This interview with Rusif Huseynov, Co-founder and Director of the Topchubashov Centre in Baku, Azerbaijan, was held on 10 February 2023. In it, Huseynov shares his opinion and commentary on the view from Baku on apparently dashed hopes for a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the impasse on the Lachin Corridor, Ruben Vardanyan, and the state of Track II diplomacy in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.
This interview with Kamal Makili-Aliyev, an Associate Professor of International Law and Human Rights at Malmö University in Sweden and author of “Contested Territories and International Law: A Comparative Study of the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict and the Aland Islands Precedent,” was held on 17 February 2022.
This interview with Ahmad Alili, Director of the Baku-based Caucasus Policy Analysis Center (CPAC) was held on 28 October 2021.
This interview with Richard Giragosian, Director of the Yerevan-based Regional Studies Center (RSC) was held on 27 October 2021.
This interview with Arnold Alahverdian, one of the co-founders of Bright Garden Voices, an online platform to engage ethnic Armenians and Azerbaijanis living outside of the South Caucasus, was recorded on 1 March 2021.
This interview with Dr. Arman Grigoryan, an Associate Professor at Lehigh University in the United States, was held on 19 February 2021. An Armenian citizen, his focus is on ethnic conflict and nationalism.
This interview with Azerbaijani activist and journalist Nigar Fatali was recorded on 12 November 2020, just days after the 9-point ceasefire agreement.
This interview with Azerbaijani photographer and journalist Jahangir Youssif was recorded on 2 November 2020, a week before the 9-point ceasefire agreement.
KARABAKH BLOG POSTS
One Year After the 2020 Karabakh War
Though the future remains unpredictable, last year’s war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh changed the geographical and geopolitical landscape in the South Caucasus after three decades of bitterness, conflict, and division.
Archive: Yerevan’s Boarding School for the Blind, Visually Impaired, and Socially Vulnerable
I’ve covered too many subject matters and issues in over two decades of being based in the South Caucasus to upload everything to my new website so a few photographs taken at Yerevan’s Boarding School for the Blind, Visually Impaired, and Socially Vulnerable taken in 2002 as a quick blog post. It was part of a much larger multi-year personal project to raise awareness of poverty and social vulnerability in Armenia.
Remembering Georgi Vanyan
Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso has just published my short piece remembering Armenian human rights and peace activist Georgi Vanyan who sadly passed away recently after testing positive for COVID-19 earlier this month.
An immeasurable and catastrophic loss for the region – Georgi Vanyan RIP
It is with great sadness that I write this post. Georgi Vanyan, human rights and peace activist, has died. Upon hearing that he had been moved on to a ventilator after being diagnosed and hospitalised in Tbilisi with COVID-19 I think we knew that this was how it was going to end, but that doesn’t make the loss any less painful. Following last year’s war, Georgi was needed now more than ever.
Revisiting the Tekali Process: Georgi Vanyan in Tbilisi
It was a pleasant surprise to receive a phone call from perhaps Armenia’s main peace builder, theatrical director turned activist Georgi Vanyan. All going well we’ll meet up again in a few days. I had first interviewed him in 2009 and isn’t just one of the main advocates for peace and regional integration, but one of the few genuine ones. His approach has always been refreshing.
Before Zoom there was… Skype
Love it or hate it, Zoom has become an integral part of many people’s lives during this pandemic and naturally, given even more closed borders because of the epidemiological situation, conflict-resolution projects. While this is to be applauded given that it has opened up communication in the public sphere, those organisations engaged in Armenia-Azerbaijan peacebuilding continue to fail to use new tools adequately. Indeed, it was an abject failure, continues to be one, and there is little sign that they have learned from their past mistakes too.
