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HAUNTED BY WAR: NAGORNO-KARABAKH

US-RUSSIA REDUX: THE PROBLEM WITH INTELLECTUAL INSINCERITY

AZERBAIJAN: WHAT AWAITS BEYOND STICKS AND CARROTS

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DIMITRIS GIANNAKOPOuLOSDR. MATTHEW CROSSTONTEJA PALKOPETRA POSEGALuíSA MONTEIROGABRIELA PASCHOLATI DOAMARAL

Ethnic “frozen” conflict between the formalSoviet countries Republic of Armenia andAzerbaijan has been going on since theyear of 1988 with the region’s legislaturepassed to join Armenia, and resulted in full-scale war in the 1990s. Occupation of Azer-baijan territories happened during the timeof gaining independence in both of thecountries. Since the break-up of the Soviet UnionNagorno-Karabakh Republic is self-de-clared independent republic with primaryethnic Armenians. Nagorno-Karabakh wasestablished as an autonomous region in-side Soviet Azerbaijan way back in 1923. In1992 with the declaration of independenceand with the help of Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh occupied over 20% of Azerbaijaninternationally recognized territories, thewar began. The overall war resulted in over20.000 Azerbaijanis deaths, around 5.000missing persons, more than 100.000wounded and half of formal number dis-abled.Ethnic cleansing of the Armenianpopulation on the entire territory of Azer-baijan began and also virtually all ethnicAzeri’s had fled or been forced out of the re-gion.

More than one million were In-ternal Displaced persons (IDPs)or refugees. Based on interna-tional Crisis Group reportingaround 30 people die everyyear because of the conflict.End of the fighting did notbring an end to the conflict.

Mediation initiatives and differ-ent proposals to resolve pivotalproblems and to achieve peacecame from different countries,politicians and organizationsover different timeframes. FourUnited Nations (UN) SecurityCouncil resolutions werepassed demanding withdrawalof Armenia from Azerbaijan. Be-side the neighboring countriesand the West one of the interna-tional organization is also Or-ganization for Security andCo-operation in Europe (OSCE)that has been meditating withOSCE Minsk Group ever sincethe conflict erupted, from theyear 1992 on. The group wascreated in order to resolve theconflict, but so far no improve-ment has been seen. In OSCEMinsk Group Russia, USA andFrance proposed several op-tions of proposals, but none hasbeen accepted by all sides.

No formal or iNTErNaTioNal rEcogNiTioN of sover-eignty, no peace and no solution in foreseeable future. The inter-national importance of territory and the whole region leading tounsuccessful involvement of international organizations, neigh-boring countries and world powers is reality that describesNagorno-Karabakh conflict.

HAUNTED bY WAR: NAgORNO-KARAbAKH

Defense EditorTeja Palko is a

Slovenian writer. She finished studieson Master’s Degreeprogramme in De-

fense Science at theFaculty of Social Sci-ence at University in

Ljubljana.

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One step towards solution could be upholdof the International community to the non-binding UN and OSCE arms embargoes onArmenia and Azerbaijan. Some progress wasmade in May of 1994 when Azerbaijan,Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia signed aceasefire, which is still effective regardlessthe everyday violations. All initiatives arefruitless since each side has its own claimsand views on how the conflict should be re-solved.

Azerbaijan considers Nagorno-Karabakh asillegally occupied territory by Armenia anddoes not recognize it as a state since the en-clave has not even been by the end of 21.Century internationally recognized. Azerbai-jan is striving to perused world opinion thatNagorno-Karabakh is just aggression of Ar-menia not a struggle for self-determination.Meanwhile, Armenia believes that conflictmust be resolved with recognition ofNagorno-Karabakh people’s right to self-de -termination. Neither Armenia nor Azerbaijanrecognizes the republic’s territorial sover-eignty.

The formal and Russia does not regardNagorno-Karabakh as a full negotiating part-ner. All three sides have different expecta-tions. First Nagorno-Karabakh with apopulation of about 14.000 persons, wantsrecognition of its independence before thenegotiations. Second Azerbaijan wants Ar-menia to end its occupation of the territoriesand withdraw of forces before discussing therepublic final status. And third Armeniawants resolution first on the status beforebacking out of disputed territories. The conflict had, has and could further haveconsequences on the broader regional situ-ation with diverse actors involved. Broad re-gional relations between countries must betaken into an account. The most importantactor that has influence in this region is Rus-sia, which supports Armenia, while Azerbai-jan forged alliances with North AtlanticTreaty Organization (NATO), with Partnershipfor Peace program (PFP) in 1994 and theWest. It is also true that both Armenia andAzerbaijan are politically and economicallyrecovering from war and another escalationwould bring no benefits to the either of op-posing sides. Despite being members of theMinsk Group, Russia and the US are amongthe main suppliers of military equipment toboth countries. In the region we can see thatworld leading states such as Russia and UShave also other strategic issues and goalsthat should be considered while looking fora solution.Armenia on one hand is very depended ofRussia also because of closed border withTurkey. The Turkey-Armenia border wasclosed in 1993 when Armenian forces occu-pied districts of Azerbaijan surroundingNagorno-Karabakh.

THE CONfLICT HAD,HAS AND COULD fURTHER HAvE

CONSEqUENCESON THE bROADER

REgIONAL SITUATIONWITH DIvERSE ACTORS

INvOLvED

Azerbaijan based on the International CrisisGroup even threaten Turkey's preferentialprice for its Shah Deniz natural gas suppliesand chances of greater volume to feed theplanned Nabucco transit pipeline to Europe.Increased trade would result in Yerevan lessdepend on Moscow. Even though Turkey hadofficially proclaimed its neutrality in the con-flict, it sides with Azerbaijan. We need tohave in mind that the South Caucasus regionis crossed by major oil and gas pipelineswhich represents great importance for Eu-rope’s and also Central Asia energy security.The BP-led Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipelineruns through territory less than 100 kilome-ters from the cease-fire line. Therefore terri-tory is an important energy corridor andwhole region is growing in importance in oiland gas sector.

United States Department of Energy datashows that the proven reserves in theCaspian Basin for oil reserves of the entire re-gion are equal to those of Iran or Iraq andproven gas reserves are about half as muchas Qatar’s, but much has been unexplored.Neighboring countries, including Iran try toinfluence on or resolve the conflict.

