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Publisher: London, A. Constable ... Read more

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"Brilliant."
—Time

"This book is a major milestone in the Western scholarship on Karabakh."
—Armenian Freedom Network

"Some of the most illuminating - and alarming - reading in de Waal's book includes the battle of historians and writers on both sides. They fire polemical missiles at each other through bscure history and literary journals, denigrating and, in some cases, obliterating the history and identity of the other side."
—Eurasianet

"Only rarely does a university press publish such a gripping, poignant book as this. . . . This is an impressive work of careful scholarship and vivid writing."
—Choice

"Admirable, rigorous. De Waal [is] a wise and patient reporter."
—The New York Review

Black Garden is the definitive study of how Armenia and Azerbaijan, two southern Soviet republics, got sucked into a conflict that helped bring them to independence, bringing to an end the Soviet Union, and plaguing a region of great strategic importance. It cuts between a careful reconstruction of the history of Nagorny Karabakh conflict since 1988 and on-the-spot reporting on its convoluted aftermath.

Part contemporary history, part travel book, part political analysis, the book is based on six months traveling through the south Caucasus, more than 120 original interviews in the region, Moscow, and Washington, and unique primary sources, such as Politburo archives.

The historical chapters trace how the conflict lay unresolved in the Soviet era; how Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders exacerbated it; how the Politiboro failed to cope with the crisis; how the war began and ended; how the international community failed to sort out the conflict.

What emerges is a complex and subtle portrait of a beautiful and fascinating region, blighted by historical prejudice and conflict.

Customer Reviews (16)

Black Garden Thomas de Waal
Good book. Well written, informative, readable. Book is constructed from good matierals and arrived quickly. Have not finished it yet, but I am learning a lot from it.

Two sides
Black Garden gives an excellent rundown of both sides of this war between former republics of the old Soviet Union.Both sides would argue that their side was not properly represented, but in fact it was.This author, while not commonly known outside this region has interviewed scores of common and leading players on both sides in this unresolved conflict.It is a must read.

ballancing act
Its tough to write about something where there is a lot of heat on either side and the objectivity required is tough to maintain in the face of private interest groups, lobbies in the US and Europe.

The book however does manage to achieve this by at times giving extra positive nuances to the Armenian point based not on specific research but a need to balance itself.The numerous interviews has enabled the author to get a much needed picture from the ground level up insight from the individuals whose lives were at stake or in charge.

The invasion of Azeri territories by the Armenians regular and iregular forces are treated with some fluid connection back to the fall of the Soviets and the rise of the independent Republics.Its treatment of how the subject was used as a tool in internal politics of both sides is strikingly to the point but it has limited content on the power play of the West vs Russia on the oil/gas-rich region.Also overall the book does, compared to other works, provide less then deserved light on the military support and green light of the Polit Buro for the takeover.

It is an interesting work, and should be read by US policymakers and think about how Armenia, a country heavily funded by US taxpayers is able to turn around and push forward the interests of the Russian state against not only US but European and general NATO interest in addition to the Azeri national unity.

I think this studies importance has increased especially with Russia's recent foray into pro-western Georgia. This event was a sign of Russia applying pressure on its 'near-abroad' encouraged by the west's reluctance to resolve the invasion of another pro-western republic Azerbaijan by a pro Russian Armenia.

This is not a history book but more of a documentary narrative in touch with the actual story on the ground...

Introduction to the Nagorny Karabakh Conundrum
After being introduced to the author's writing through a naïve-Westerner-written article titled "Abkhazia's Dream of Freedom" on Open Democracy's website, there was a good amount of skepticism when Black Garden was begun. Could Mr. deWaal write a book on the Nagorny Karabakh conflict and present both sides as equally and fairly as possible? Yes he could, and yes he has.

It is precisely this neutrality that gives Black Garden its strength. DeWaal's book is not a historical account but is deceptively similar. Black Garden blends history and extensive journalism--the culmination of his numerous forays into the Nagorny Karabakh Republic (NKR) statelet, Armenia and Azerbaijan--and presents a delicately balanced look at the frozen post-Soviet conflict. Thoroughly researched and deeply studied by the author, a journalist and not a historian, the full but obscure history of this little-known conflict is brought to light and common misconceptions are debunked. Nagorny Karabakh was not about ancient hatreds; for one, it was and remains the result of callous Soviet policies that could never have lasted without a constant and brutal overlord-state to maintain them.

Black Garden does well as a one-stop overall introduction to the NKR conflict. From here, readers can at least have some background with which to pursue further study, be it from the Armenian perspective or the Azeri. It would have been easy for the author to take a side. The fact that he didn't is what makes Black Garden a solid foundation for learning about the Nagorny Karabakh conundrum.

Good book to inform but stumbles from an intricate balancing act
Thomas De Waal's book "Black Garden" is one of the first English-language publications on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which began just when the Soviet Union was on its death-knell. With the introduction of perestroika and glasnost by Mikhail Gorbachev, Armenians decided to take advantage of new political freedoms and push and take back Karabakh, peacefully at first and violently when war crept forward from the horizon. De Waal does an interesting job in interviewing both Armenian and Azeri officials and those who (mis)lead their respective countries. De Waal also dwells into the beginnings and history of the region and consequently debunks myths that were propagated by both sides.

