Lack of Real Contact Hurting Hopes of Azerbaijan-Armenia Peace
Armenian lecturer Lusine Topchyan and Azerbaijani PR consultant Aynur Nabili have something in common — unlike many of her compatriots, Topchyan has met and talked with Azerbaijanis abroad, while Nabili too has mixed with her Armenian counterparts at industry events outside Azerbaijan.
This is rare among the peoples of these Caucasus neighbours, where animosity and mistrust has run deep ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the war over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Yet neither Topchyan nor Nabili sees much room for compromise.
“I believe that we can have peace if democracy is established in Azerbaijan, to stop the hate speech against Armenians at a state level, such as media, schools, and universities,” 29-year-old Topchyan told BIRN.
“Then we will start having a real conversation, try to understand each other’s opinions, and solve all problems on the democratic level. However, for now, one thing is certain — we will never give up on our citizens, who are in danger because of attacks on civilians by Azerbaijan. We will do everything to protect them.”
Nabili, too, see only one solution:
“According to my personal experience, young generations from both sides do not support the war,” she said. “But from the Azerbaijan side, I can say that there is only one negotiating position: Armenia has to evacuate our occupied territories and peacefully leave these territories. Because the first chance they get, they will want to attack and occupy certain territories again.”
Three decades after a war in which 30,000 people died and roughly a million were displaced, the dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh continues to poison relations between Armenians and Azerbaijanis, starved of any meaningful opportunity to connect and talk.
The latest outbreak of fighting is the worst since the war, dashing any hope that years of peace negotiations might yield a deal over the Armenian-majority region — and seven surrounding Azerbaijani districts — that broke away from Azerbaijan with the end of the Soviet Union and is propped up and protected by Armenia.
“To include Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan would be unfair to the ethnic Armenians living on the territory, while to include Nagorno-Karabakh in Armenia would be unfair to Azerbaijan, adhering to international law,” said Prague-based political scientist Michael Lambert. “Even more so to the ethnic Azerbaijanis who are displaced people and refugees that left Karabakh, and have no right to say anything about the future of the land from which they were expelled.”
Few chances to meet
For years, Azerbaijani and Armenian soldiers have faced off often at close proximity over the so-called ‘line of contact’ between them, yet ordinary Azerbaijanis and Armenians rarely meet in person, unless at conferences or events abroad.
The border between the two countries is closed and the area heavily militarised.
“We have had normal conversations,” Topchyan said of meeting Azerbaijanis at seminars and conference abroad. “I remember that one Azerbaijani girl told me that their only source was their government and that they didn’t have other sources to compare, analyse, and to understand what’s going on.”
Nabili, a Baku-based PR and communications consultant, said that from her encounters with Armenians abroad it seemed that both sides were opposed to war. But a precondition to any lasting peace was an end to the Armenian ‘occupation’.
Azerbaijani activist Orkhan Sharif agreed.
“We have about one million refugees from that region,” the 28-year-old told BIRN. “The only way for a solution is the withdrawal of the Armenian army from the occupied territories. Then we can talk about the Armenian people who would like to live in the Karabakh region, or about improving any other relations, including economic ones.”
Diasporas mobilising support
While economic relations between the two countries are virtually impossible, Azerbaijanis and Armenians in diaspora communities have worked together. But Yerevan-based journalist Karen Tovmasyan said the latest escalation may halt even that.
“During the past, Armenian and Azerbaijani diasporas were living in different countries side by side, without conflicts, even working with one another,” Tovmasyan told BIRN.
“But during the July escalation, the Armenian and Azerbaijani diasporas started with hostile actions towards each other in the United States, Europe, and Russia,” he said, referring to an earlier flare-up before September’s fighting.
Tovmasyan said the Armenian diaspora, scattered around the world, was mobilising to support the fight.
“In all of the Armenian churches abroad, there are big queues for donations,” he said. “The website of the All Armenian Fund crashed because of overloaded traffic for donations.”
Likewise, Berlin-based Azerbaijani journalist Orkhan Mammad said many Azerbaijanis “will be really angry” if Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev calls a halt to military action.
“Lots of people are posting on social media too, calling on the government not to stop the operation,” he told BIRN. “Thousands are also joining the army as volunteers. People are motivated for this war since they hope that they will finally go back to the homes they lost 30 years ago.”
“It is very hard to talk about peace because, as I said, people are very angry. Each day martyrs are coming from hotspots, and soldiers from each side are killed.”
Peace and reconciliation distant, but not impossible
Yerevan-based sociologist Shushanik Harutyunyan, 23, said that while it was terrifying to hear the sound of helicopters flying over the city, it is hard to envisage any kind of meaningful peace negotiations under such circumstances.
“It is not enough that Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders are having just half an hour-long discussions about this,” Harutyunyan told BIRN.
“At the same time, I don’t understand how a democratic leader could negotiate with an autocratic leader,” she said, alluding to Aliyev’s vice-like grip on Azerbaijan following that of his father, Heydar Aliyev. “What is also concerning are the Armenophobic sentiments in Azerbaijan, and that their authorities are trying to institutionalise their hate and these sentiments against Armenia.”
“In reality, I don’t know what Azerbaijani people think of us. I honestly believe that Azerbaijani people do not hate us and that it is possible to negotiate and find a peaceful solution. But this is an actual war, and first, we should at least try not to attack each other.”
Twenty-seven year-old Azerbaijani blogger Ulker Eldarqizi also said peace was possible, but again, only if Baku gets its way.
“I’ve met Armenians before, mostly in conflict management trainings, and as journalists, we tried to discuss these issues, even if we had different opinions,” she said. “However, after a week of discussions, we couldn’t come to a conclusion, as both sides stayed on their positions.”
“I don’t think that both sides can cooperate in the future. It has been almost 30 years that this land has been under the occupation of Armenia and a UN declaration says that they need to leave those lands. As a person, I am against all kinds of war and deaths, but as a citizen of my country, I fully support my government’s decision to liberate our lands, and to end this war once and for all.”
US-based Armenian scholar and human rights attorney Meri Baghdasaryan said even partial reconciliation could take many years.
“Armenians still believe in a peaceful resolution, but we are faced with a life and death situation,” Baghdasaryan told BIRN.
“So, while I believe that it is possible to reconcile both nations in general, in these circumstances of Armenians fighting for their lives and Armenophobia, genocidal and war rhetoric from our neighbors, the reconciliation between the two nations will require quite extensive efforts, that may take decades.”
Generational differences
Istanbul-based Azerbaijani journalist Arzu Geybullayeva said there was also a crucial difference between generations in terms of exposure and readiness to reconcile.
“For the older generations that have seen the time when they lived side by side, or have gone to schools together, and worked together, the concept of coexistence is very different to the generation that has never had this type of exposure,” 37-year-old Geybullayeva told BIRN.
“This plays a big role for today’s communities and generations that dislike each other, or are suspicious of each other.”
“So, if you ask someone that is 20 years old, maybe they will say that the relations are terrible, and there’s no way that there could be peace. But if you ask someone who is my age, in their 40s or older, there is still some space for dialogue and coexistence.”
According to Geybullayeva, although recent developments may hinder reconciliation efforts, there is always the hope that the situation can be turned around.
“I think that there is always hope, just as there are generations that know nothing about mutual coexistence, there could be generations who could know everything about coexistence. It is all about having this kind of bond or line of communications, so I am hopeful that the dialogue will continue.”
Originally published at https://balkaninsight.com on October 7, 2020.
