After years of fighting, frozen conflicts and diplomatic impasses, events are starting to change quickly in the South Caucasus — and in a positive way.

The normally reclusive Central Asian state of Turkmenistan has been having an unusually busy time on the international stage. First, Eli Cohen became the first Israeli Foreign Minister to visit since 1994 when he opened a new Israeli embassy in the capital, Ashgabat.

After months of suspense and expectation, the results of the US midterm elections surprised a lot of people. While many were expecting the Republican Party to sweep the board in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, the so-called “red wave” never materialized.

During a parade in Baku in December 2020 marking Azerbaijan’s victory in the Second Karabakh War, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recited an Azerbaijani poem that caught the attention of Iran.