However, it is here where his book is mired with slightly stretched facts and unsourced statements, a key factor of De Waal's undoing. He unfortunately concentrates too much of his time giving both sides 50-50 air time to explore controverserial issues. For example, when speaking about the 1915 Armenian Genocide and sympathizing for the victims and attending the march in Yerevan, De Waal brings up the recent Azeris' new claims that a genocide had been perpetrated against them by Armenians; giving equality for both without elaborating enough that the Azeris' claims are largely unfounded. He also makes unconvincingly generaliztions: he states that during the Karabakh protests outside Yerevan in February 1988, some Armenians didn't even know where the region was and had simply decided to skip work that day. He also has reluctance to condemn either side of wrongdoing. Near the end of his book, he states that Armenians felt the issue began in Sumgait, Azerbaijan (the site of a brutal pogrom of Armenians by Azeris) while the Azeris said it began in Khojaly in 1992 (the site of an alleged mass murder of Azeris by Armenian armed forces) and finally, leaves the reader hanging on on the edge of a cliff, not dwelling or at the very least expressing his opinion on it; a habit that is otherwise prevalent in his book. Some of the sources he uses are also rather unreliable, whether they come from interviews by former Armenian, Russian, or Azeri leaders or from writers who had slant towards either side (Andrei Sakharov, Thomas Goltz). His book also substantially covers many pages of Karabakh's history, from the reign of the Armenian princes in the 12-13th centuries who governed Artsakh (Karabakh) to the protests in Yerevan and Baku (Armenia and Azerbaijan's capitals, respectfully) in 1988 to the peace talks in Key West, Florida in the summer of 2001.

Another shortcoming is in De Waal's subtle yet central theme, in that of his constant promulgation that Armenians and Azeris are largely alike and had a good relationship with each other until the conflict began in 1988. I lived in Armenia and have spoken to many Armenians and for the most part, Armenians did not have any extraordinary friendships with them. Perhaps this is true inBaku, Karabakh, or Sumgait but I felt that De Waal inflated this claim in an appreciated effort to mollify both sides in seeking a peaceful solution to the conflict. De Waal makes little effort to emphasize of how a brutally dishonest and racist campaign is undertaken by the Azeri government to this day to smear and criticize Armenians; going so far as equate them to the Nazis and even discredit the history of their existance. His analogies are also lopsided; he rightly castigates the work of the Azeri "historian" Ziya Buniatov for blatant academic dishonesty but then compares his actions to the Glasnost-era Armenian writer Zori Balayan who correctly asserted that Azeris had Turkic heritage. Later on in the book, while he again criticizes the harsh rule Armenians lived under the Azeris, he quickly goes on and (inaccurately) condemnsArmenians for enacting the same brutal deeds during the 20th century against the Azeris. Perhaps the most contemptible and unconvincing example that he uses is in the end chapter of the book. De Waal praises the famous 18th century Armenian poet Sayat Nova who supposedly overcame the divide and made peace between not only the Armenians and Azeris, but also the Caucasian Georgians. De Waal admonishes both sides for not taking Nova's example but leaves out the brutal circumstances of his death. In 1795, the invading Iranians, led by the Muslim leader Agha Mohammed Khan, demanded that Sayat Nova convert to Islam. Nova was a Christian and refused to do so and hence, was promptly executed and beheaded.

Nevertheless, it is a welcoming gesture to bridge the divide between two peoples as. In either case, De Waal should be commended for writing the book and my own misgivings shouldn't preclude someone from reading it. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Azerbaijan (Cultures of the World)
Look at the cover of this book!
Turban is a part of Kurdish national dress.
Why Kurdish Man on the cover of book about Azerbaijan?
Very interesting.

One Terrible Book
Don't be fooled into buying this book if you are looking into learning about Azerbaijan.

The book is poorly written (or rather ignorantly?) and the images the author chose to "describe" the country actually have nothing to do with it. Look at the cover! I have never seen a single man wearing a turban in Azerbaijan.

No matter how you look at it, inside and out - this book is terrible!

My Opinion about this book
As being an Azerbaijani, I also claim to the picture which is on the cover of the book. Azeri men dont wear this kind of dress which is called "turban" or whatever.

It shows that how much the author knows about Azerbaijan, its history, people and respectively, their culture and traditions. Standing from this point of view, in addition, i would say that his ideas given in the book more likely dont reflect the reality as the cover picture. It might not be truth (i wish), yet still i highly recommend the picture to be replaced by a picture, in next volumes, that represnts real Azerbaijan, Azerbaijanis and the culture, history and traditions that they possess.

Distorted Image of Azerbaijan
I wonder if it's the author's complete ignorance on the subject or intention to misrepresent the country made him place this totally irrelevant picture on the cover. Men in Azerbaijan don't wear turbans.

