Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict Management

1460 Words3 Pages

Conflict between the states of Armenia and Azerbaijan over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh (NK) has not stopped since the ceasefire between them in May of 1994. The history of the conflict can date back even further to the end of WWI, or culturally even further than that with the history between cultures in the context of the Russian Czarist Empire (Crisis Group, 2007). For Armenia, the issue is one of self-determination for the ethnic majority Armenians living in the region. For Azerbaijan, it is an issue of territorial integrity (Crisis Group, 2007) because while the region is de facto independent, it is internationally recognized as being part of Azerbaijan. Russia and the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) have been the main third parties involved in trying to broker a peace settlement between the two, but have been largely unsuccessful (Herzig, 1999). Any effective solution to managing this conflict would have to take careful consideration of many things including the historical nature of the conflict, the ever increasingly complex relationships between not only the parties involved in the conflict but third party states and NGOs, and the hostile atmosphere between Armenia and Azerbaijan which has only increased in recent years due to vitriol rhetoric, border clashes and arms races.
According to Croissant (1998) origins of the animosity between Armenia and Azerbaijan developed under czarist Russian control, but also had much to do with the relationships with the Ottoman Empire. Pan-Turkism, a nationalist movement at the end of the nineteenth century, became popular ideology amongst Azeris, and it increased hostility against Armenians. It did this in two ways, the first was the racist nature of the ...

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...risis Group: http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/europe/187_nagorno_karabakh___ris
Crisis Group. (2011, February 08). Armenia Azerbaijan: Preventing War. Retrieved from Crisis Group: http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/europe/caucasus/B60 Armenia and Azerbaijan --- Preventing War.pdf
Croissant, M. (1998). The Aremnia-Azerbaijan Conflict: Causes and Implications. Westport: Praeger.
Danielyan, E. (2011, Janurary 19). Armenia Displays Sophisticated Air Defense Systems. Eurasia Daily Monitor.
Herzig, E. (1999). The New Caucasus: Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. London: Chatham House Papers.
Kambeck, M. &. (2013). Europe's next avoidable war: Nagorno-Karabakh. Palgrave Macmillian.
United States Institue of Peace. (1992). Armenia, Azerbaijan and Nagorno Karabakh: State Sovereignty vs. Self-Determination. Peace and Conflict in Emergent States: The Transcaucasus.

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