Psychiatric Institutions in Armenia
Photographs © Onnik James Krikorian 2004
LATEST BLOG POSTS
People-to-People Contact Remains Absent in Armenia–Azerbaijan Normalisation
It was a glimpse of what has otherwise been lost – human contact and friendship. I think it was Thomas de Waal that told me in an interview in Yerevan in the early 2000s that one of the greatest losses in the conflict had been the exodus of ethnic Azerbaijanis from Armenia and ethnic Armenians from Azerbaijan. Today, coexistence and familiarity only exists in third countries such as Georgia.
This Time an Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace Must Prevail
It is now 31 years since I first travelled from London to the South Caucasus to report on what was then Nagorno-Karabakh. Since that time, I have covered nearly every aspect of the conflict – Azerbaijani prisoners of war and civilian hostages during my first visit to Karabakh in 1994; ethnic Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan struggling to rebuild their lives in Armenia later that same year and again from 1999; and, throughout the 2000s, the ever-present threat of landmines and unexploded ordnance scattered across the seven formerly occupied Azerbaijani regions surrounding Karabakh. Those dangers continue to claim lives even today.
Trump Hosts Aliyev and Pashinyan but Peace Requires More Than Handshakes
As diplomatic efforts to resolve the long-running conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan once again make headlines, the real challenge lies not in high-level meetings or momentary gestures, but in the unfortunate disconnect between the elites and the populations they represent. For almost thirty years, press release after press release declared that talks inched towards peace. Hopes were premature. The sides will next month mark the anniversary of the last war fought five years ago.