Black garden : Armenia and Azerbaijan through peace and war / Thomas de Waal.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

De Waal, Thomas.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict, 1988-1994.

Armenia (Republic)--Relations--Azerbaijan.

Armenia (Republic).

Relations.

Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan--Relations--Armenia (Republic).

Physical Description:

xiii, 337 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : New York University Press, [2003]

Summary:

In the beautiful hills of the Caucasus, Armenia and Azerbaijan are still locked in a quarrel that has blighted the entire region between Russia and Iran, the Black and the Caspian Seas. The dispute over Nagorny Karabakh made the first tears in the fabric of Gorbachev's Soviet Union in 1988 and so can lay claim to ending the Soviet empire. In 1991-94 it became the first interstate war in the former USSR, leading to twenty thousand deaths and one of the biggest refugee flows of modern times, with more than a million people still displaced from their homes. In Black Garden, Thomas de Waal tells the full story of this tragic quarrel and its aftermath for the first time. He travels the length and breadth of Armenia and Azerbaijan, talking to veterans, refugees and the inhabitants of ruined towns and villages. He recreates the story of the descent into conflict of two former Soviet neighbors, its disastrous consequences and the confused efforts of the "Great Powers" -- Russia, France and the United States -- to bring peace to the Caucasus. The book is at once a gripping account of recent Soviet and post-Soviet history, a sobering study in how ethnic conflicts begin and a fascinating portrait of a much-ignored region.

Contents:

Crossing the line

February 1988 : an Armenian revolt

February 1988 : Azerbaijan : puzzlement and pogroms

Shusha : the neighbors' tale

1988-89 : an Armenian crisis

Yerevan : mysteries of the East

1988-90 : an Azerbaijani tragedy

Baku : an eventful history

1990 : a Soviet civil war

Divisions : a twentieth century story

Hurekavank : the unpredictable past

August 1991-May 1992 : war breaks out

Shusha : the last citadel

June 1992-September 1993 : escalation

Sabirabad : the children's republic

September 1993 : exhaustion

Stepanakert : a state apart

1994-2001 : no war, no peace

Sadakhlo : the future.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 321-326) and index.

ISBN:

0814719449

0814719457

OCLC:

50959080