Description
Book SynopsisThe Right to Self-Determination in the South Caucasus: Nagorno Karabakh in Context, by Bahruz Balayev, explores the relationship in international law between the concept of self-determination and territorial integrity in the context of the Caucasus region. This study brings together the various self-determination movements of the Caucasus (Nagorno Karabakh, South Ossetia, Adjara, Abkhazia, and Chechnya) and provides a comparative analysis. The August 2008 war in Georgia and the proclamation of independence of Kosovo renewed the discussion over the right to self-determination in international law: Has the right to self-determination evolved since the solutions to the conflicts over self-determination are now determined in a new manner, or should it? Will the question of self-determination in different regions of the world be a spark for a new cold war? Unilateral declarations and the recognition of independence of South Ossetia, Abkhazia, and Kosovo could be the first spark. These are the pressing questions because there are many self-determination and secession movements all over the world. The Right to Self-Determination in the South Caucasus is a unique tool for scholars, researchers, and the public in understanding South Caucasus regional conflicts from the New Haven School perspective.
Trade ReviewNagorno Karabakh is a landlocked, mostly mountainous and forested region in the South Caucasus. It is located within the boundaries of what is now the Republic of Azerbaijan. During the Sovietization of the Caucasus, Joseph Stalin and the USSR's Caucasus Bureau decided to incorporate Nagorno Karabakh and its largely Armenian population into the newly created Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, thus planting the seeds of conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. In the waning years of the USSR, Karabakh Armenians began challenging the Azeri authorities and called for unifying Karabakh with Armenia. The conflict and the ensuing civil war have caused devastation in the area. Although a no-war, no-peace situation currently exists, Azerbaijan has lost effective control over the area. The resulting uncertainty about the satisfactory resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict remains a major source of instability in the strategically important South Caucasus. This book, based on the author's doctor of the science of law dissertation, provides a detailed political and legal analysis of the emergence of this conflict. Balayev examines ways the principle of the right of self-determination can help in resolving this conflict. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate, graduate, and research collections. * CHOICE *
Bahruz Balayev has undertaken to analyze and find solutions to one of the festering problems in the wake of the breakup of the USSR: the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, a self-proclaimed, but unrecognized Armenian enclave state within the recognized state, and former Soviet republic, of Azerbaijan. Usefully, he puts this issue of self-determination in the broader historical and political context of the region, i.e. the South Caucasus. In the process, a fascinating picture emerges with different views as to the criteria for lawfulness of such endeavors based on the interests of the powers involved." -- Professor Dr. iur. Siegfried Wiessner, Director, Graduate Program in Intercultural Human Rights, St. Thomas University School of Law, Miami, Florida
Mr. Bahruz Balayev's The Right to Self-Determination in the South Caucus (Nagorno Karabakh in Context) is a meticulously researched overview not just of the 'frozen' conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the erstwhile Azerbaijani (and now Armenian-occupied) Autonomous Region of Mountainous Karabakh, but the related tragic conflicts in the Caucasus region upon the collapse of the USSR in 1991. Providing well-sourced data back to the early 19th century and Russian conquest of the region, but mainly focusing on the post-Soviet experience, Mr. Balayev's approach towards the seemingly diametrically opposed concepts of "self-determination" and "territorial integrity" is drawn from a rich mixture of history, local experience (and myth-making), and even from something we might call "Soviet-psychology. Highly recommended. -- Thomas Goltz, Montana State University
Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1: Delimination of the Problem and Clarification of Goals Chapter 2: Identification of Conflicting Claims and Claimants Chapter 3: Past Trends in Decision and Conditioning Factors Chapter 4: Prediction of Future Trends in Decision Chapter 5: Appraisal, Recommendations and Conclusion
