Nagorno-Karabakh's call for self-determination in the late 1980s was one of the earliest events of democratic fervor signaling the fall of the Soviet Union. It resulted in a backlash of pogroms against Armenians in the streets of Baku, Sumgait and other cities in Azerbaijan. More than thirty years later, the conflict between Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan remains unresolved and, after a 2020 war that left thousands dead, it is no longer "frozen" but in active eruption.
Dr. Artyom Tonoyan's talk will focus on some of the most interesting and critical themes emerging from the decades-long Soviet and Russian press coverage of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Artak Beglaryan, State Minister of the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) and the former Artsakh Human Rights Ombudsman, will engage in a conversation with Anna Ohanyan, Richard B. Finnegan Distinguished Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Stonehill College in Massachusetts.
The present collection of articles in Black Garden Aflame—carefully translated, edited, and culled from a vast repository of Russian-language press curated by Artyom Tonoyan—presents in book form for the first time in English some of the most important material that has appeared from 1988 to the present