Also neighboring country Georgia is a strate-gic partner of Azerbaijan and upholds thepreservation of Azerbaijan’s territorial in-tegrity. Standpoint and pro-Azerbaijanstance has roots in problems that it has on itsown territory and disputes involving Abk-hazia and South Ossetia and also plans ofmaking a transit route for Caspian oilthrough its territory.


Both are clinging to NATO, but Georgia asone of many failed states in the world has noinfluence on resolving the conflict. The West-ern states and the US access to Caspian oiland gas resources serves as minimization theWest’s dependence on Middle East oil. Thereare activities that are leading to minimizeIran’s and Russia influence in the region.Stability in the South Caucasus cannot beachieved without finding a lasting solutionfor Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Nagorno-Karabakh maybe has no future as apart of Azerbaijan and whatever the solutionis, it must emanate from the will of theKarabakh people. Maybe meeting of theAzerbaijan and Armenia in Saint Petersburgin June this year will shine a new light intolong lasting problems and conflict. Eventhough a conflict escalation is in many waysseen unlikely and the chances of war are nothigh, the tensions and distrusts between Ar-menia and Azerbaijan continue. The dangerof escalation persists to this day and poten-tial of increase in casualties on the frontlinesis growing. Both states can with its armedforces, Azerbaijan with around 95.000 andArmenia with Nagorno-Karabakh 70.000 per-sonnel, hit large population centres, commu-nications and critical infrastructure. Regionalalliances could pull in Russia, Turkey and Iran,which all play an important role in keepingthe region stable. Furthermore, important oil and gas pipelinesnear the front lines could be threatened. In-stead of peace based on Stockholm Interna-tional Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)we seegrowing military expenditures, state-fuelledpropaganda, and political ineffectiveness toachieve permanent solution, ceasefire viola-tions and lack of diplomatic progress.

THE DANgER Of ESCALATIONPERSISTS TO THIS DAY

AND POTENTIAL Of INCREASEIN CASUALTIES ON THE fRONTLINES

IS gROWINg

Places like the Moscow Carnegie Centre orthe Brookings Institution in Washington DCare regular go-to places for the media whenseeking expert opinion and analysis. How-ever, these centers of independent knowl-edge production have had a decided slantin allocating blame for the poor bilateral re-lations to the Russian side, with the expla-nations ranging from the fairly simple tothe rather mystically esoteric.

“If America did not exist, Russia would haveto invent it. In a sense it already has: first as adream, then as a nightmare. No other countrylooms so large in the Russian psyche. ToKremlin ideologists, the very concept of Rus-sia’s sovereignty depends on being free ofAmerica’s influence. Anti-Americanism haslong been a staple of Vladimir Putin, but it hasundergone an important shift. Gone are thedays when the Kremlin craved recognitionand lashed out at the West for not recogniz-ing Russia as one of its own. Now it neitherpretends nor aspires to be like the West. In-stead, it wants to exorcise all traces of Ameri-can influence.”

It is not difficult to find thisFreudian-type of political psy-cho-babble today when itcomes to ‘analyzing’ Russian po-sitions. The United States triesto portray itself as the victim ofa global oedipal complex whenit comes to Russia: first Putindesperately craves daddy’s at-tention; then defiantly and reck-lessly rejects him; only to thenpetulantly try to run away fromhome. Most countries aroundthe world would actually find itdangerously myopic and un-healthy to base its foreign pol-icy on earning the ‘approval’ ofanother country. The far morestandard approach to foreignpolicy formulation is to deter-mine a country’s own nationalinterests and craft an independ-ent position best able toachieve its own optimal goals.

And that, incredulously, is whatis being described above inAmerica as a ‘shift:’ from cravingattention to striving to exorciseAmerican demons. In realitythere is no shift at all: Russia hasalways been about Russia, as itexpects America to be aboutAmerica, France to be aboutFrance, Nigeria to be aboutNigeria, so forth and so on.

There are nuMerous intellectual sources, from think tanks togovernmental agencies, both in the United States and Russia,which are deeply concerned about the state of Russian-Americanrelations.

US-RUSSIA REDUX: THE PROBLEM WITH INTELLECTUAL INSINCERITY

Matthew Crosston isProfessor of PoliticalScience, Director of

the InternationalSecurity and Intelli-gence Studies Pro-

gram, and the MillerChair at Bellevue

University


What Russia finds so irksome is that when itdoes what everyone else does on the issueof global positioning, it is judged as psycho-logically unstable or mentally deficient. Whatthe American media outlets and think tankpersonalities fail to recognize is how much ofthis judgment is not from observable behav-ior or direct quotes from relevant actors, butis instead from so-called experts pushing adecidedly one-sided interpretation of theagenda.

Russia is not supposed to aspire to be a copyof or mimic for the West. Nor should it be al-lowing any particular American influenceover its policy decisions. This is not said as ananti-American statement but rather as sim-ple foreign policy logic: America would neverstrive to copy another country and it mostcertainly does not endorse another countrytrying to force-influence its foreign policy. Sowhy should Russia? It is this very straightfor-ward question that seems to never be askedby what are otherwise august media institu-tions and impressive political think tanks inthe West.

Sometimes this tendency can reach near far-cical levels. When Alexei Pushkov, chairmanof the Russian parliament’s foreign-relationscommittee, spoke about ridding Russia ofdependence on America and even ridicu-lously commenting about fining cinemasthat show too many foreign films, it was upto Western experts on Russia to recognizethe absurd for what it is: just absurdity. Fail-ure to do so is especially egregious given somuch Western political analysis over the pastfifteen years has lamented the strengtheningand deepening of Putin’s own presidentialpower system. Decrying how little power sitswithin the legislative or judiciary branches ofRussian government means it is nonsensicalto then highlight parliamentarians as havingreal impact and relevance on Russian-Amer-ican relations. But this happens quite a bit inAmerican media outlets and think tankswithout anyone ever taking the time to pointout the blatant contradiction.

This bias is only more pronounced when youleave academically- oriented think tanks/news monitors and observe opinions withinthe corridors of American power. Tradition-ally, this decidedly anti-Russian fervor camefrom the Republican Party. However, thisanalysis would argue that except for a verybrief and ultimately dashed Obama ‘reset,’ at-titudes about Russian-American interactionwithin Washington DC has always been dom-inated in both parties by a largely Republicanmindset. That mindset sets a fairly stark characteriza-tion: Russia is an aggressive and untrustwor-thy dictatorship that is an innatecontradiction to American values. As such itwill inevitably always be a threat to U.S. inter-ests and global security.

