Focus on countries

July 2009

• Armenia
• Azerbaijan
• Georgia
• Moldova
• Russia
• Turkey
• Ukraine

Armenia

Experts from the World Bank and the U.S. Brookings Institution have assessed the quality of governance around the world since 1996. Their latest Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) considers that Armenia now boasts a higher "regulatory quality" than nearly two-thirds of the countries surveyed. However, the current state of the rule of law and the scale of government corruption there were rated far less favorably. The only category where Armenia was judged to have regressed since 1998 is "Voice and Accountability," which gauges "the extent to which a country's citizens are able to participate in selecting their government, as well as freedom of expression, association, and the press."

In a joint statement during Group of Eight summit in Italy, U.S. President Barack Obama, France's Nicolas Sarkozy, and Russia's Dmitry Medvedev called on Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders to resolve their differences and move towards a final accord on the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
After a meeting with the French, Russian, and U.S. co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group on July 8 and 10,  respectively, the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to meet in Moscow on July 17. French co-Chairman Bernard Fassier said in Yerevan on July 8 that the conflict parties have agreed on almost all the 15 or so points of the Basic Principles for resolving the conflict. He said they still have to reach agreement on the future status of Nagorno-Karabakh and on security guarantees for its predominantly Armenian population.
On 17 July, Armenia's Serzh Sarkisian and Azerbaijan's Ilham Aliyev met Kremlin chief Dmitry Medvedev. That meeting was the sixth between Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents in just over a year. Statements by officials made after the meeting indicate that no progress on principle issues has been made.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group cochairs met in Krakow on July 24 to update the proposals for a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, called the Madrid Principles. Matthew Bryza, U.S. cochair of the group, said that there has been "significant progress between the presidents" and that the negotiations between the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents are "moving forward more aggressively" than ever before. But Bryza also said it is difficult "for both presidents to convince their populations to take on the risks that both sides must take on if there is ever to be a settlement."

The Azerbaijani parliament on June 30 adopted a law that had been expected to impose harsh restrictions on nongovernmental organizations. But in a last-minute twist, the law was stripped of its harshest amendments. Those amendments would have banned NGOs from receiving more than half their funding from abroad, required all nongovernmental organizations to register with the state, and sharply restricted the activities of foreign NGOs.
Azerbaijani NGO activists, who had formed a coalition to oppose the draft law, however, are largely holding their applause. The softening of the NGO law, so far, is the exception for Azerbaijan rather than the rule. The rights watchdog Freedom House continues to list Azerbaijan among its "consolidated authoritarian regimes" of the postcommunist sphere.

Prominent Azerbaijani youth activists Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizada were arrested early on July 9 after being involved in a fight in a restaurant. Emin Milli is known as a critic of the government who is very active in social networks like Facebook. Hajizada is one of the founders of the OL Youth group, which highlights the social problems of young people with popular videos shared on Youtube and social networking sites. Human rights activist Leyla Yunus said the way the activists were attacked and then arrested leads her to conclude the whole incident could've been planned by the special services and police. She cited the case of Qanimat Zahid, editor in chief of the "Azadliq" newspaper, who was sentenced to four years in prison on hooliganism charges after being attacked by an unknown person. The U.S., German, and Norwegian embassies have expressed concern and hope that the government will punish those who attacked the activists and release Milli and Hajizada.
Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizada, have been ordered in a closed court hearing to be held in detention for two months until the next hearing in their trial, RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service reports. Judge Rauf Ahmedov on July 10 also dismissed an appeal to allow journalists, human rights activists, and foreign diplomats to attend the trial, "in violation of international conventions," according to their lawyer, Isakhan Ashurov. A Baku court on July 20 rejected a defense appeal against a decision to hold the bloggers for two months pending trial.
The Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, leading an EU delegation to the South Caucasus visiting Azerbaijan protested on July 20 at the arrest of the two opposition bloggers. He said ambassadors of the EU's 27 member states had also submitted a statement to authorities "expressing their concern about the condition of human rights and freedoms in Azerbaijan."
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemned the Baku court's rejection of an appeal to release two jailed Azerbaijani bloggers as "unacceptable”. RSF has sent two letters to the Azerbaijani government asking for the journalists to be released but has received no response. RSF announced it will work to make "more and more people aware of [the bloggers'] situation."
At the ned of July, the special rapporteur on political prisoners for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has demanded the release of the two Azerbaijani bloggers. Christoph Straesser, who is also the spokesman of the Social Democrat Party in the lower house of the German parliament, said his party is demanding "the unconditional release of Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizade, who did nothing but use their freedom of expression."
On July 31, the world body's 18-member Human Rights Committee, an independent watchdog, after a day-long discussion earlier this month with a government delegation from Azerbaijan, asked the country’s authorities to stop curbing free speech and to protect journalists from harassment, violence, and even murder.

Georgian and Russian officials met for security talks in Geneva on July 1 – the sixth such meeting since their five-day war in August 2009. No agreements were reached during the meeting, but the two countries have agreed to meet again on September 17 in Geneva. The meeting, held under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the European Union, and the United Nations, also included representatives from the Georgian breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The meeting came a day after the OSCE officially closed its observer mission in Georgia and UN monitors began pulling out of Abkhazia. Russia, which recognizes the two regions as independent, had refused to renew the mandate of both missions. Russia started at the beginning of July its annual large-scale military exercises across parts of its southern regions bordering Georgia, condemned by Tbilisi as "pure provocation."

