Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through Peace and War by Thomas de Waal (PDF)

Description

“Brilliant.”―Time “Admirable, rigorous. De Waal [is] a wise and patient reporter.”―The New York Review of Books “Never have all the twists and turns, sad carnage, and bullheadedness on all side been better described―or indeed, better explained…Offers a deeper and more compelling account of the conflict than anyone before.”―Foreign Affairs Since its publication in 2003, the first edition of Black Garden has become the definitive study of how Armenia and Azerbaijan, two southern Soviet republics, were pulled into a conflict that helped bring them to independence, spell the end the Soviet Union, and plunge a region of great strategic importance into a decade of turmoil. This important volume is both a careful reconstruction of the history of the Nagorny Karabakhconflict since 1988 and on-the-spot reporting of the convoluted aftermath. Part contemporary history, part travel book, part political analysis, the book is based on six months traveling through the south Caucasus, more than 120 original interviews in the region, Moscow, and Washington, and unique historical primary sources, such as Politburo archives. The historical chapters trace how the conflict lay unresolved in the Soviet era; how Armenian and Azerbaijani societies unfroze it; how the Politiburo failed to cope with the crisis; how the war was fought and ended; how the international community failed to sort out the conflict. What emerges is a complex and subtle portrait of a beautiful and fascinating region, blighted by historical prejudice andconflict.The revised and updated 10th-year anniversary edition includes a new forward, a new chapter covering developments up to-2011, such as the election of new presidents in both countries, Azerbaijan’s oil boom and the new arms race in the region, and a new conclusion, analysing the reasons for the intractability of the conflict and whether there are any prospects for its resolution. Telling the story of the first conflict to shake Mikhail Gorbachev’s Soviet Union, Black Garden remains a central account of the reality of the post-Soviet world.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “Brilliant.” ― Time”Admirable, rigorous. De Waal [is] a wise and patient reporter.” ― The New York Review of Books”This book is a major milestone in the Western scholarship on Karabakh.” ― Armenian Freedom Network”Never have all the twists and turns, sad carnage, and bullheadedness on all sides been better described-or, indeed, better explained . . . Offers a deeper and more compelling account of the conflict than anyone before.” ― Foreign Affairs”This book is helpful because in order to craft a final resolution to the conflict, one must understand what events transpired in the first place. De Waal’s book significantly contributes to this purpose and establishes itself as one of the standard works for understanding this conflict.” ― Parameters About the Author Thomas de Waal has reported on Russia and the Caucasus since 1993 for the Moscow Times, The Times of London, The Economist, and the BBC World Service. He is currently Senior Associate, Caucasus at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. His publications include, most recently, The Caucasus: An Introduction.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐I am from Artsakh the “Black Garden”. I hate that name- “Black Garden”. No one in their right mind would call their home a black anything. We call our homeland Artsakh. It is the traditional, ancient name of that province of Armenia. We never named our homeland “Black Garden” We never wanted to be a part of Azerbaijan, muslim dominated corrupt country. But we ( Artsakh people) were renamed, then later on given to Azerbaijan by Stalin. Did we consent to that? No, of coarse not. But no one asked our opinion; it was a done deal. How can that kind of deal last? I was 12 when Azerbaijan lunched a full scale mass destruction against us, people of Artsakh “ Nagorno-Karabakh” This was never intended to be a war, it was a mass slaughter of population of Artsakh. In the war you fight against your enemy. But we were not fighting we had nothing to fight with, we, the normal population were being slaughtered by Azerbaijani missles of mass destruction. Anyways…. We survived, and are building our country, slow or fast does not matter. Thank you for writing this book. You did not leave any detail any event out, very thorough work, bravo!!!I personally was moved by your desire to bring together friends and memories on the opposite sides of war.

⭐Objective account of the modern historical events of this region. Recommended if you want to know the details. Very informative when read in the context of what has or has not transpired since the book was published.

⭐Well written, well researched, a must for anyone who wants to understand the conflict, and also modern history of Armenia and Azerbaijan.

⭐Meticulous and well-written summary of the AM-AZ conflict. Would be good to get an updated version after the most recent round of hostilities.

⭐It’s a unique and eye-opening book that tells all details of the conflict.

⭐De Waal shows his true insight into the complexity of southern Caucasus and he event which lead to the Karabackh war 1998 to 1994. While at the same time remaining loyal to the individual countries, regions and ethnic group who have a great deal of their identities invested in the conflict. A must read for anyone who is interested in the Caucasus and Russia as reborn a geopolitical power.

⭐The book represents the most thorough, thoughtful, and balanced account and analysis of the events and issues surrounding Nagorny Karabakh. The author’s knowledge of the subject, history of the region, and passion for its people is amazing. The long suffering people of Armenia and Azerbaijan are lucky that in Mr. De Waal they have such a keen and involved observer. Besides, the book is very engaging, and reads as a thriller.

⭐Thomas de Waal has given us a fascinating introduction and detailed coverage of one most intimate nation-state wars in modern history, where two belligerent actors shared a culture, languages and an economy under the former Soviet Union. The updated release is very much appreciated.

