On the 26 th of February the Center for National and International Studies held its next conference in the series  of round tables dedicated to the 96th anniversary of  the first Azerbaijan Democratic Republic ( 1918-1920). The conference “The West’s Energy Interests and Democracy Promotion : Will The Foreign Policy Dilemma Ever Be Solved?” was a continuation of the topic, discussed at the first conference and devoted to the politics in the energy rich states. On a very short notice, the CNIS was denied the venue previously agreed with the ISR Plaza hotel, so the conference took place...


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Yesterday an expert event of Eastern Partnership advocators - EU officials, journalists, think tank and civil society representatives took place in the European Parliament. An event, organised by the EaP Civil Society Forum focused on the future strategy for European integration in the Eastern Neighbourhood, challenges and lessons learnt. The speakers included high officials - Henri Malosse, President of the EESC, Philip Mikos, Head of Unit, Regional Programmes Neighbourhood East, DG Europe Aid and representatives of the Steering Committee of the EaP Civil Society Forum - Jeff Lovitt, Jan Peiklo...


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On the 10th of February two CSF Steering Committee members Jeff Lovitt and Leila Alieva participated in the Euronest Standing Committee on Political Affairs, Human Rights and Democracy that meets twice a year, consisting of European Parliament delegation and the Eastern European Partners' (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine) delegations. The speakers from European External Action Service (Gunnar Wiegand) and the European Commission (Michael Koehler) talked about the prospect of the Eastern Partnership until the 2015 Summit in Riga and the European Neighborhood Instrument for 2014-2020. Jeff...


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This book is the third in the series of CNIS publications devoted to a comparative perspective on the identity, policy and relations of the two Turkic states that share a common border and are located at the crossroads of Europe and Asia. While the aim of the first volume was to put the current political developments in these two states into a historical perspective – the period of state and democracy-building which resulted in creation of democratic parliamentary republics in the early 20th century - the second focused on the post-Cold-War search for identity in Turkey and Azerbaijan. This...


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Johannesburg. 28 February 2012. CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation condemns bullying tactics by the Azerbaijan government to silence civil society organisations (CSOs). In recent months, there has been a rise in harassment of CSOs in Azerbaijan. Official intimidation tactics have included the levying of heavy fines on CSOs for petty administrative lapses; the issuing of warning letters to CSOs threatening to cancel their registration; the publication of defamatory articles against civil society members in the press; denial of permission to civil society groups to hold meetings...


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