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At a Crossroads: No Peace, No War

[June 8, 2005]

Stereotypes-of the enemy and of a partner-were the subject of bilateral discussion at the online conference (April 4-7, 2005, www.caucasusjournalists.net) At a Crossroads: No Peace, No War.

Topics of Discussion:

No peace, no war

The language of enmity and peace

The role of society in the settlement of the Karabakh conflict

From the point of view of Real Politik.

Participants:

Arif Yunusov, Azerbaijan
Head of the Department of Conflict Resolution and Migration, Institute of Peace and Democracy

I look at this problem as a military historian. That is why I don't see anything unusual in that fact that less than the most friendly thoughts about the other party to the conflict dominate in both societies...

Rasim Musabekov, Azerbaijan
Free-lance Expert

In practice, the ceasefire regime itself is not fixed from the legal standpoint (the declarative Bishkek agreement signed by the speakers of the parliaments is not legally valid) and is based on the protocol signed by the defense ministers...

Asad Isazade, Azerbaijan
Psychologist, Women's Crisis Center

If there is peaceful resolution of the problem, Armenians and Azerbaijanis will have to live side by side in Karabakh, and the image of the enemy will certainly have to be eradicated ...

Rauf Mirkadirov, Azerbaijan
Reporter, Zerkalo

Neither Armenia nor Azerbaijan is confident of victory if there is a resumption of military operations. And any defeat will lead to the overthrow of the regime both in Armenia and in Azerbaijan ...

Alexander Iskandaryan, Armenia
Director, Caucasus Media Institute

It seems to me that the current situation is fairly durable. After all, it is in fact due not to some external factors (peace-keeping forces, papers signed, promises by politicians, and so forth) but to the balance of power within the conflict ...

Karine Nalchadjyan, Armenia
Psychologist, Professor, Yerevan State Linguistic University

A people that puts health, family and peace on the top of the list of values cannot humanly, sincerely wish for a war. One doesn't unleash a war in that psychic condition ...

Yelena Kurdiyan, Armenia
Editor-in-Chief, Respublika Armenia

When we entered this conflict we lived in one world; now we live in a completely different world, but we still are trying to resolve the conflict, proceeding from the realities of a world that no loner exists, that is obsolete ...

Laura Baghdasaryan, Armenia
Director of the Region Research Center of the Investigative Journalists NGO

From my point of view, the situation of "no war, no peace" implies a discussion about both peace and war. The last several years have shown that although there were different interpretations of the understanding of compromise by the parties to the conflict, nevertheless, the understanding existed, and this word was present in the discourse ...