RUSSIA IS NOT SUPPOSEDTO ASPIRE TO BE A COPY Of

OR MIMIC fOR THE WEST.NOR SHOULD IT BE ALLOWINgANY PARTICULAR AMERICAN

INfLUENCE OvER ITSPOLICY DECISIONS

By all indicators, Russia is a threat not just toitself and its immediate neighbors but to theentire world, masking its own domestic fail-ings and instabilities with an aggressive for-eign policy that will never acquiesce to amore peaceful and cooperative global com-munity. Indeed, when American politiciansspecialize in ambiguous statements andplausible deniability, it is rather remarkablehow freely the American Congress seems toderide Russia:

John Boehner: “It is increasingly evident thatRussia is intent on expanding its boundariesand power through hostile acts.”Ted Poe: “The Russian bear is coming out of itscave because it got its feelings hurt because ofthe fall of the Soviet Union, and not it is tryingto regain its territories.”

Chris Smith: accused a “repressive Russianregime” of “coddling dictators” around theglobe from Central Asia to Syria to Cuba andVenezuela.

Trent Franks: After the conclusion of an armsdeal between Russia and Venezuela, Presi-dent Putin was called a “thugocrat” engagedin “dangerous alliances.

Keep in mind all of the above statementswere uttered before the 2014 crisis in Ukraineeven broke out. So before the U.S. Congresssaw what it considers undeniable and ir-refutable proof of Russian aggression, it al-ready viewed Russia as a corrupt kleptocracywillfully abusing human rights, powered byan irrational and paranoid hatred of theUnited States.


There also tends to be a failure to place Russ-ian analysis through the looking glass of rec-iprocity. What this means is that currentAmerican thinking emphasizes how untrust-worthy Moscow decision-makers are, or howthere is no real point in talking with theKremlin, while completely ignoring or dis-missing the very real Russian criticism thatlobs the same complaint back at Washing-ton. President Putin openly and publicly dis-cusses his lack of trust in American powerand in the specific policy decisions emanat-ing from the White House. It is because ofthis skepticism, even cynicism, that he claimsforces his own lack of desire to engage theUnited States.

There are simply too few voices at presenttrying to analyze this declared mindset as alegitimate position. As far as can be deter-mined, the only reason this is not analyzedmore seriously is because the competing al-ternative – that Putin is untrustworthy andMoscow is the cause of all communicationbreakdowns – is simply too powerfully ac-cepted as a de facto axiom.

In short, if the United States does not trustRussia, it is because of how Russia behaveson the global stage and because of its ownhistory on said stage. If Russia does not trustthe United States, that is simply Russian pos-turing and a case of political transference,wanting to blame its own self-made prob-lems on someone else so that it can avoidany accountability or being held responsiblefor poor performance. The issue at hand ishow this is simply accepted rather than in-vestigated. And how few so-called Russianexperts are at present willing to step forwardand shine a light on this intellectual insincer-ity. There are voices that decry a picturebeing painted that combines inaccuracywith heightened rhetoric while purposely ig-noring mitigating contexts and less negativeobservations. However, those voices are ex-tremely rare and at the moment easilydrowned out by the drumbeat of Russian de-rision. Until those voices get louder or striveto become more prominent public figures inWashington, it seems there is little hope foran improvement in relations between theUnited States and Russia based on actualevents in the real world.

ATTITUDES ABOUTRUSSIAN-AMERICAN INTERACTION

WITHIN WASHINgTON DCHAS ALWAYS BEEN DOMINATED

IN BOTH PARTIESBY A LARgELY

REPUBLICAN MINDSET

Essentially, power applies to country`s abil-ity to obtain the desired goals in interna-tional community, the main difference istherefore in the means to acquire them. Inhard power, the name of the game is coer-cion; tactics and applied mechanisms in-clude military and economic power,manifesting in threats to oblige to certainpolicy or succumb to undesired actions.Soft power applies to attracting others toco-opt specific goals and it rests on threedifferent resources: country`s culture, itspolitical values and its foreign policies. Softpower therefore depends on ability to cre-ate certain attraction to presented actionsand stated goals. Many argue that whereascoercion has credible means to force com-pliant behavior, the means of soft powercan be more long- lasting and cost efficient.As with propaganda, the best power iswhen you feel no power at all. We can also connect both concepts to twoprevailing blocks of theories on interna-tional relations: realism and liberal, con-structivist (whereas there are cleardistinctions to both when it comes to the-oretical basics, we can apply soft power tac-tics to both of them).

Realism emphasizes on the in-evitable struggle of one countryand its national security vrs theother, citing states as rationalactors pursuing and acting intheir self interest. Main meansto achieving the ends are mate-rial resources such as rough mil-itary might, energy resourcesand population quota. Clearly, this is a nod to hardpower and its role in the globalpolitical system. Liberal theoriesenunciate cooperation be-tween different countries as themain characteristic of the inter-national system and the bene-fits of such behavior for all theinvolved players, for increasedinterdependence supposedlyeliminates the danger of resort-ing to aggressive means; on theother hand, constructivists indi-cate that people give means todifferent institutions and instru-ments by their compliance, as-piration to, defiance orignorance to certain rules or in-stitutions. We can see how soft power issynchronized with the lattertwo theories, emphasizing co-operation, attraction and strug-gle for similar interpretation ofgoals.

ThE counTry`s PowEr in international relations rests uponvarious things and the principal distinction into hard and softpower displays particular means to influence the behavior of oth-ers.

AzERbAIJAN: WHAT AWAITS bEYONDSTICkS AND CARROTS

MD EditorPetra Posega

is a Master`s degreestudent at the Uni-versity for Criminal

justice and Securityin Ljubljana with a

Bachelor`s degree inPolitical Science-Defense studies.


International community is a very dynamicentity, not comprising anymore just from na-tion states but also other players (multina-tional organizations, corporations, NGOs…)and at the same time exercising very strictcodes of conduct when it comes to applyinghard military power; (although arguablysome conveniently like to forget that part inthe US vrs them strategies) therefore, thereis a vast scale of different means and differ-ent attitudes one player can adopt when itcomes to reciprocal relations. Smaller actorsoften resort to soft power mechanisms,whereas great powers also often apply hardpower in their grand strategies, which com-plies to the fact that one can only make useof what one has.

When it comes to Azerbaijan, the countryhas many different aspects of applicablepower tactics. Since hard power relies on dis-plays of military might and economicstrength, we can argue that Azerbaijan dis-played both in the armed conflict over theNagorno- Karabakh region with neighbour-ing Armenia (at this point solely pointing outto the use of power, not the wider implica-tions and causes of the conflict).

