The Memory of the Unfinished War: The Conflict and the Shaping of the Ethno-political Community in Nagorno-Karabakh

Abstract

The ethno-political conflict and riots in the South Caucasus, followed by the regular Armenian-Azerbaijani war, constitute the most violent episodes during the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. In the light of legal and institutional conditions, the conflict remains open as the Bishkek Protocol signed in May 1994 formally constitutes only a ceasefire. As a consequence of its signing, Nagorno-Karabakh’s territory in fact remains an independent state that is not recognised internationally. The permanent state of emergency has a decisive impact on the current relations of Armenia and Azerbaijan, but also on the symbolic and political dynamics of transformations occurring in the ethno-political community in the quasi-state. Using ethnographic material collected during field studies conducted over several years, the article attempts to answer the question of how memorial sites devoted to the conflict shape the ethno-political community of Nagorno-Karabakh. Through the exploratory study of this case, in a broader context, I examine the potential of applying the transdisciplinary paradigm of memory research in the analysis of transformations of ethno-political communities in, de facto, independent, non-recognised or partially internationally recognised quasi-states.