Title: Trauma, Emotions and Ideology: Azerbaijan between the Three Karabakh Wars
Expected Completion Date: June 2024
Thesis Short Description:
The 1988-1994 Karabakh conflict resulted in around 30’000 casualties, at least 300’000 Armenian refugees and 850’000 Azerbaijani refugees and IDPs. Moreover, Karabakh Armenians, supported by Armenia, were able to keep control of de jure Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh (NK) as well as occupy 7 Azerbaijani regions adjacent to NK. The thesis starts by analyzing the personal trauma suffered by Azerbaijani IDPs from Karabakh, and then analyzes the process of cultural trauma construction by the Azerbaijani state. In particular, by looking at narratives about the Karabakh war and Armenians in school textbooks, government-affiliated media, and commemoration events/monuments. By using insights from the scholarship on trauma, emotions and ideology, the thesis argues that the Azerbaijani State was able to build a hegemonic ideology around the (constructed) cultural trauma of Karabakh, which requires the emotional obligation of hatred towards Armenians. The thesis also analyzes the emergence of antiwar discourses between the 2020 and 2023 Karabakh wars, and the stigmatization they faced by both society and the state, which effectively marginalized discourses opposed to the hegemonic ideology. Methodologically, the thesis is based on around 55 interviews with Azerbaijani IDPs and refugees, 40 interviews with antiwar voices, 7 focus groups with non-IDPs/refugees and countless notes taken after spontaneous interactions in Azerbaijan.
Cesare has a regional focus on the Caucasus, in particular inter-ethnic dynamics in Georgia and Azerbaijan. For his research, he uses insights from scholarship on trauma, ideology and emotions. In particular, how trauma and emotions can become political and/or ideological, and thus influence inter-ethnic relations.
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