Welcome to the Nagorno-Karabakh Knot podcast series by Radio Canada International.
This podcast series examines the roots of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, its impact on the Armenian and Azerbaijani societies as well as the larger region, and ways of resolving it.
As part of this series, Radio Canada International spoke with Canadian, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Russian and Turkish experts and journalists to get insights into the longest running and bloodiest conflict to emerge from the ruins of the former Soviet Union.
While thanks to another Russian-brokered ceasefire the latest bout of fighting has stopped for now, the conflict is far from over and the prospect of peace between Armenians and Azerbaijanis appears as uncertain as ever.
This latest war has created new facts on the ground for Armenians and Azerbaijanis, new victors and vanquished, and has opened new wounds while the old ones have yet to heal.
There are also new players with boots on the ground – Russia and Turkey. However, their strategic rivalry in the region adds new strands to the fiendishly complex knot of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
The Nagorno-Karabakh Knot – Episode 5: Between war and peace
The crushing defeat suffered by the Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh at the hands of the Azerbaijani military backed by Turkey and an assortment of Syrian and Libyan mercenaries has caused a cascade of political, diplomatic, security and humanitarian crises in Armenia and in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Literally overnight, tables were turned and Armenians, who had emerged victorious in the 1990s, during the First Karabakh War, had to accept a humiliating ceasefire to cut their losses.
(Canadian-Armenian journalist Raffi Elliott is pictured in this photo taken on Nov. 2 in the Armenian village of David Bek, which had been repeatedly shelled by the Azerbaijani military during the latest war. Photo courtesy of Raffi Elliott)
Radio Canada International spoke about the challenges facing Armenia and what remains of the Armenian-populated breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, now protected by about 2,000 Russian peacekeepers, with Raffi Elliott. He is a Canadian-Armenian journalist and entrepreneur based in Yerevan, Armenia. We also spoke about the prospects of peace between Armenians and Azerbaijanis.
Duration: 34 minutes 8 seconds
https://www.rcinet.ca/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/11/NK_PODCAST_EP5_ED1_9648728_2020-11-27T16-41-25.081.mp3
27 Nov 2020
The Nagorno-Karabakh Knot – Episode 4: A prelude to peace?
The conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh has left deep scars and festering wounds in Armenia and Azerbaijan, affecting every aspect of social, economic and political life in both South Caucasus countries.
Radio Canada International spoke with Azerbaijani author and journalist Arzu Geybullayeva about the impact of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on the Azerbaijani society and what Azerbaijan's victory in the latest war means for the country's future and the prospects of an eventual peace with Armenia. I reached her in Istanbul, Turkey.
(Photo courtesy of Arzu Geybullayeva)
Duration: 34 minutes 58 seconds
https://www.rcinet.ca/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/11/NK_PODCAST_EP4_FINAL_ED1_9644873_2020-11-26T10-42-47.195.mp3
26 Nov 2020
The Nagorno-Karabakh Knot – Episode 3: From Russia with peace
Twenty-six years after it brokered the end of the First Karabakh War in 1994, Russia has once again managed to carve out a leading diplomatic and military role in the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
President Vladimir Putin was instrumental in getting Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to agree to a ceasefire to end the 44-day war and to accept the deployment of Russian peacekeepers in the region.
The presence of nearly 2,000 Russian peacekeepers not only stabilizes the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh but also reinforces the Kremlin’s influence in the South Caucasus despite Turkey’s attempts to muscle its way into the region.
(Photo courtesy of the Carnegie Moscow Center)
Radio Canada International spoke about Russia’s geopolitical gambit in the South Caucasus with Alexander Gabuev. He is a Senior Fellow and Chair at the Russia in the Asia‑Pacific Program of the Carnegie Moscow Center.
Duration: 29 minutes 17 seconds
https://www.rcinet.ca/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/11/NK_PODCAST_EP3_ED1_9641624_2020-11-24T17-50-10.723.mp3
25 Nov 2020
The Nagorno-Karabakh Knot – Episode 2: The fog of war
Canadian journalist and Caucasus expert Neil Hauer arrived in Armenia to cover the war in Nagorno-Karabakh on Oct. 1, 2020, four days after Azerbaijan launched a full-scale offensive to regain control of the Armenian-populated breakaway region and seven surrounding districts it lost following the defeat in the First Karabakh War in 1994.
In just 44 days, the Azerbaijani military - with direct support from Turkey and nearly 2,000 Syrian and Libyan mercenaries - regained most of the territory it had lost in the early 1990s, including the strategically and symbolically important town of Shushi or Shusha, as it is known in Azerbaijani.
The crushing defeat on the battlefield and the humiliating ceasefire agreement Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was forced to sign on Nov. 9 has caused a deep political and social crisis in Armenia.
(Photo courtesy of Neil Hauer)
Radio Canada International spoke to Hauer about the events leading up to the Russian-brokered ceasefire, the reaction in Armenia and why the Armenian society seemed to have been caught off guard by the sudden reversal in fortunes.
Duration: 25 minutes 8 seconds
https://www.rcinet.ca/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/11/NK_PODCAST_EP2-ED1_9639225_2020-11-23T18-36-53.827.mp3
24 Nov 2020
The Nagorno-Karabakh Knot – Episode 1: An uncertain peace
A Russian-brokered ceasefire signed on Nov. 9 ended six weeks of ferocious fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces in the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region. Russia has already deployed about 2,000 peacekeepers to the region to separate the combattants and guarantee the implementation of the agreement signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
Radio Canada International spoke with Olesya Vartanyan of the International Crisis Group about the origins of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the oldest and the bloodiest ethnic conflict on the territory of the former Soviet Union, the reasons behind the failures of the various peace plans developed over a quarter century of negotiations, and the thorny and uncertain road to peace between Armenians and Azerbaijanis.
(Photo courtesy of the International Crisis Group)
Vartanyan is a senior analyst with the Crisis Group who specializes in regional security issues in Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan, with a particular focus on breakaway regions in the South Caucasus – Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh and South Ossetia.
Duration: 44 minutes 38 seconds
https://www.rcinet.ca/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/11/NK_PODCAST-EP-1-ED2-8db_9635325_2020-11-20T17-26-39.132.mp3
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