Recent statements by Armenian politicians about the possibility of using violence to “liberate” Armenian-populated districts in southern Georgia have attracted international attention, but Yerevan’s willingness to again try to play “the Talysh card” against Azerbaijan may be even more significant not only because it could presage revived interest in Talysh autonomy or more ominously new terrorist acts in Azerbaijan, but also because, according to one prominent Baku journalist, this Armenian willingness may be part of a broader Russian effort to influence the choice of gas pipel...

The children of internally displaced persons who witnessed the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict first-hand are more radical in their assessment of Armenians and the prospects for a settlement than their parents, according to both a set of oral histories gathered from both groups and survey research.  That trend suggests that unless the conflict is resolved soon, the situation could become truly intractable. The goal of my research is to study relationships between collective memory and individual, the complexities of what is called collective memory, as well as to examine the relationship ...

Although part of the Islamic world for more than a millennium, Azerbaijanis, two-thirds of whom are traditionally Shia and one-third Sunni, are first and foremost secular and tolerant of representatives of other religious trends.  Those values rooted in their own history have inoculated them against extremist groups who have sought to penetrate Azerbaijan over the last two decades, and such feelings and commitments have only been strengthened by the coverage of Wahhabism in the Baku media.  But so sweeping has been the denunciation of Wahhabist groups in the Baku media and so u...