NEWS DIGEST
Azerbaijani Media: January 4-14, 2010
Armenian Media: January 1 -14, 2010
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NEUTRAL ZONE BLOG
Violence at home, work and not only- do we have a choice?
In both Armenia and Azerbaijan, countries where patriarchal lifestyle holds profound ground, violence against women in all its forms- psychological, physical, whether it is at work or at home- is widely spread. Azerbaijan is among the list of those countries that only recently adopted the law to combat domestic violence despite it being brought to the agenda three years ago. In 2008, Azerbaijani parliament failed to adopt the law and sent it back for review. Its final adoption took several more readings (and years) before its final approval. Read more
Nagorno- Karabakh in the context of last parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan
January 15, 2011 – Volume 10, Issue 2
ANALYSIS
Adopt a New Approach to the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict Resolution or Prepare for Disaster
The OSCE summit in Astana in December 2010 did not help the conflicting sides to move closer towards the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, as some observers had expected. The outcome of the summit proved that hopes for a resolution in the near future were futile. Moreover, the OSCE’s ability to solve the conflict within the Minsk Group framework has been questioned. Considering the statements made by the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, as well as the war propaganda launched in both countries after the summit, the post-Astana situation is worse than it had been before.
So, the mediation efforts have not produced desired outcome, but rather led to the deterioration of the situation, quite in the same way as had happened with the attempts to normalize Armenian-Turkish relations, which are worse now than they had been before the signing of the protocols. Then, one may ask: What was wrong about those mediation efforts? And what may be expected to happen next, since the conflicting sides lack determination to make mutual concessions, as their militaristic rhetoric shows? Read more
Nagorno-Karabakh: Not Yet “Ripe” for Resolution
Since 1994, negotiators for Armenia and Azerbaijan have sought to end the stalemate over Nagorno-Karabakh, thus far without success. This essay examines whether the conflict is currently “ripe” for resolution. A conflict is considered “ripe” when conditions exist for that conflict to be resolved through negotiation. The term itself has a long history as a common law judicial doctrine that prevents the premature adjudication of disputes. Ripeness is also a subjective determination, existing largely in the minds of the participants despite, as Christer Jönsson notes, “seem[ing] to connote an objective condition.”[1]This essay explores the concept of ripeness and concludes that the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh is not yet “ripe” for resolution. Read more
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