The fighting officially ended in 1994 and theOSCE Minsk Group is now responsible for thepeaceful resolution of the conflict. Althoughofficially a frozen issue, in 2014 alone asmany as 60 people were killed in borderclashes, making it the worst annual record intwo decades and evidently the matter farfrom over.

Azerbaijan also displayed hard power whenit imposed full economic embargo on Arme-nia together with Turkey and closed the bor-ders to the country. In 2012, Azerbaijanileadership expressed their desire to upgradethe army according to NATO standards,which would present a significant increase ofcountry`s hard power, especially in the lightof decades long unsuccessful peace talkswith Armenia over the Nagorno- Karabakhregion. Therefore, arguably, Azerbaijani mili-tary hard power relates to the conflict overNagorno- Karabakh region and is standing ata little over 65 000 men strong navy, land andair forces. Otherwise, it is composed of eco-nomic strength, gained from energy- relatedprofits, which are able to open a wide rangeof possibilities when it comes to various eco-nomic incentives, also part of the hard powerrepertoire. Arguably, we could also interpret Azerbaijanipipeline diplomacy as a sort of hard powertactic, because it significantly decreases theeconomic gains for targeted players, mainlyArmenia (with BTC and BTE oil and gaspipelines also Russia), another such projectthat diminishes the prospects of Armenia isthe Trans- Anatolian pipeline. Undeniablyhelpful in this application of power is Azer-baijani strategic positioning in the Caspianregion, sandwiched in the midst of Russia,Iran and Turkey.

WE COULD SAY THATAzERbAIJAN OffERS

MOSTLY CARROTS,ALMOST NEvER STICkS

Azerbaijani hard power was therefore appli-cable to neighboring Armenia in the pasthowever, when thinking globally, the possi-bility spectrum of hard power diminishes toeconomic incentives, such as developmentaid, reduced tax policies, FDI etc. We couldsay that Azerbaijan offers mostly carrots, al-most never sticks. When dealing with thebroader international community, Azerbai-jan is prone to think soft, presenting ways toco-opt their goals and attracting other coun-tries with set of examples and agendas. With appeals such as a strong secular gov-ernment, religious tolerance, orientation to-wards open, democratic society andindependent energy, economic and securitypolicies, Azerbaijan makes a strong case fora soft power spill- over to other countries,striving to achieve the same level of devel-opment.

Surely so, Azerbaijan has also become aprominent model for Muslim- majority coun-tries seeking to manage religious, culturaland ethnic differences in a productive andharmonious manner. Thanks to its secularpolicies and an embracing approach towardsreligious and ethnic diversity, the countryhas gathered substantial soft power as a rolemodel for other (Muslim) countries to followsuit.

Besides setting the example, Azerbaijan isalso very active in promoting its culture, ed-ucation and people. With many student anduniversity staff exchange programs, promo-tion of major cultural events (such as the firstIslamic opera and first Islamic ballet in theUS), hosting international conferences andround tables, Azerbaijan is following in thefootsteps of other world countries.


One of the latest significant public diplo-macy efforts of the country was also partici-pation in the Eurovision song context, mostwidely- watched non sporting event in theworld, that awarded Azerbaijan victory in2012 and consequently brought the compe-tition to Baku in 2013. After successfully host-ing the contest, Azerbaijan was prepared foranother big undertaking: inaugural Euro-pean Olympic Games, which will be held inBaku this June. Azerbaijan has taken this taskvery seriously and over the past two years,many state- of-the-art sporting venues werebuild in the country, to fit the requirementsof top European athletes coming to theGames.

When thinking about Azerbaijan, embracingthe many cultural and ethnic differences asmuch on paper as in real life, arguably, Bakuis the best place to host the first EuropeanOlympics Games. Additionally, the hosting of games is alignedwith Baku`s desire to successfully put Azer-baijan on the map of Europe and the worldand surely, culture and sporting events arethe best and most efficient way to do so.Baku is hoping to build an economic, politi-cal and diplomatic capital in the eyes of theglobal community and prepare for its futurebeyond just gas and oil sells. Accordingly, allwill not be over after the European games;Azerbaijan is also set to host the first BakuFormula one race and four matches in the2020 UEFA European Football Champi-onship.

We can conclude that Azerbaijan is success-fully implementing various soft power tacticsto win the hearts and minds of world coun-tries. Besides just setting examples, it is alsovery active with its cultural and public diplo-macy, hosting away important events frommany different specters of contemporary life.By continuously doing so, we can expectAzerbaijan to fix its position as a country toreckon with, expanding its activity from re-gional to global aspirations.

bAkU IS HOPINg TO bUILDAN ECONOMIC, POLITICAL AND

DIPLOMATIC CAPITALIN THE EYES Of THE gLObAL

COMMUNITY AND PREPARE fORITS fUTURE bEYOND JUST

gAS AND OIL SELLS

A final, comprehensive agreement is yetto be drafted and signed before the June30 deadline, but by all indications wemay have finally achieved a break-through in the decade-and-a-half-longIranian nuclear negotiations, paving theway for an end to the Iranian nuclear hys-teria and a decisive rollback of punitiveWestern sanctions, which have collec-tively punished tens of millions of ordi-nary Iranian citizens.

Ending punitive Western sanctionsagainst Iran, in exchange for substantialconcessions on its nuclear program, willmost likely have a dramatic impact onthe global economy -- unlocking theworld's hottest emerging-markets-in-waiting. Iran combines the consumermarket and human capital potential ofTurkey, with the hydrocarbon riches ofSaudi Arabia and Russia, and the mineralresources of Australia. As the BRICS(Brazil, Russia, India, China, and SouthAfrica) struggle with various manifesta-tions of the notorious 'middle incometrap,'

Iran represents the next greatdestination for foreign in-vestors. In the near future, wemay end up talking about anew, cooler acronym: The "i-BRICS", with Iran, of course, asthe "i."

withstanding stagflationWhile the war-weary Americanpeople can rejoice in prevent-ing another conflict in the Mid-dle East, the Iranian peoplehave wasted no chance at cele-brating the promise of eco-nomic recovery and reintegration into the global com-munity. Horns, chants andcheers have filled the air acrossTehran, echoing the country'scelebrations during the 2014World Cup.The historic Nixon-Mao open-ing in the early-1970s cementedthe foundations of a decades-long economically symbiotic re-lationship between Washingtonand Beijing, allowing one of theworld's most sophisticated civi-lizations to rejoin the commu-nity of nations -- and transformthe global economy along theway. The Obama-Rouhani nego-tiations could produce a similaroutcome, allowing the Persiancivilization to retake its pride ofplace on the global stage, un-leashing the talents and poten-tials of 75 million Iranians, whohave been besieged and iso-lated for years under unimagin-able external pressure.

