarstan— is one of Russia’s richest. Apart from the 4 million people who live in that republic, sizeable Tatar minorities are found in big cities like Moscow and Saint Petersburg, as well as in territories such as Udmurtia, Bashkortostan, or Perm. Keep reading