⭐Armenia and Azerbaijan are faraway countries about which most of us know very little. And, until recent clashes have brought this matter to broader international attention, few people have heard of the territory of Nagorny-Karabakh, over which the two countries fought a bloody and terrible war.Our ignorance cannot be explained by this conflict’s insignificance. It was one of the causes of the Soviet Union’s collapse, in that the Politburo’s failure to understand it exacerbated the emergence of the centrifugal ethnic fault lines along which the USSR was to fracture. It also shares the features of many Post-Soviet conflicts, in particular, the relationship between ethnic irredentism and secessionism, sponsored by a co-ethnic power outside that territory. This has taken an especially disturbing turn since the second edition of this book was published, in Crimea.De Waal has friends on both sides of the conflict but he is a partisan for neither. He carefully reconstructs what is known about the lead up to the conflict, its outbreak, its course and what has been done to try and resolve it since the nominal end of hostilities (there has been no peace treaty, only a ceasefire that has largely held since 1994). He is not frightened to slay nationalist myths on both sides.The good news is that the conflict is not about ancient hatreds. Historical relations between the Azerbaijanis and Armenians have been as much characterised by cooperation as much as conflict. The origins of the conflict are comparatively recent – from the ‘mists of the 20th century’, as one commentator put it. Soviet civic values did much to unite the peoples of the Caucasus. Contrary to what has been asserted, the borders were not drawn in order to divide and rule but to construct economically viable territories. Nonetheless, the Caucasus was not a melting pot of peoples. When the conflict broke out in the 1988, with a wave of ethnic pogroms, the Politburo’s ideological blinkers could not have been better expressed by Gorbachev’s suggesting that ‘working-class’ militia should tackle the ‘hooligans’, as if it was not the working-class doing the killing. Further, the structure of the Soviet Union inadvertently paved the way for the divisions that were to follow, come the collapse. Vertical links between Moscow and Yerevan and Baku were better developed than horizontal links between the two Soviet Republics.The bad news is that the principal reason for the failure of numerous actors to find a solution to the conflict is the lack of popular will in both countries to compromise. Armenian and Azeri leaders tried to break the logjam in the late 1990s and again in the late 2000s but could not do so, despite the push of strong international support, because politicians feared the domestic backlash from compromise more than they feared international disapproval if they decided to acquiesce to the status quo. When it comes to the role of outside powers, the author gives short shrift to nationalists who scapegoat countries like Turkey (Armenia’s favourite) and Russia (Azerbaijan’s bugbear of choice). No outside power has any vested interest in maintaining the confrontation though I think Russia can hardly have helped things by selling weapons to both sides to maintain a balance. Nor has the Armenian diaspora necessarily played a constructive role in encouraging the search for peace. Still, it is too easy to blame outsiders or politicians for everything. Unless public opinion shifts in both countries, the prospects for a settlement remain poor.This leaves us with something of a puzzle. This conflict is not a recrudescence of ancient hatreds. Nor can it be considered as a legacy of colonial divide and rule as the Soviets did not operated such a policy. So, why did the conflict emerge in the first place, in 1988? And why is it so hard to find a compromise? The second question is easier to answer: given traumatic memories are still fresh, well within living memory, and wounds unhealed, with no peace treaty ever being signed. Against this backdrop, it’s no surprise that a permanent peace is difficult to find. But what about the first question? No easy answer can be found here. A sense of difference certainly existed and this difference was exploited by politicians but also felt to be real by the masses of people involved. Difference does not inexorably lead to violence but in Nagorny-Karabakh it did. Ernest Gellner, a celebrated student of nationalism, whom the author cites, attributed the rise of nationalism in the region to the end of seven decades of ‘Soviet Jacobism’ which created a ‘double-vacuum.’ Nationalism emerged because there was no ideological or institutional alternatives to fill these vacuums. That seems like a good summary description of what happened but it just raises the question of why people felt and still feel that this was worth fighting and killing over.The explanation must be in a dynamic interplay of group dynamics between politicians and the people they lead. Politicians manipulate, but are also swept along by, popular passions that are difficult to predict and control. Such an explanation would be fiendishly complicated and it has yet to be written. But, for me, this book represents the closest I can get, as an English-speaker, to understanding this conflict which, sadly, as I complete this review, has become topical once again.

⭐I THOROUGHLY enjoyed this book. I am reading up on the area before my first visit there, and thought I would read a serious book on the politics and relatively recent history of Armenia and Azerbaijan.De Waal shows how one attempt at reconciliation after another, over Karabakh, have all failed.And he poses some pertinent questions about why the bigger powers don’t try to do more and be pushier about getting it resolved, and how politicians on both sides are hamstrung, while at the same time having good friends on the opposite side.If only someone would look beyond revenge or stubborn attitudes and truly seek a workable, acceptable solution, something might finally be done, but while it goes on as it is, some bigger powers will be looking and wondering . . .For someone heading here, who wants to know more than the price of beer and which restaurants are the best, it is a brilliant read, and I feel I know so much more about the area.A serious author, with impeccable sources and an open, neutral mind, whose other work I will be seeking out.

⭐New to looking into Azerbaijan in particular this book helps me to understand what seemed initially to be illogical points of view held by educated Azeris. The insight into the mindset will hopefully enable me to comment, when appropriate, without unintentionally insulting.Occasionally I found the book changing its dateline and initially being confusing.Thank you Tom for your help.

⭐De Waal has to be one of the World’s leading experts in the Caucuses – so pretty much anything he writes on them is worth reading. The account of Nagorno Karabahk combines both intellectual and personal insights. If you are looking for a text to introduce you to the conflict and the region, this is it.

⭐This well-presented, unbiased examination of the events and attitudes that made the conflict inevitable is written in a manner that makes easy reading.

Keywords

Free Download Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through Peace and War in PDF format
Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through Peace and War PDF Free Download
Download Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through Peace and War 2013 PDF Free
Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through Peace and War 2013 PDF Free Download
Download Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through Peace and War PDF
Free Download Ebook Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through Peace and War