[CANCELED] Nagorno-Karabakh: Conflict, Humanitarian Crisis, and the Future

This event will NOT take place on December 4th as originally scheduled. The event will have to me moved to a new date in Spring 2024 semester. Thank you for your understanding and please watch this space for scheduling update. 

Amid Soviet Union’s dissolution in 1991, just as Armenia and Azerbaijan achieved statehood, Nagorno-Karabakh, a strategic sliver of mountainous land in the South Caucasus, officially declared independence. War erupted between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the region, resulting in roughly thirty thousand casualties and creating hundreds of thousands of refugees. While the conflict over of Nagorno-Karabakh concluded with Azerbaijan reclaiming all of the territory earlier this year, resentments simmer on both sides, creating fertile ground for renewed violence. Join us for a virtual discussion on the topic with regional experts Dr. Artyom Tonoyan (Hamline University) and Dr. Arman Grigoryan (Lehigh University). Dr. Eren Taşar (CSEEES Interim Director) will moderate the conversation.

Artyom Tonoyan is a visiting professor of global studies at Hamline University (St. Paul, MN) and formerly a research associate at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies. His research is focused on the intersection of religion and nationalism, and religion and conflict in the South Caucasus. He’s the editor of the recently published volume Black Garden Aflame: The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict in the Soviet and Russian Press and is working on a new book on the social, historical, and religious aspects of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.

Arman Grigoryan is an associate professor of international relations at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. Professor Grigoryan holds a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University and an MA in international relations from the University of Chicago. His work primarily focuses on conflict and international relations theory. Professor Grigoryan’s articles have appeared in International Security, International Studies Quarterly, International Political Science Review, Ethnopolitics, and Nationalities Studies. He is currently working on a book about third-party interventions in state-minority conflicts.

This event is co-sponsored by the UNC Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies and the UNC Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies.