Open AccessEthnic Conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh
Author(s) -
Melita Kuburas
Publication year - 1970
Publication title -
review of european and russian affairs
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1718-4835
DOI - 10.22215/rera.v6i1.208
Subject(s) - ethnic group , political science , politics , identity (music) , poverty , ethnic cleansing , ethnic conflict , national identity , political economy , gender studies , sociology , law , physics , acoustics
Twenty years since the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region first began, 610,000 people are still internally displaced in Azerbaijan, living in poverty and in wretched housing conditions. The causes of violence in the ongoing ethnic conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which began in the late 1980s and has since resulted in 30,000 deaths, can mainly be analyzed using a constructivist framework. However, elements of a primordialist approach to national identity were also used by mobilizers totrigger political and social uprisings. This paper presupposes that the constructivist theories on identity formation and territorial claims offer a better explanation as to why the war over Nagorno-Karabakh broke out in the 1990s, and why, in 2010, the two parties are no closer to a resolution and the Nagorno-Karabakh region remains in limbo.