The crucial event in the reporting period was undoubtedly Armenia’s war with Azerbaijan. On September 27, 2020 Azerbaijan started its war on Nagorno-Karabakh, a long-disputed region called Artsakh in Armenia, which lasted for 44 days.
During the reporting period, the consolidation of authoritarian rule in Azerbaijan continued. Snap parliamentary elections in February 2020 did not meet international standards for free and fair competition. However, some notorious high-ranking state officials were fired, and corrupt local level administrators detained on corruption charges.
In 2019, the long-awaited transition of presidential power from Nursultan Nazarbayev to his anointed successor Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev took place. However, Nazarbayev continues to wield power. Among his many positions is the chair-for-life of the National Security Council, a constitutional body that has effective veto power over key policy decisions.
This paper seeks to answer the question: how does land become grabbable and local people relocatable? It focuses on the historical and current conditions of land tenure that enable land grabbing.
Abstracted from executive summary:
Kazakhstan’s leaders have long harbored ambitious visions for their country’s future.
On 27 September 2020, Azerbaijan went to war with Armenia on a scale not seen since the ceasefire of 1994.
By creating a land commission, the Kazakh authorities managed to bring down the protest rallies in 2016, when, under pressure from citizens, the government was forced to abandon the sale and lease of land to foreigners.
