De Facto Leader of Karabakh Armenians Steps Down

De Facto Leader of Karabakh Armenians Steps Down

by | Sep 8, 2023 | Armenia, Azerbaijan, Caspian Post, Nagorno Karabakh

Arayik Harutyunyan © Official Photo

Arayik Harutyunyan, the de facto leader of what remains of the former Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO), has resigned. Though many were skeptical, given similar pronouncements in recent months, Harutyunyan, who held the otherwise unrecognized position of ‘president’ of the mainly ethnic-Armenian breakaway region, was true to his word this time. He left office on 1 September, a day after announcing his intention to do so in a post made on Facebook.

De facto ‘State Minister’ Gurgen Nersisyan and his advisor, Artak Beglaryan, also left their positions while ‘Security Council Secretary’ Samvel Shahramanyan replaced Nersisyan. The move is seen as a culmination of months of rumoured internal power struggle ongoing since Nersisyan’s predecessor, Russian-Armenian billionaire Ruben Vardanyan, was appointed to the position of de facto State Minister in November last year.

 

Vardanyan was dismissed in February. Despite that departure, however, it was Vardanyan’s appointment as de facto State Minister that arguably led to the impasse on the Lachin highway that began on 12 December last year. It is this that remains partially responsible for the political crisis in Karabakh today, although others believe that Baku’s current focus on Lachin is also a direct result of the failure of Armenia and Azerbaijan to negotiate the latter’s access to the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan.With Lachin and the route to Nakhchivan mentioned in the 2020 trilateral ceasefire statement, Baku had urged reciprocity in dealing with both. That remains a moot point, however, as there is no indication of whether the “Zangezur Corridor” will be launched anytime soon. As a result, access to Lachin remains limited.

 

In recent months, this situation has deteriorated further, with commercial goods and humanitarian assistance unable to enter Karabakh from Armenia, leading to a much-publicized limited availability of imported goods and concerns over the well-being of the population. The 15 June shooting from the Armenia side on Azerbaijani border guards stationed on the Hakari bridge saw Baku’s checkpoint on the highway almost totally closed down.

 

[…] 

The full article can be read here.

 

CONFLICT VOICES e-BOOKS

 

Conflict Voices – December 2010

Short essays on the Nagorno Karabakh Conflict
Download in English | Russian

 

Conflict Voices – May 2011

Short essays on the Nagorno Karabakh Conflict
Download in English | Russian

A Summer School in Georgia shows the value of people to people contacts

A Summer School in Georgia shows the value of people to people contacts

by | Sep 4, 2023 | Armenia, Azerbaijan, Commonspace, Georgia, Nagorno Karabakh

Georgia has long been an obvious choice for hosting most Track II initiatives that bring Armenians and Azerbaijanis together on neutral ground. Despite this, however, it rarely gets the credit it deserves for doing so. Bordering both Armenia and Azerbaijan, not only is it perfectly situated geographically, keeping travel and accommodation costs lower, but it also keeps such initiatives in the region. 

Moreover, by holding Track II meetings in Georgia and allowing a wider pool of participants to attend, they can also potentially encourage a more regional way of thinking. After all, key to successfully resolving the long-running conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan might arguably prove to be through the integration of the region’s economic, political, and cultural potential as a whole.

 

Overlooking Georgia in any regional trade and infrastructure projects could also well prove to be their undoing, contributing to further separation and division in much the same way that Azerbaijan’s policy of excluding Armenia once did. Moreover, Georgia is the main location where informal Armenia-Azerbaijan trade takes place even today. That is likely to remain the case for the foreseeable future.

 

Georgia also has its own contribution to make in other ways too. As the only country in the region where ethnic Armenians and Azerbaijanis, the two largest minorities in the country, co-exist and even co-inhabit the same villages and urban centres in places, the nationalist narrative of ‘ethnic incompatibility’ can be instantly discredited and disproven. 

 

[…] 

The full article can be read here. 

 

CONFLICT VOICES e-BOOKS

 

Conflict Voices – December 2010

Short essays on the Nagorno Karabakh Conflict
Download in English | Russian

 

Conflict Voices – May 2011

Short essays on the Nagorno Karabakh Conflict
Download in English | Russian

Gardabani’s Ashiqs: Guardians of an Ancient Musical Tradition

Gardabani’s Ashiqs: Guardians of an Ancient Musical Tradition

by | Sep 1, 2023 | Azerbaijan, Caspian Post, Georgia, Minorities, Music

Perviz Mirzeyev, Gardabani,  Georgia © Onnik James Krikorian  2023

Nestled within the lush green landscapes of Georgia’s Kvemo Kartli region, the municipality of Gardabani is home to many from the country’s largest ethnic minority: Azerbaijanis. Here, despite concerns of dwindling numbers, the age-old Turkic tradition of wandering minstrels has continued. Known as ashiqs, these troubadours are skilled in the art of performing poetry over music, usually performed on the saz, a stringed instrument resembling a long-necked lute.