"a journey of a Thousand Miles begins with a single step,"Chinese Philosopher Lao-tzu once said. When it comes to bringingIran -- the heir of the great Persian civilization -- out of the cold,the recently announced Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action(JCPA) framework agreement, after days of grueling 11th-hourhaggling in Lausanne, Switzerland, between Tehran and the majorpowers, may very well count as that proverbial "single step."

THE NEXT gREAT EMERgINg MARkET

richard javadheydarian

Academic, policy ad-visor, and author of

"How CapitalismFailed the Arab World:

The Economic Rootsand Precarious Future

of the Middle EastUprisings"


The unilateral Western sanctions against Iranwere particularly devastating, since theycombined targeted sanctions against Iran'sfinancial and oil sector with an intense diplo-matic effort to convince/pressure Iran'smajor Asian trade partners -- namely, SouthKorea, Japan, China, Turkey and India -- todramatically reduce their oil imports fromIran. Washington rallied the support of majorArab oil-producing countries, such as SaudiArabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE),to supplant any potential shortfall in oil sup-ply when Iran's oil would be squeezed out ofinternational markets.

Meanwhile, by pressuring Iran's Asian oilpartners, the West limited Iran's pool of cus-tomers, therefore giving immense leverageto Tehran's narrowing circle of buyers to de-mand heavy discounts and unfavorableterms. South Korea and Japan agreed to cuttheir Iranian oil imports, while India andChina began exploiting the situation by forc-ing Iran to offer discounts and settle forbarter trade.

Under growing American pressure, Iran'smost important regional trade partner, theUAE, progressively severed financial ties withTehran, undermining Iran's ability to importessential primary products, especially food.To up the ante, EU also imposed sanctions onIran's most important port operator, Tidewa-ter Middle East Co., which has been respon-sible for handling much of Iran's externaltrade. These moves were clearly designed tostrangle the Iranian economy, going well be-yond the scope of the nuclear issue -- caus-ing tremendous difficulty for ordinaryIranians.

As a result of the concerted punitive meas-ures, Iran fell into "stagflation," with a spikein inflation coinciding with a dip in GDPgrowth. Its oil exports, the chief source of for-eign currency earnings, halved, while sanc-tions on Iran's financial sector, including theBanke-e-Markazi (Central Bank), meant thatTehran struggled to collect its payments ininternational currency. Up to $100 billion ofIranian overseas assets were virtually frozen.Inflation reached as high as 40 percent, andIran's currency (rial) lost 60 percent of itsvalue. Iran suffered two years of economiccontraction, in 2012 and 2013. Iran's econ-omy would have been 15-20 percent largertoday if it were not for the sanctions.

The next hot destinationThe expected removal of Western sanctions,particularly the targeted measures againstIran's oil and financial sector, could pave theway for a huge and much-needed inflow offoreign investors and recovery of Iran's oilsector and heavily-battered currency.

THE COMBINATIONOf MARkET SIzE,

NATURAL RESOURCES,AND HUMAN CAPITAL

HAS MADE IRANA HUgELY ATTRACTIvE

MARkET PROSPECT

Within the region, Iran possesses the mostsophisticated and expansive industrial base.It is among the world's top 15 steel produc-ers, top 5 cement producers, and has one ofworld's biggest auto-manufacturing indus-tries (ranked 13th in the world), churning outas many as 1.6 million cars annually in recentyears, representing the second biggestsource of employment-generation after theoil sector and accounting for 10 percent ofthe country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP).With the removal of sanctions, Iran cantremendously benefit from cheaper and eas-ier access to intermediate goods and tech-nology for its manufacturing sector.

Despite suffering from decades of Westernsanctions, Iran has astonishingly managed tostand as among the world's leading coun-tries in cutting-edge sciences such as nan-otechnology and stem cell research. Itsuniversities, particularly University of Tehran(Iran's Harvard) and Sharif University of Tech-nology (Iran's MIT), have produced one ofthe best engineering, science and mathe-matics graduates, including Maryam Mirza-khani, who became the first woman to winthe Fields Medal, the "Nobel Prize" of math-ematics.

In 2012, Iran cemented its position as theleading Middle Eastern scientific power,ranking as the world's 17th biggest producerof scientific papers, outshining Turkey and Is-rael. In terms of human development, Iranstands among the top countries in Asia, fea-turing in the "high" human developmentindex category.

The combination of market size, natural re-sources, and human capital has made Iran ahugely attractive market prospect. And therehasn't been a shortfall of interest from for-eign investors, particularly from oil giants,which are considering huge investment in apost-sanctions Iran.

In recent years, Iran has hosted one of thebiggest European business delegations in itsmodern history. Ending the sanctions, andreviving Iran's economy, has been the keypromise of the Rouhani administration,which aims to make Iran among the world'stop 10 biggest economies in the near future.With Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei,who has the final say on Iran's domestic andforeign affairs, repeatedly expressing his sup-port for Iran's negotiators, much of the Iran-ian establishment has rallied behind theRouhani administration's effort to resolve thenuclear crisis.


A final nuclear agreement will also provideIran much-needed strategic space to diver-sify its external relations, allowing it to getout of the shadow of Eastern powers such asChina and Russia, which have exploited Iran'sisolation in recent years. In light of sanctionsagainst Tehran, China effectively gained priv-ileged access to Iran's vast energy and infra-structure sector. Meanwhile, Russia is yet tohonor its earlier agreement to deliver ad-vanced missile-defense-systems to Iran,which Tehran has desperately sought foryears.

To protect its national economic welfare, Iranhas reportedly agreed to significant conces-sions on its nuclear program: reduction of itsinstalled centrifuges by two-thirds; haltinguranium enrichment over 3.67 percent (onlyuseful for power generation) for at least 15years; reduction of its current stockpile ofabout 10,000 kg of low-enriched uranium(LEU) to 300 kg; and not building any new fa-cilities for the purpose of enriching uraniumfor 15 years.

It has also agreed to subject itself to the his-tory's most robust inspection regime, underthe auspices of the International Atomic En-ergy Agency (IAEA), which will even have ac-cess to uranium mines and exercisecontinuous surveillance at Iran's uraniummills for 25 years. Facilities in Arak, Natanz,and Fordow will also be subject to significantinspection and reconfiguration.