At mid-July, The EU "troika" led by Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, flanked by top officials from the EU's Council of Ministers and the European Commission, toured Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia. Bildt was accompanied on the visit by the EU special representative for the South Caucasus, fellow Swede Peter Semneby. Karel Kovanda, a former Czech diplomat and now a high-ranking official at the European Commission; and a representative of the EU's next, Spanish presidency.
With the pullout of OSCE monitors from South Ossetia and the departure of the UN observation mission from Abkhazia, the EU has with little warning become the only international body with observers present in the country.
The EU special representative for the South Caucasus is preparing a report in conjunction with the EU's representative at the Russia-Georgia talks in Geneva on the "parameters" of future interaction with Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The report will proceed from the EU's nonrecognition policy of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and is likely to recommend limiting contact to humanitarian and reconstruction issues, and the favoring of contacts with local population and nongovernmental organizations wherever possible. Contacts with the de facto authorities in Abkhazia and South Ossetia are expected to be carried out at no higher level than that of EU special representatives. No contacts are to be conducted with Russian diplomatic representatives in either Sukhumi or Tskhinvali. The EU's ambitions are limited to fostering people-to-people contacts and carrying out rehabilitation projects with the ultimate aim of facilitating reconciliation between Tbilisi on the one hand, and Sukhumi and Tskhinvali on the other.

On July 23, according to ITAR-TASS news agency, the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said that Russia will take "concrete measures" to prevent Georgia from rearming after its war with Moscow last year. Karasin made his comments as U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden visited Tbilisi in a show of support by Washington for its troubled South Caucasus ally ahead of the first anniversary in August of the Russia-Georgia war.

EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on July 27 agreed to extend the mandate of the cease-fire monitoring mission in Georgia until September 14, 2010. There was no discussion, which some EU states had sought, of the possibility of other countries, including the United States, joining the mission. Georgia wants U.S. monitors and weapons to help defend against what it says is a threat from Russian troops in two breakaway regions, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, at their nearest point 50 kilometers from the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.
UN and Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) monitoring missions, which had operated in Abkhazia and South Ossetia until Georgia's war with Russia last year, have been forced to pull out of Georgia after Russia rejected extending their mandates. This has left the EU as the only monitoring mission in Georgia. A statement agreed by ministers from the 27 EU states noted "with deep regret and concern" that agreement had not proven possible on the future of the UN and OSCE missions. The EU has some 225 unarmed monitors deployed in Georgia since last year's war to monitor a fragile cease-fire. But it has been denied access to either South Ossetia or Abkhazia and currently conducts patrols only as far as the de facto borders. Analysts warn the mission has neither the access nor the means to prevent frequent incidents -- gunfire and bomb blasts -- escalating into full-blown clashes.

At the beginning of July, Amnesty International has said stability could return to Russia's North Caucasus only if human rights violations were thoroughly investigated. The London-based rights group, in a 48-page report on recent violence in the mainly Muslim provinces released criticized the Russian government's failure to uphold the rule of law. Despite applauding recent efforts to improve the infrastructure and social conditions in the area, Amnesty said torture, unlawful killings, and secret detention persisted and fear of reprisals prevented individuals from speaking out. Enforced disappearances totaled 58 in the first four months of this year, compared to seven in the same period last year. Rights defenders reported most of these disappearances were committed by law enforcement personnel.

On July 15 Natalya Estemirova, a prominent Russian human rights activist has been found dead hours after being kidnapped in the North Caucasus region. She worked for Memorial, one of Russia's oldest human rights organizations. She was bundled into a car early as she left her home in the Chechen capital, Grozny. Estemirova was a lawyer who documented abductions, torture, and other human rights abuses in Chechnya. She worked with reporters, including murdered journalist Anna Politkovskaya, and other human rights groups. Estemirova was awarded the first Anna Politkovskaya Prize in 2007 by the Nobel Women's Initiative. Speaking to RFE/RL's North Caucasus Service shortly after, she said the authorities were doing nothing to investigate abuses documented by Memorial.
Memorial head Oleg Orlov told RFE/RL's Russian Service that Estemirova was killed to stop her from investigating a recent spate of kidnappings she believed were carried out by forces loyal to Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov. Kadyrov has raised alarm bells among those who believe he had a hand in Estemirova’s murder by vowing to oversee the investigation into the killing.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev expressed outrage at the killing. Speaking in Munich on July 16, he said Estemirova’s murder was a “very sad incident.”
Memorial has already announced its intention to suspend its activities in Chechnya.

A Russian rights activist was shot and severely wounded in an attack in the Russian city of Khimki, near Moscow, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports.  Unknown assailants shot Albert Pchelintsev, the leader of the public movement Against Corruption and Deception, on his way home on July 25. He was hospitalized with a gunshot wound to the face.  Pchelintsev has been actively involved in promoting greater transparency between Khimki's city administration and the public.