“Black Garden Aflame: The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict in the Soviet and Russian Press” by Dr. Artyom Tonoyan

Dr. Artyom Tonoyan will present on “Black Garden Aflame: The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict in the Soviet and Russian Press” at 7:00PM (Pacific time)/10:00PM (Eastern time) on Thursday, March 31, 2022. The presentation is part of the Spring 2022 Lecture Series of the Armenian Studies Program.

For a few brief weeks in fall 2020, Western media buzzed with news of the intense war in Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian-populated region that declared independence from Azerbaijan in 1991. The conflict had been “frozen” since 1994, so the new outbreak of violence caught many journalists unawares.

By contrast, this conflict has been a mainstay in the Soviet, then Russian press. The sheer volume of published material – including eyewitness accounts, interviews with notable figures, and incisive, well-researched analyses – far exceeds anything produced by Western media.

Moscow’s knowledge of the region is as strong as it is permanent, dictated mainly by geopolitical interests. The present collection of articles – carefully translated, edited, and culled from a vast repository of Russian-language press curated by East View – presents in book form for the first time in English some of the most important material that has appeared from 1988 to the present.

By bringing together this unique collection, East View Press aims to provide readers with the immediate context of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict through the lens of Moscow, along with some insight into its complex historical, political and ethnic underpinnings.

Dr. Artyom Tonoyan was born and grew up in Gyumri, Armenia and now makes his home in Minneapolis, Minnesota where he was a research associate at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies (2015-2021). A sociologist by training, his research focuses on the intersection of religion and nationalism in Russia and the South Caucasus. Presently, he is guest-editing the Journal of Law and Religion (Cambridge University Press) for a forthcoming symposium on religion and law in Russia. He received his Ph.D. from Baylor University, where he held a lectureship at the J.M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies and the Department of Political Science (2006-2012).

Zoom Registration Link: https://bit.ly/armenianstudiestonoyan

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