As Iran open up to the world, the Obama ad-ministrations and its partners face an un-precedented opportunity to not onlyadvance the cause of non-proliferation andavert an unnecessary and destructive con-flict, but also to tap one of the world's mostpromising economies. The stakes couldn't beany higher.

THE kEY PROMISE Of THEROUHANI ADMINISTRATION,

TO MAkE IRAN AMONg THEWORLD'S TOP 10

BIggEST ECONOMIESIN THE NEAR fUTURE

More than 10 years after the collapse of theSoviet Union and the emergence of thenewly independent republics of the CaspianSea, a comprehensive solution to the prob-lem of the international legal status of theCaspian Sea has still not been found. The un-clear legal situation of the Caspian Sea andthe consequent uncertainty of the coastalstates about the issue of territorial demarca-tion, their uncertainty about the extent oftheir sovereign rights to the exploitation ofnatural resources and the uncertainty of theneighboring states with regard to shippingin the Caspian prevent continuous economicdevelopment of the region, destabilize polit-ical situation and result in a lack of securityin the Caspian region.

The ineffective attempts to define the legalframework of the Caspian sea should be ex-plained by pointing to the existing deep dif-ferences between geopolitical and economicinterests of the five littoral states. Along withthe change of the geopolitical situation inthe region after the collapse of the SovietUnion and the region`s opening to interna-tional collaboration in the area of oil and gasresources, the Caspian sea region has cometo the center of attention even for China, theUS and the EU, which has intensified thecompetition of powers existing in the re-gion.”

www.modeRndiplomacy.eu the caspian pRoJect

“is it PossiBle for the CasPian sea, which has become a bone of con-tention between the five bordering countries Russia, Kazakhstan, Turk-menistan, Azerbaijan and Iran after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991,to turn into an area of- literally speaking- fruitful cooperation in the legalsense?This question remains open for the time being, but we may have reason tohope, considering the recent state of the negotiations, that the long awaitedconsensus can still be found.

the legal statusof the caspian sea-

cuRRent challengesand pRospects foR

futuRe developmentBarBara Janusz- Pawletta(sPringer- 2015- 176 Pages)

Petra Posega

This book focuses mainly on Chinese andRussian interests and activities in the regionand in relation to its neighbours, as well astouching upon topics such as natural re-sources (where the Caspian Sea Countriesfigure prominently) and religion (as is thecase with Muslims in otherwise secular soci-eties). The book works in providing anoverview of the region through a myriad ofangles, most notably discussing the conceptof borders and cross-border congruence, ul-timately providing their own original con-cept of “Eurasia as an area linked by vitalinterests and overlapping histories” (Walcottand Johnson, 2013, p. 11). The book spendsmost of its pages dealing with Chinese inter-ests and relationships with its neighbours,particularly Vietnam, the Himalayan Hinter-lands and one of its Autonomous Regions.

It then moves on to Russia, mapping its at-tempt at repositioning itself in this recentpost-soviet arrangement of the region.

The Caspian Sea countries and their abun-dance of natural resources, namely oil andgas, gains a chapter of its own, followed bythe discussion of Islam in the region as a wayto elicit debate regarding the “transbound-ary demographic challenge from ethnic mi-norities feeling disempowered anddiscriminated against” (Idem, p.9). In sum-mary, it is a far-reaching manuscript ideal tothose that not only want to expand theirknowledge into already established notionsabout the region, but also those looking fora new light on old topics.

www.modeRndiplomacy.eu the caspian pRoJect

eUrasian corridors of Interconnection: From the South China to theCaspian Sea provides a comprehensive outlook on the Eurasian region set be-tween the Caucasus countries and China.

euRasian coRRidoRsof inteRconnection:

fRom the south chinato the caspian sea

Walcott, s. m. and Johnson, c.(eds.) (2013) 1st edn.

United KinGdom: roUtledGe

Gabriela Pascholatido amaral

The book offers enlightening contributionsby noted professors and researchers, andcovers both the domestic and internationalsphere of these three countries. It starts offwith a polemic discussion regarding the“curse” of being a resource intensive countrywith an authoritarian government, as the au-thors perceive Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan andTurkmenistan. It then enters into the individ-ual and collective relations these countrieshave with China, Russia or both, and how thisdynamic plays out in the region and in rela-tion to their domestic situation.

Caspian Energy Politics provides a thought-provoking picture of these three countriesand how they are dealing with their newfound wealth from oil and gas exports, howthis affects their national governments, andthe relationships with two of the region’s

biggest players, Russia and China. It offers abroad panorama while also threading on acontroversial path of debate that is sure toinspire many discussions. In the author’swords,“[…] it is too early to count all the blessings andcurses they [revenues] entail for the develop-ment of these countries. The ultimate impact ofoil and gas […] will be determined largely bythe ability of the governments to manage dedilemmas associated with the production andexport of petroleum resources and the resultingrevenues” (Overland, Kjaernet, and Kendall-Taylor, 2009. pp. 1),dilemmas which are thoroughly debatedthroughout the book. A recommended readfor anyone wants to understand the domes-tic and regional dynamics playing out be-tween substantial players in the energysector.

www.modeRndiplomacy.eu the caspian pRoject

offerinG an exPansion on the discussion about energy politics andRussian and Chinese interests in the Caspian-Eurasian region started out inEurasian Corridors of Interconnection, this book, Caspian Energy Politics: Azer-baijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, provides an in-depth analysis of threeof the most resource-intensive countries in the region.

caspian eneRgy politics:azeRbaijan, KazaKhstan

and tuRKmenistan

overland, i., Kjaernet, h.and Kendall-taylor, a. (eds)

(2009) new yorK: routledGe

Gabriela Pascholatido amaral

The city is beautiful, with futuristic and col-orful buildings reflecting Kazakh folklore,history, and culture and a look into Kaza-khstan will be. Attracting large domestic and internationalinvestments, Kazakhstan’s nearly two-decade old capital, Astana, strives to be aworldly and international city welcominginvestors, but the city lacks many featurescharacteristic of other bustling and globalcities. The mayor’s 2015 development plan,proposing fast food restaurants and stripmalls already flooding a city with countlessshopping malls and cafes, will fail to attract“global citizens” and those who want to ex-perience authentic Kazakh culture.Astana is a relatively new city. Establishedin 1997 and renamed in 1998 (was calledAkmola), Astana has a population of851,000 and is currently the second largestcity in Kazakhstan.The city is 722 km2 (279sq. mi.) as compared to Washington D.C.with a population of 658,893 and the sizeof 177 km2 (68.3 sq. mi.). Washington D.C.’spopulation is roughly two-thirds of As-tana’s, but the size is of Astana is more thanfour times the size of D.C. Astana has

potential to grow not only inpopulation, but in the commer-cial and residential sectors aswell. The city, upon construc-tion, took upon an ambitiousurban development and capitalrelocation program to trans-form the Siberian steppe area.Astana was built over an alreadyexisting city and was a “plannedcity.” Astana is a “brand city” toproject Kazakhstan’s influencewell beyond its borders asNazarbayev is poised to makeKazakhstan the Eurasian bridgeconnecting Europe and Asiawhile seeking recognition forKazakhstan politically, econom-ically and culturally.

