Last week, more than a month has passed since the blockade of the Lachin corridor, which is the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia. Against the background of the de-escalation efforts of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which is on the verge of a humanitarian crisis, the week of January 16-22 was mostly scheduled for the leader of Armenia with negotiations with Western leaders. Contrary to Armenia, the agenda of the leader of Azerbaijan, who arrived at the World Economic Forum in Davos, was different, and President Aliyev has been spending time mostly with F2F meetings with the representatives of the economic establishment. As for Turkey’s Erdogan, the main topic of his conversation with Russia’s Putin was still the conflict in Ukraine and wheat exports to African countries. No details were provided around Erdogan’s meeting with the Iranian Foreign Minister, which was held behind closed doors in Ankara.
Armenia
On January 18, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan had a telephone conversation with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The interlocutors discussed the severe humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh caused by Azerbaijan's blocking of the Lachin Corridor. The US Secretary of State emphasized the importance of the uninterrupted operation of the Lachin Corridor and expressed the US readiness to continue contributing to the solution of this problem.
On January 20, North Atlantic Alliance published official statement reading that NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will meet with Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan. According to the statement, the meeting will be held at NATO headquarters on January 23.
Some 200 stores in Nagorno-Karabakh capital Stepanakert and 400 stores in other parts of Artsakh began on January 20 accepting ration stamps from the population to sell five types of essential foods, provided from the state reserve. On that same day, natural gas supplies to Nagorno-Karabakh have been resumed partly. The natural gas supplies were cut off since January 18, Armenian news agency ARKA reported.
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan announced about an increase in start-up projects. On January 17, Vugar Gasimli, Executive Director of the Center for Analysis of Economic Reforms and Communications said that a total of 144 start-up projects have been registered in the country. Moreover, the country is planning to launch a startup school in 2023.
The growth trend during past week has been maintained in relation to the prices of the Azerbaijani oil. The average price for Azeri Light CIF oil produced at the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) field was $90.28 per barrel, up $2.51 (2.86%) from the previous price.
On January 17, President Ilham Aliyev has embarked on a visit to the Swiss Confederation to attend the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.
During his visit in Davos, Aliyev arranged F2F meetings with Arnout Damen, CEO and shareholder of the Dutch Damen Shipyards Group, Executive Chairman of Fortescue Future Industries Andrew Forrest, Senior Vice President and Global Innovation Officer of CISCO Guy Diedrich and billionaire, Founder and Chairman of the Adani Group Gautam Adani.
Following business community, on January 18 Aliyev met with Prime Minister of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia Andrej Plenković, Prime Minister of Montenegro Dritan Abazović and President of the Republic of Latvia Egils Levits.
While speaking at a plenary meeting on “Eurasia’s Middle Corridor: From Pathway to Highway” held as part of the World Economic Forum in Davos on January 18, President Aliyev promised that Azerbaijan “will double gas supplies to Europe by 2027”, local media AzerNews stated.
Turkey
On Monday, January 16, on the phone call the Turkish and Russian presidents discussed steps to start making flour in Turkey out of grain from Russia to send to Africa.
On Tuesday, January 17, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan received Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian for talks in the capital Ankara. The Turkish presidency gave no further details about the closed-door meeting at the Justice and Development (AK) Party's headquarters.
Also on Tuesday, Turkey's wind electricity generation hit an all-time high, generating 22.9% of total power, according to data from Turkey's Electricity Transmission Corporation (TEIAS), AA (Anadolu Agency) reported.
On January 20, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) announced on a purchase of a minority equity stake in Istanbul-based global apparel retailer DeFacto for $59 million (TL 1.12 billion), local media Daily Sabah stated.
According to startups.watch’s annual report, Turkish startups attracted a record of nearly $1.6 billion (TL 30.09 billion) in investments in 2022, according to the industry data on January 20. “Some $1.59 billion was invested across some 300 deals in seed, early and later venture capital stages last year,” the report reads.
