Caucasus

A recent protest in Yerevan against the government's changing stance on Karabakh. © Arshaluis Mghdesyan

Armenians Protest Against Government Shift on Karabakh

Anger over potential plans to drop the decades’ long demand for territory’s independence.

3 May 22

VTB Armenia, a subsidiary of VTB Bank, one of Russia's largest financial institutions, is feeling the bite of sanctions introduced against Russia in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine. Sanctions are impacting Armenia's economy, which is tightly interlaced with Russia's. © Arshaluis Mghdesyan

Sanctions Hit Russian Investments in Armenia Hard

Russia accounts for 40 per cent of financial outlay, and some companies are already suffering.

27 Apr 22

Lilit Martorysyan is Armenia's most propminent transgender activist. In 2019 she addressed the Parliament, calling for protection and respect for her community. Her brief and healt-felt speech prompted political and diplomatic arguments, but it also marked a landmark step for LGBTI rights in the country. © Mania Israyelyan

Armenia: “I Was Born in a Body That Was Not Mine”

Country’s most prominent transgender activist describes her struggle to protect her community from discrimination and violence.

31 Mar 22

Nikoloz who turned 18 a few months ago has Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), which impacts his communication skills and is often expressed in limited and repetitive patterns of behaviour. © IWPR

Georgia: Autistic Adults Left Behind

While children have access to free therapy, treatment centres are not equipped to support adults.

28 Mar 22

After thousands of computers used to mine cryptocurrency overwhelmed the power grid in Georgia’s mountainous region of Svaneti at the height of winter, 200 residents gathered in the medieval church of St. George in Mestia, Svaneti's main centre, to take an oath on the ancient icon of the saint that they would never mine cryptocurrencies. © IWPR

Crypto Mining Overtakes Georgian Power Grid

Svaneti residents turned to ancient rituals to fight electricity shortages caused by virtual currencies.

24 Mar 22

An elementary school in Armenia's Syunik province. Parents shoulder a significant burden to ensure that their children receive proper schooling, with some experts assessing that a third of the average Armenian household expenditure was on education-related costs. © Mania Israyelyan

Armenia’s Education Gap

Parents are forced to shoulder a significant burden to ensure that their children receive proper schooling.

24 Mar 22

An internally displaced woman from Abkhazia hangs laundry from the window of her room in Kartli. © David Mdzinarishvili

Georgia: IDP’s Death Reopens Debate Over Housing

Hundreds of thousands of displaced people have been living in dire conditions for decades.

22 Mar 22

Azerbaijan’s Balancing Act between Russia and Ukraine

With Russian peacekeepers in Nagorny Karabakh, the region is Baku’s Achilles’ heel.

18 Mar 22

Kartli was built in Soviet times as a sanatorium for patients with heart conditions. As hundreds of thousands of Georgians fled Abkhazia at the end of the conflict in late 1993, authorities allocated about 200 families housing there in what was supposed to be a temporary measure. Thirty years on, 130 are still there. © David Mdzinarishvili

Georgian Displaced Still Long for a Home

The death of an IDP has reopened the debate on the dire conditions people originally from Abkhazia have been enduring for decades.

16 Mar 22

The Russians Moving to Armenia

Business and private individuals hope to escape the consequences of Russia’s attack on Ukraine.

11 Mar 22

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