NEW YORK—”Nagorno-Karabagh: History, Politics, and Everyday Life” will be the topic of a talk by Antranig Kasbarian, to be given at St. Sarkis Church in Douglaston, NY on November 13 at 1:30 pm. The lecture is open to the public and will be followed by a question and answer session.
The Nagorno-Karabagh Republic (NKR) this year celebrated the fourteenth anniversary of its independence, gained after defeating Azerbaijan in armed conflict from 1988-94. While Baku has issued a steady stream of threats to resume war, experts generally agree that the dispute will remain frozen in the near future, in spite of international mediators expressing intermittent optimism that a resolution is on the horizon.
While the NKR remains on alert regarding possible renewed hostilities, the twelve-year cease-fire has afforded its society, economy and polity the chance to develop in important respects. Karabagh held parliamentary elections in June, when many international observers reported fair and well-organized polling. Its economy, of late, has kept up with Armenia’s rapid pace of expansion and has attracted international investment, especially from the Armenian Diaspora.
At the same time, there is growing concern about the wealthier segments of Karabagh’s society enjoying most of the economic growth, which has contributed to increasing social stratification as seen elsewhere in a world deeply impacted by globalization. Contemporary trends in culture and consumerism have affected Karabagh’s everyday life, causing changes in the lives of ordinary people, from fashion to civic participation. Western influence is tampering with Karabagh’s status as an isolated and pure oasis, characterized by a simple lifestyle and a prevailing all-for-one mentality.
Antranig Kasbarian is well-known as an activist and Armenian community leader throughout the US. He is a former editor of The Armenian Weekly, and is currently a member of the ARF Central Committee, Eastern United States. In recent years, he has also worked as a journalist and administrator in Nagorno-Karbagh.
Antranig holds a PhD in Geography from Rutgers University. His doctoral dissertation dealt with the geography of nationalism during the war in Nagorno- Karabagh, based in large part on his own experiences on the ground. He currently works as a Program Director for the New York-based Tufenkian Foundation, supervising activities in Nagorno-Karabagh focusing on economic recovery and refugee resettlement. He has lectured widely on the Armenian Genocide and the geopolitics of the CIS, and mostly recently wrote about the Karabagh war in an op-ed entitled “Karabakh Tensions Part of New Great Game,” which appeared in the March 14 edition of the Moscow Times.
The November 13 talk is being sponsored jointly by the St. Sarkis Church in Douglaston and the Armenian National Committee, Eastern United States. For more information, contact Douglas Geogerian at 917 428 1918.
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