Levon CHOBAJIAN “The Making of Nagorno-Karabagh: From Secession to Republic”, 2001

“The Making of Nagorno-Karabagh:  From Secession to Republic”

Palgrave Publishers Ltd 2001
Edited by: Levon CHOBAJIAN

The first major territorial struggle in the late Soviet period involved Nagorno-Karabagh, an Armenian-inhabited territory that had been assigned to the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic in the early 1920s. Armenian protests calling for reunification with Armenia in 1988 led to Azerbaijani pogroms against Armenians and later to armed conflict that claimed over 20,000 lives. The struggle remains unresolved. A distinguished group of historians and social scientists analyze the Karabagh struggle in this unique volume, which covers one of the world’s strategic, oil-rich regions.

A striking feature of the Karabagh conflict is the failure of the many OSCE, UN, and regional power mediation efforts to find a solution to the crisis. One of the major contributions of this volume is to provide a cogent analysis of these failures, which have to do with the inability to satisfy the legitimate security needs of the parties to the conflict.

The papers in this collection were delivered at a conference, “The Karabagh Movement: Ten Years After,” held in Cambridge, Massachusetts in May 1998. This conference, sponsored by the Zoryan Institute for Contemporary Armenian Research and Documentation and the Zoryan Institute of Canada, assembled some of the leading analysts of the region to assess the Karabagh Question in the decade since the eruption of the historic protests that saw hundreds of thousands of Armenians march in support of Karabagh.

Chapter Available Online: Chapter 1. Introduction, by Levon CHOBAJIAN ©


Contents

Preface
Notes on Contributors
Map

1 Introduction
Levon Chorbajian

Background
The establishment interpretation
Dissent
History
The book

2 A People’s Will: Armenian Irredentism over Nagorno-Karabagh
Lalig Papazian

Irredentism
The case of Nagorno-Karabagh
The challenge: Armenian nationalism versus Soviet structure
Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabagh: an uneasy coexistence
The crisis: description and analysis
Situational factors
Regional powers
Domestic environment
Conclusion

3 The Anguish of Karabagh: Pages from the Diary of Aramais (Misak Ter-Danielyan) April 26–July 26, 1919
Robert O. Krikorian

Introduction
Biography
The diary
Background
The diary continued
Parallels and divergences
Conclusion

4 Civil Society Born in the Square: the Karabagh Movement in Perspective
Levon Hm. Abrahamian

5 “We Are Our Mountains”: Nation as Nature in the Armenian Struggle for Self-Determination, Nagorno-Karabagh
John Antranig Kasparian

Overview
Exploring the “nature–nation” nexus
Looking ahead

6 The Diaspora and the Karabagh Movement: Oppositional Politics between the Armenian Revolutionary Federation and the Armenian National Movement
Razmik Panossian

Introduction
Historical context
1988: The diaspora’s reaction to the movement
Armenia’s independence from the USSR
Foreign relations and outlook
The Armenian cause
Solution to the Karabagh conflict
Political and economic system
Citizenship
The role of the diaspora
Events coming to a head
The “why” question
Conclusion

7 Betrayed Promises of the Karabagh Movement: a Balance Sheet
Markar Melkonian

Introduction
Balance sheet
Political independence
Green demands
“Renationalizing” culture
Democratic reforms and human rights
Prosperity
Self-determination in Karabagh
Conclusion

8 Possible Solutions to the Nagorno-Karabagh Problem: a Strategic Perspective
Armen Aivazian

Introduction
Sources of the conflict and international involvement
The Armenian defense agenda
The two pivots of the Nagorno-Karabagh conflict
The historical sources of Armenian mistrust
The strategic world views of the parties to the conflict
The major systemic–structural flaws of the OSCE Minsk Group peace plan for Nagorno-Karabagh
Karabagh versus Bosnia: peacekeeping dilemmas
Possible compromise solutions to the Nagorno-Karabagh conflict
The US–Armenian–Russian military alliance as the strategic solution to the Nagorno-Karabagh conflict
The US–Armenian–Russian defense alliance: its meaning and necessity
Elements of a US–Armenian–Russian defense alliance
The geostrategic significance of the US–Armenian–Russian military alliance
Conclusions
The feasibility of an impending peace settlement of the Nagorno-Karabagh conflict: a postscript

9 Nagorno-Karabagh: International Political Dimensions
Richard Giragosian

Introduction
The dilemma of ethnic insecurity
The limits of international mediation
Incentives to settlement
Self-determination versus sovereignty
Regional power involvement
The European powers in the region
The USA and the Karabagh conflict
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)
The United Nations
Conclusion

Index