As Nazarbayev promotes As-tana, he is also distinguishingKazakhstan from other CentralAsia states, but also from theFormer Soviet Union. The relo-cation of the capital from Al-maty to Astana highlights theneed for a more central locationto quell tensions notably theethnic tension between ethnicKazakhs and ethnic Russiansand celebrating Astana’s inde-pendence leaving the Sovietidentity marred by memories ofviolence and poor governancebehind.

FuturiStic, expanSive, cold, frigid, and even the “the spacestation in the steppes” are some words that are used to describeKazakhstan’s capital of Astana.

ASTANA: A CITY ANALYSIS AND FUTURE DEvELOPMENT

Samantha Brletich is acurrent graduate student

studying peace opera-tions policy at George

Mason University, Arling-ton, VA. Ms. Brletich fo-

cuses on Russia andCentral Asia focusing on

extremism and terrorism,regional relations, strate-gic relations, Kyrgyz and

Western relations, andgovernance. Ms. Brletichis an employee of the USDepartment of Defense.


Astana’s city variations and the desire to at-tract foreign investors echo Nazarbayev’s po-litical and diplomatic strategy of multi-vectorforeign policy. The interesting observationwas made regarding Sir Norman Foster’s de-sign of the Palace of Peace and Reconcilia-tion: “the president’s determination to havethe rest of the world perceive Kazakhstan asneutral host to international affairs is writupon the Astana landscape—while the con-ference meets once every three years, the lo-cals are confronted daily with a giant glasspyramid.”

The mayor’s plans to adhere to the 2015 As-tana Development plan are to include a sys-tem of a fast food chains and to replaceshopping malls. Shops, restaurants, andshopping centers are equally distributedthroughout Astana. Astana, if more stripmalls were to be constructed, would be a“strip mall city.” The city’s current land-use is focused oncommercial and residential areas. There isabundant green space (parks and tree-filledareas), but this green space primarily lies out-side the city (and behind Khan Shatyr andaround Turan Avenue) and it is mixed inaround Astana’s buildings including Bayterektower/monument and around the Presiden-tial Palace.

Residential land use focuses primarily onWestern-style apartments built for expatri-ates and young professionals. Traditionalhouses are expected to be built, but are hardto find currently. Due the city’s design,houses would have to be on the peripheryand not able to be incorporated amongapartments. To the north (referred to the asOld Center) of the Ishim River, the buildingsare built during the Soviet times reflected inthe outside aesthetics and most of the wordsare in Russia. To the South of the Ishim River,is new which has newer apartments. Con-struction on apartment buildings has alreadybegun in South Astana on the outskirts ofthe main town. The apartments will mostlyattract expats and young professionals as“2,507 apartments totaling 1,588,000 square[meters] will be put into operation during thefirst quarter of the current year.”

Astana lacks many Kazakh culture staplessuch as bazaars. They are more like a super-market in a concrete building. Bazaars arepart of Kazakh heritage and Central Asianhistory as the region was part of the histori-cal trading route, the Great Silk Road. Kaza-khstan’s appeal to be a global city should notinclude dismissing its culture and catering topeople who may or may not visit. The loss ofKazakh cultural identity should be consid-ered when planning. Many of the shoppingmalls contain the same stores. The Keruenshopping center including high end retailerssuch as Max Mara and Escada.Nazarbayev University, named after Presi-dent Nursultan Nazarbayev, is on the out-skirts of the city blocking off a keydemographic away from South Astana andits economy.

MORE DEvELOPMENTWILL HAvE TO bE DONE

SURROUNDINg ASTANAIF ASTANA WANTS TO bE

A gLObAL CITY

The school was established in 2009. Cities inAmerica, Europe, and Southeast Asia havestudent populations which contribute signif-icantly to the local economies. NazarbayevUniversity, upon establishment, had part-nered with seven schools to develop its pro-grams, including the University Wisconsin-Madison. This is ironic as UW has been con-sidered an institution that embodies demo-cratic ideals, something that Nazarbayev’sAdministration has not always compliedwith.Newly constructed buildings are to containparking lots. Parking in Astana is limited andatrocious. Luxury vehicles and imported ve-hicles crowed the narrow roads and vehiclesare parked strategically on curbs blockingpedestrian foot traffic especially in busyareas near KazMunaiGas headquarters andthe shopping area near Keruen shoppingcenter.

Many busy intersections do not have cross-walk signals and drivers without indication(no traffic lights) have to stop to let pedestri-ans cross the street. The businesses andshopping centers would best benefit fromparking garages similar to the parkinggarage in Sary Arka (or Sary Arka) shoppingmall.Astana’s public transportation system relieson buses and private cars. There is only onecab service approved by Astana, Komandir,which operates a fleet of crossovers andsedans. There are also private car companiesmany which pick up drivers from the airport;airport drivers are known to inflate prices. As-tana, to better connect the North and theSouth, would benefit from a subway system.The city’s roads will be improved by recon-structing/repairing 108 kilometers of roadsincluding 30 streets in 11 districts and morevideo cameras will be installed.


Plans were signed in 2013 for a light rail sys-tem to be rolled out in three stages accord-ing to the “New transport system of Astanacity” and connected with the bus system.This is needed as Astana has experiencedrapid traffic congestion and a growing pop-ulation expected to be 1.2 million in 2020.The light rail would have to sustain Astana’sharsh winter temperatures.Astana is not a metropolitan area. More de-velopment will have to be done surroundingAstana if Astana wants to be a global city,and the closest populated places are Koschi,and Vishnevka, and Izhevskoe located alongthe Karaganda-Astana Highway.

