Last weekend a session of Public Chamber civil movement was held in Baku in the headquarters of Musavat oppositional political party which hosted the round-table discussion.

As Musavat party leader Isa Gambar stated, the priority of 2012 will be to seek the resignation of President Ilham Aliyev. Other participating politicians also called for off-year presidential elections, among them Ari Karimli leading the Popular Front of Azerbaijan party.

Azerbaijan has spent $3.1 billion on its military needs in the outgoing year, and by this absolute index falls behind only Russia ($50.5 billion) among the former Soviet states.

But, while in Russia the percentage growth of military expenditures in 2011 made 3.02 percent of GDP, Azerbaijan has the highest indicator – 6.2 percent – in all the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan’s two-day state visit to Georgia this week proceeded in a “friendly-neighborly atmosphere”, yet was marked by the Georgian president’s provocative statements. “I am convinced that all the conflicts existing in the Caucasus are imposed by the imperial power, the main principle of which is ‘divide and rule’,” said Mikheil Saakashvili.

Sheikh ul-Islam and Grand Mufti of the Caucasus Allahshukur Pashazade’s visit to Yerevan is in the focus of public attention, and not only because he represents Azerbaijan.

Pashazade arrived in Yerevan Monday, to participate in the meeting of the Presidium of the CIS Inter-Religious Council, along with leaders and representatives of religions traditionally professed on the territory of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

After the surprise announcement by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who apologized for the massacre of Kurds in Dersim in 1937-39, when, according to official figures, 13,000 were killed, a question arose about the next step. First of all, whether this will be limited to an apology, or there will be some reimbursement to the Kurds for their material losses, and secondly, whether the Turkish prime minister will also apologize to the Armenians for the 1915 Genocide.

In light of recent aggravated contradictions between Moscow and Washington, “New Cold War” is the most commonly used phrase characterizing the current state affairs between the two superpowers. Armenia, Russia’s military ally, may also feel the chill.

On November 23 Russian president Dmitry Medvedev made a special statement in reference to the situation with NATO countries’ Missile Defense System in Europe.

Armenia is not represented at the Tuesday-Wednesday working group in Kazakhstan, where the legal status of the Caspian Sea is being discussed, but the issue is of great significance to Hayastan.

The issue of the Caspian basin is important to Armenia, as it determines the volume of Azerbaijan’s oil-gas recourses.

The case of businesswoman Silva Hambartsumyan has a potential of becoming a crowbar that will undermine the current oligarchic system in Armenia and especially the oligarchy in the mining sector.

Armenia’s switching to a pre-election mode is being fueled by the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) and, in particular, Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan, who is likely to be the second candidate on the party’s slate at next year’s parliamentary polls, next to President Serzh Sargsyan.

Premier Sargsyan (no relation to the president) has chosen a seemingly win-win tactic – as the current prime minister, he relentlessly criticizes the situation in Armenia and states that the RPA, realizing all the flaws, is going to fix them – if it gets elected.

Yerevan is hosting a conference entitled “Eastern Partnership: National & European Dynamics” that is organized with the support of the European Union mission in Armenia. The conference is being attended by representatives from Georgia, the Czech Republic, Turkey, European and international organizations.