· April, 2012

Stories about Central Asia & Caucasus from April, 2012

Armenia: Art, Genocide, Westernization and Identity

Writing on Hyperallergic, Hrag Vartanian explains how he marked the 97th anniversary of the massacre and deportation of 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. The writer and art critic/curator took his mother to an exhibition of Armenian art exploring art, westernization and ethnic identity in the post-Genocide world.

Georgia: Concerns over Lazika development

  24 April 2012

Writing on The PIK.TV blog, the channel's English-language editor, Tbilisi-based Nicholas Alan Clayton, comments on plans to construct a new city in Georgia. With little transparency in planning the Lazika development, recently referred to as an ‘instant city in a swamp’ by the New York Times, the blog says that...

Armenia: A Tale of Two Nations

Security, in the Caucasus and beyond…. comments on the 97th anniversary of the massacre and deportation of 1.5 million Armenians from the Ottoman Empire in 1915. Considered an act of genocide by many historians and countries, the blog explains why the events are still very much politically relevant to both...

Armenia: The mob rules

  15 April 2012

Unzipped again comments on last week's cancelled festival of Azerbaijani films in Armenia's second largest city of Gyumri. The blog concludes that the campaign and demonstration against local peace activist Georgi Vanyan illustrated that the ‘mob rules’ and “state structures in Armenia failed to protect constitutional rights and freedom of...

Azerbaijan: Free Bakhtiyar Hajiyev

  15 April 2012

NetProphet comments on the case of Bakhtiyar Hajiyev, a young activist in Azerbaijan who was sentenced to two years in prison on what international human rights groups consider politically motivated charges, and a new campaign to have him freed.

Armenia: Support for Georgi Vanyan

  14 April 2012

Following the cancellation last week of a festival of Azerbaijani films in Armenia amid threats of violence, alternative voices online comment on the campaign targeting the organizer, peace activist Georgi Vanyan.

Tajikistan: Where Size Matters

  11 April 2012

Tajik President Emomali Rahmon knows the political capital to be made out of large, ostentatious public works projects. Yet Tajikistan is one of the poorest countries in the world, and one of the least able to afford such lavish displays of architectural excess. Chris Rickleton reports.

One Day on Earth: Worldwide Collaborative Music Video Released

  9 April 2012

A new music video has been released in preparation for the worldwide screening of the Global Collaborative film One Day on Earth, which will take place in locations all around the planet on Earth Day (22 April, 2012). The video features musicians, poets and dancers captured on film all during the same 24 hour period in 10 October, 2012, artfully recut and remixed by Cut Chemist.

Azerbaijan: Anti-virus software and machine translation

  7 April 2012

NetProphet comments on the release of Azerbaijan's first domestically produced anti-virus software, named after the country's capital, B.A.K.U. Launched at an expensive hotel, the event was not without its glitches, however, and most notably with invitations plagued by grammatical errors from what appeared to be machine translation. Amused, social network...

Armenia: Straight to the village

  6 April 2012

With a GDP per capita estimated at just $5,400 in 2011, Armenia is one of the poorest countries in the former Soviet Union. The situation is particularly noticeable in the villages of the landlocked country, but one foreign diplomat hopes to change all that.

About our Central Asia & Caucasus coverage

Nurbek Bekmurzaev
Nurbek Bekmurzaev is the Central Asia editor. Email him story ideas or volunteer to write.

Arzu Geybullayeva
Arzu Geybullayeva is the South Caucasus editor. Email her story ideas or volunteer to write.