TITLE:
Evaluating the Triadic Relationship between the Armenian Diaspora, Armenia’s Cultural Identity, and the Artsakh War: Toward a Sustainable Map of Peace
AUTHORS:
George S. Yacoubian Jr.
KEYWORDS:
Artsakh, Armenia, Cultural Identity, Diaspora
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Applied Sociology,
Vol.12 No.9,
September
28,
2022
ABSTRACT: The Nagorno-Karabakh war is an ethnic, religious, and territorial conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Artsakh, an Armenian enclave situated within Azerbaijan. The modern conflict began in 1988 when Armenians demanded that Artsakh be transferred from Soviet Azerbaijan to Soviet Armenia. The dispute escalated into a full-scale war in the early 1990s. A ceasefire signed in 1994 provided for two decades of relative stability, but escalations in April 2016, and most recently inOctober 2020, renewed the antagonism. More than 30 years have passed with no resolution, costing thousands of lives and millions of dollars.Culture and heritage shape values, beliefs, and aspirations, defining a people’s identity. Here Iexplorethe relationship between Armenia’s cultural identity and its survival and assess whether Armenia can preserve its cultural identity even if it relinquishes the territory of Artsakh.Armenia’s withdrawal from the remaining areas of Artsakh, in exchange for renumeration from Azerbaijan, financial and military assistance from the European Union (EU), and financial and logistical assistance from Azerbaijan, the EU, and the United States, with relocation of Artsakh Armenians to Armenia proper, would trigger a permanent end to unnecessary human suffering.