Armenia needs to resolve its regional problems and build a Caucasus-wide security system or it will be forced to make the difficult choice between local alliance with the United States - or with Russia.
Relations between Russia and Georgia are more strained than ever following Georgia's signature on key agreements at the OSCE summit which underline a shifting alignment towards Europe and the United States.
In stark contrast to 1994-1996, even the state media in Georgia is heaping criticism on Russia for the campaign in Chechnya.
With international attention focused on Chechnya, it would be easy to overlook some key pronouncements concerning Armenia which took place in Istanbul.
Russian accusations that Georgia is aiding and abetting Chechen militants through its frontier with the breakaway republic have pushed this local "cold war" dangerously close to boiling point.
Confronted with renewed Russian aggression in Chechnya, the states of
What is it about Nakhichevan? Although comprising only 10 per cent of the Azerbaijani population, virtually every member of the country's political elite hails from the tiny enclave.
With the expected signing of a deal on Nagorno-Karabakh derailed by last month's carnage in the Armenian parliament, the Chechen crisis is even more certain to set the agenda for the OSCE summit next week.
There are clear improvements in the Georgian economy - yet more than half of the country's unemployed have been out of work for more than three years and 41 percent of this group are professionally qualified. Half are women.
On the surface at least, constitutional order has been preserved in Armenia in the wake of the October 27 attack on the Yerevan parliament - but tensions with the military continue.