Their art has been an integral part of Azerbaijani culture for centuries. Indeed, in 2009, it was inscribed on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO. In Kvemo Kartli, where most of Georgia’s approximately 233,000 ethnic Azerbaijanis reside, the Ashiq tradition helps promote the community’s rich cultural heritage. 

 

“I believe that it is through the saz and ashiqs that we have preserved our language, heritage, religion, and identity in this country,” said Georgian-Azerbaijani Ashiq Nargile, one of a few surviving practitioners of the art form in the country, in an interview. “Georgians can’t live without music: they are always singing and dancing. […] For Azeri-Turks in Georgia, our music is also very important to us. Especially the ashiq tradition.” 

 

An ethnomusicologist once shared with me the insight that the minstrel or bard tradition, now closely associated with Azerbaijani music, was once a pan-Caucasian musical tradition. However, in Georgia’s Kvemo Kartli, the various schools of Ashiq music have their own unique style. For instance, Borchali Ashiq music is considered more melancholic than its more light-hearted and entertaining counterpart in Azerbaijan.

 

[…]

You can read the full article here. There’s also a video report for BBC Azeri here.

Yerevan Prepares for Municipal Elections Amidst Karabakh Policy Debate

Yerevan Prepares for Municipal Elections Amidst Karabakh Policy Debate

by | Aug 29, 2023 | Armenia, Balcani Caucaso, Nagorno Karabakh

Armenian Prime minister Nikol Pashinyan © Gevorg Ghazaryan/Shutterstock

To little fanfare, campaigning last week kicked off for municipal elections to be held in Yerevan next month. Despite the inauspicious start, however, the vote could prove eventful with local matters such as public transportation and garbage collection playing second fiddle to much larger issues facing the country – Karabakh and the future of the Armenian prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, in particular.  

With parliamentary elections not scheduled in the country until 2026, some opposed to the premiere view the election of a new city council as a way to build upon growing dissatisfaction with Pashinyan’s leadership. This includes preventing the signing of an Armenia-Azerbaijan peace agreement at a time when negotiations are at a critical make or break point.

 

With Yerevan home to at least 35 percent of Armenia’s population, the question of who controls Yerevan has always weighed heavily on the minds of all governments in Armenia. Until 2009, the city had been governed by a hand-picked mayor without any election at all. Constitutional changes passed in 2005, as part of obligations to the Council of Europe in 2005, however, changed all that.

 

But even those changes were controversial. Rather than directly elect a mayor, residents of Yerevan will instead vote for a 65-seat city council which would then select a mayor in a move intended to prevent those elections turning into a battle for political and economic power. That was, at least, until the devastating 2020 war with Azerbaijan over the former Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO).

 

In December 2021, the city council dismissed Hayk Marutyan, Pashinyan’s mayor elected in a post-revolution euphoria, when the two fell out in the aftermath of Armenia’s defeat by Azerbaijan. Moreover, concerned that Marutyan might make a political comeback, a criminal investigation into allegations of corruption was launched against him last year .

 

[…] 

The full article can be read here. 

 

CONFLICT VOICES e-BOOKS

 

Conflict Voices – December 2010

Short essays on the Nagorno Karabakh Conflict
Download in English | Russian

 

Conflict Voices – May 2011

Short essays on the Nagorno Karabakh Conflict
Download in English | Russian

Forthcoming municipal elections in Armenia may pose a first test for a peace agreement with Azerbaijan

Forthcoming municipal elections in Armenia may pose a first test for a peace agreement with Azerbaijan

by | Aug 28, 2023 | Armenia, Azerbaijan, Commonspace, Nagorno Karabakh

Delays in signing an Armenia-Azerbaijan peace agreement open the prospects that the process may be derailed as a result of domestic politics. Next month, Yerevan will go to the polls to indirectly elect a new mayor. The parliamentary opposition is boycotting the vote, and a large number of voters remain apathetic or undecided, but the vote can still be seen as demonstrative enough ahead of the 2026 national parliamentary elections. In this op-ed for commonspace.eu, Onnik James Krikorian argues that Pashinyan foes are already attempting to turn the 17 September 2023 vote into a ‘referendum’ on Armenia-Azerbaijan talks and former de facto State Minister of Karabakh Ruben Vardanyan has called for the same. 

As the third anniversary of the start of the 2020 war over the former Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) approaches, uncertainty continues to surround the possibility of signing an Armenia-Azerbaijan peace agreement by the end of the year. In a perfect world, there should be little to prevent one, but that too was arguably the case in the years following the earlier 1994 ceasefire agreement.

 

In short, we simply don’t know.

 

But what we do know is that time is arguably running out with a number of dates on the horizon making some kind of agreement all the more urgent. Aside from the risk of a major humanitarian crisis in Karabakh unless commercial goods can be delivered via Lachin, with additional humanitarian aid possibly via a supplementalroute through Aghdam, the most obvious date is already known – 2025.

 

[…] 

The full article can be read here. 

 

CONFLICT VOICES e-BOOKS

 

Conflict Voices – December 2010

Short essays on the Nagorno Karabakh Conflict
Download in English | Russian

 

Conflict Voices – May 2011

Short essays on the Nagorno Karabakh Conflict
Download in English | Russian