Two other large cities in northern Kazakhstanare Karaganda (2009 population: 456,634 ac-cording to UN data) and Pavlodar (popula-tion: 307,880 according to UN data).Astanaattempts to mimic the bright lights andscreens of New York City, but instead ofshowing advertisements (some do), onescreen on Qabanbay Batyr Avenue showsprominent Kazakh historical figures

Compared to other new planned cities suchas Putrajaya in Malaysia and Brasilia in Brazil,Astana was relocated to serve a federal ad-ministrative function. Putrajaya is located25km south of Kuala Lumpur and is the fed-eral administrative center for Malaysia be-cause of overcrowding in the capital.Putrajaya was planned as a garden and asmart city—uses technology to better well-being and to reduce consumption—as 38%of the city is green space; the city has landdesignated as open space. Astana is the newKazakh culture capital and business center.Just like Kazakhstan the development wasslowed down because of economic factors:the 1997/1998 Asia Economic Crisis and thecollapse of the Soviet Union respectively.

Brasilia is considered a modernist city andlike Astana was built into the country’s re-mote interior and was a capital relocation ef-fort and was built quickly—Brasilia wascompleted in three years. Like Astana, Brasiliais a “civitas” encompassing administrativeand urban functions. Astana has many gov-ernment structures adjacent to shoppingcenters and strip malls. Brasilia and Astanashare a division of “urban fabric between thecivic space” and “was intended to make pos-sible the speedy completion of the mostprominent civic structures to create an em-blematic vision of the nation's new capital.”

THE CITY IS bEAUTIFUL,WITH FUTURISTIC AND COLORFULbUILDINgS REFLECTINg KAzAKH

FOLKLORE, HISTORY,CULTURE AND A LOOK

INTO KAzAKHSTAN WILL bE

After seven decades under the Sovietregime, the streets in the city still presentthe marks of a past that permeates thecollective imaginary, but does not refrainit from absorbing contemporary trends,thus creating a modern, meaningfulscene.

Locally and abroad, Azerbaijanis havebeen proving their value with newartists, while at the same time never for-getting those who came before. Whetherin music, dance or contemporary arts,Azerbaijan spreads its production andembarks upon hosting foreign events,showing us its true (multi) colours.

From the caspian to the worldFor the second time at the Venice Bien-nale (held until November 22nd), Azer-baijani pavilion now holds twoexhibitions. The first, Vita Vitale, exploresecological issues in the country and howthey are currently addressed, in an IDEA(International Dialogue for Environmen-tal Action) initiative.

Simultaneously, the expositionBeyond the Line touches themuch stigmatized URSS and itsdeeds before the lifting of theIron Curtain, exploring piecesfrom seven at the time consid-ered rebellious artists from the60s, 70s and 80s that were notkilled nor punished, but wereinstead consigned to oblivion.The aim of such work is to re-veal the non-uniformity of theso called Soviet production tothe world, shedding some lighton the variety in the obscureunderground scene.Many artists have also beenknown worldwide due to initia-tives like Fly to Baku – an expo-sition of contemporary art heldin several countries and createdby the Heydar Aliyev Founda-tion. Even though the focus ison what is currently producedthere, the foundation does notignore the rich history related tothe country, which was once atrade spot on the Silk Road,around the 11th century andconversion point of the Zoroas-trian, Christian and Islamic cul-tures.

Being a pLace where modern and traditional coexist, interactand collide, Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, proves to be an alluring cul-tural intersection on the Caspian shore by portraying the ever de-veloping art scene that give us an insight into the county’saspirations for the 21st century.

NO ‘LOvE ME NOT’ FOR THE bLOSSOMINg CULTURAL SCENE IN bAKU

Luísa MonteiroMD Editor


This consciousness is not restricted to a cu-ratorial text on a website, though. A culturalclash or a syncretism is also present in whatthose artists excel at creating today. One of the most prominent Azerbaijaniartists, Faig Ahmed, gathers two oppositepoles in his oeuvres- he works with rugs gar-nished with traditional patterns that en-counter technology through pixilation anddissolution into blocks of colour.

He and many other artists were incited bythe opening of the YAMAT Contemporary ArtCentre. In the Azerbaijan context, this non-profitable organization is held responsiblefor encouraging and helping local artists,both the firmly established and those takingthe first steps in the art world, exposing theirwork around the world.

However, if on the one hand Azerbaijan re-visits and modernises its culture, on theother hand it does not fall short of the highstandards of the European pop culture. Proofof that was the presence and chances of thesecond time entrant Elnur Huseynov at Euro-vision 2015 (that will have its champion an-nounced on May 23rd). The contestant hasalso participated in the fourth season of theTurkish edition of The Voice, winning the firstplace. and backIt is to say that Baku is also opened to theworld. Ever since its independence, Azerbai-jan has been working towards several agree-ments with international organizations. Italso reflects the posture of a country thatwishes to reaffirm its political and territorialintegrity.

Speaking of culture, the country hosts sev-eral foreign events, at the same time it rec-ognizes natives whose fame was builtoverseas.

The eighth Rostropovich Festival, coming toan end on May 24th, pays tribute to the hom-onym Azerbaijani musician, who was theconductor and artistic director of the Na-tional Symphony Orchestra in Washingtonfor 17 seasons. Whereas the festival cannotneglect its erudite core, it also counts withpresentations such as ‘Jazz and not only’ and‘Russian rising stars’.The capital also welcomes this year the‘Chocolate Museum of Nikola’ exhibition thatstays in town until June 28th, after touring 40cities around the world. The exhibitioncounts with personalized sculptures for thisvery occasion, such as the Maiden Tower 70-kilogram chocolate miniature.

Finally, in communion with the principles ofhonoring local culture without tethering it,Yarat and the French Institute in Azerbaijanhave brought the spectacle of contemporarydance ‘Faun and Majestic Nymph’, played bythe French dancer and choreographer Em-manuelle Huynh. The presentation was in-spired by the one-act ballet ‘The Afternoonof a Faun’, created by Ukrainian choreogra-pher Vaslav Nijinsky and first presented in1902.In the end, be that for the inspirational his-toric environment or the ‘glocallity’ of move-ments nowadays, the cultural scene inAzerbaijan sizzles and joyfully plays with theamount of influences, delivering unique ex-periences to onlookers.


THE COUNTRY HOSTS SEvERAL FOREIgN EvENTS, AT THE SAME TIME IT RECOgNIzES NATIvES WHOSE FAME WAS bUILT OvERSEAS

the caspian project 01

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