By Bakhtiyar Aslanov (the 30/10/2013 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Since the 1994 cease-fire agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia, negotiations between the parties have been overseen by the OSCE Minsk Group without any particular success towards peaceful solution. After the deadlock in peace negotiations over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in 2011, Azerbaijan and Armenia both accelerated their stockpiling of arms and intensified their public rhetoric of preparing for a new war.

By Tavus Rejepova (the 16/10/2013 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Turkmen and Chinese energy officials, in the presence of Turkmenistan's and China's Presidents Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and Xi Jinping, signed a number of new agreements and contracts on September 3-4 on the development of Turkmenistan's  giant Galkynysh (Renaissance) gas field and to increase the supply of Turkmen gas to China to 65 billion cubic meters (bcm) per year by 2020. A total of thirteen bilateral documents including the energy sector deals were signed to bring the Turkmen-Chinese cooperation to a new strategic level.

By Archil Zhorzholiani (the 16/10/2013 issue of the CACI Analyst)

The presidential candidates nominated by “qualified political parties” will participate in TV debates at the Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB) on October 17-18.  Georgia's election code grants such status only to political forces which have won at least 4 percent of the vote by running either independently or along with other parties in the most recent parliamentary elections and gained at least 3 percent of the vote in the latest local elections.