KARABAKH-RELATED ARTICLES
ARMENIA–AZERBAIJAN: THE RISKS FOR GEORGIA
Two sizeable communities of Armenians and Azeris live – mostly separate – in Georgia. The current conflict has exacerbated the spirits of the two minorities, particularly on social media, arousing the concern of analysts
Published by Osservatorio Balcani e Caucasus, October 2020
UNLIKELY NEIGHBOURS: CO-INHABITED VILLAGES IN GEORGIA
Published by Stratfor, May 2017
A NARRATIVE OF PEACE: ETHNIC ARMENIAN-AZERI COEXISTENCE IN GEORGIA
Walking past Tbilisi’s Meidan Square towards Heydar Aliyev Park, it’s difficult not to notice dozens of tourists posing in front of a floral fixture that has become a main attraction for visitors to the city. “Tbilisi Loves You,” it reads.
Published by Meydan TV, May 2017
CULTURE THAT UNITES RATHER THAN DIVIDES
An Azeri teahouse, and naturally Azerbaijani can be heard spoken inside. A dozen men, identical in appearance, sit at tables, chain smoking and drinking cups of çay (tea). “Salam,” we say, before approaching the waitress. The owners of another Azeri teahouse, ironically run by ethnic Armenians just around the corner, directed us here, saying that the waitress too is Armenian. She is, even though the teahouse is owned by an ethnic Azeri. We take our seats at a table with the intention of once again exploring the reality of peaceful coexistence in at least one part of the South Caucasus.
Published 2010
MUSICAL DIALECTS OF THE SOUTH CAUCASUS
The two farmers standing barefoot outside their vegetable enclosure close to Georgia’s border with Dagestan meant well, but the wine they offered tasted like vinegar. Likely to put a grimace on the face of any foreign visitor, it did at least become more bearable with each additional glass. For the Sayat Nova Project, a team of two Americans and one Gibraltarian, the homemade beverage was an interlude to work documenting the diverse musical traditions of the South Caucasus.
LACHIN: THE EMPTYING LANDS
The local residents of Suarassy seem oblivious to the hidden danger as they herd cattle down a road known to have been mined during the Armenian-Azerbaijani war of the early Nineties. Despite the mangled military lorry rusting in a ditch to one side, none of their cows have so far detonated seven anti-tank mines still believed to be buried underneath, so they reckon the road is safe.
Published by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) 2006
LACHIN CONFRONTS A DEMOGRAPHIC CRISIS
The flag of the unrecognized Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh flies over the local administrative buildings in the center of Lachin, the strategic lynchpin connecting the disputed territory with the Republic of Armenia. The town and surrounding area, regarded as vital for Karabakh’s security, appear to be experiencing an unsettling demographic shift.
Published by Eurasianet 2006
LACHIN: LIFE IN NO MAN’S LAND
Anyone taking the road from Goris to Stepanakert has passed through Lachin, the strategic main artery in the lifeline between Armenia and the self-declared Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh. Few actually visit the town now of course, perhaps unsurprisingly given the destruction evident throughout. The only interest for many passing through is that Lachin lies not in Karabakh, but within what the international community considers sovereign Azerbaijani territory.
Published by Transitions Online 2001
CLEARING THE KILLING FIELDS
A few kilometers from the border of the officially unrecognized Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, a shepherd sits with his grazing cattle in the lush pastures of Armenian-controlled Azerbaijan. The scene could grace the front of any postcard from the scenic Caucasus.
The twisted carcasses of rusting vehicles along the roadside tell a different story, though. The shepherd is sitting in a minefield.
Published 2004
CONFLICT VOICES e-BOOKS
KARABAKH-RELATED PHOTO GALLERIES
LACHIN: LIFE IN NO MAN’S LAND
Documenting the lives of Armenian settlers in the town of Lachin, the crucial artery connecting Armenia with Nagorno Karabakh, in the early 2000s.
LANDMINES AND UNEXPLODED ORDNANCE
Following the first Karabakh war, the work of the HALO Trust inc learning the disputed territory of landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO).
REFUGEES IN ARMENIA
Refugees and Internally Displaces Persons (IDPs) in Armenia.