Book starts with cover
Any book starts with a cover -- and in this case, the cover is completely misleading and thus fails not only its primary objective -- "one picture is worth a thousand words" -- but fails the book completely. The man depicted on the cover is probably either from Pakistan or Afghanistan, but definitely not from Azerbaijan. In fact, it is easier to spot a similar looking and dressed person in large cities in the UK and USA, than in Azerbaijan. It is unfortunate that such unprofessionalism creeps into books for American schoolchildren. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Terrible. False.
The book distorts the facts, full of lies

Tantalizing...
As the title suggests, this book is a historical novel drawing on current and contemporary Armenian experience. The `pogrom' however refers to the savage attacks and massacres of the Armenians of Sumgait, an industrialcity near Baku, perpetrated by maraudering Azerbaijani gangs in February1988.

This is by no means a cool, detached, journalistic account of thethree days of hell experienced by the Armenians of Sumgait. Shahinyan' sbook is passionate and often dramatic and moving portrayal of the tragedyas it unfolds. It traces the policy of genocide that guided the Azerbaijanibrutalities, from their inception at the highest levels of party andgovernment authority in Baku and Moscow, as a conspiracy byanti-Perestroika forces to discredit and destroy Gorbachev by "teaching the too independently minded Armenians a good lesson" whileat the same time "solving the Karabagh problem by keeping it forAzerbaijan." We meet the local Baku conspirators, the pampered andcorrupt bureaucrats, at work planning their criminal deeds, working out thedetails of how where and when the massacrers should begin and, later still,the common street criminals who carry out the plan by cold-blooded murder,rape and looting.

The novel's main hero is Aramais, the elderlyhardworking shoe repairer who lives and works in Sumgait. He is a survivorfrom yet another genocide in another place: The 1915 Turkish Genocide ofthe Armenians! His life is vividly portrayed as the story unfolds; we getvivid and shocking flashbacks to his childhood memories of massacre anddeportation in Western Armenia, of Turkish soldiers raping, killing andpillaging, while he is protecting a young Armenian girl from theintoxicated and hysterical Azeri mob. During various flashbacks we get toknow his wife Susana and short glimpses of the bitter experience ofdeportation of both their parents and their death in exile in Bulgaria. Wesee him in action in the Second World War, earning a medal for bravery.Shahinyan is remarkably Solzhenitsin-like in his portrayal of life inStalinist labor camps, its brutality, waste and sheer stupidity, asexperienced by Aramais after the war. But again and again it is theflashbacks to 195 and Aramais's experiences of genocide then and now thatdraw the unmistakable parallel and similarities between the two events:That on both occasions they were planned state policy to massacre, pillageand deport the Armenians from their ancestral lands when they stood up fortheir rights and freedom -- the Pan-Turkist easy "solution to theArmenian problem" as applied to western Armenia in 1915 and toKarabagh now, in 1988!

And we see some of the young protagonists of thisresistance struggle for survival and freedom in the suffocatingly tenseatmosphere of Sumgait: Aramais's son Arshik and his young sweetheart Bella,for example. We meet Dr. Mesropyan, Bella' sfather and one of the top surgeons in Azerbaijan, in his vain endeavor tomeet the party chief in Sumgait in order to stop the conspiracy! Also areportrayed many Armenian families hiding with fear behind their fortifieddoors in their homes, saying to Arshik "we don't know anywhere safe togo to!" And we witness with Arshik many scenes of burnt-out and lootedArmenian homes and ruined lives as he desperately seeks them out towarn.

Above all it is his treatment of the setting in Sumgait thatdeserves praise. He is a master of suspense as well as dramatic and abruptclimaxes. He is meticulously vivid and realistic in his detailed portrayalof all the characters, both heroes and villains. The result is masterly andpanoramic sketch of Soviet life in general and Sumgait in particular; theordinary people in their daily lives of pain and little pleasures, theirfriendships, petty prejudices, and the gradual buildup of hysteria, againstthe backdrop of a crumbling society, and its utterly corrupt and immoralelite in its last dying days. This is a profoundly and thoroughlypessimistic book reflecting the tortured soul of the author in its questfor answers to deeply disturbing questions about man' s social existence ingeneral and Armenian suffering in particular.

A highly readable andenjoyable book (despite its unfortunate editing errors!) with someintelligent insights into aspects of Armenian and Soviet history -- theorigins of the Karabagh problem, the collusion between Kemalist Turkey andStalinist Russia and the loss of Nakhichevan (and the Azeri success inethnically cleansing it of its majority Armenian population) as well asissues relating to Western Armenia. Thoroughly recommended reading for allinterested in contemporary Armenian literature and history.

A lot of incorrect information.
The book misrepresents many facts and distorts the actual events. It provides only one side of the story. Most of the events pictured in the book are false, never happenned or were twisted around by theauthors.

The author does not mention the fact that two ethnic Armenians(Grigorian and Oganov) were arrested in Sumgait for killing at least 6Armenians. The book is full of hatred towards Azerbaijanis and seems tobear rasist patterns. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Inadequate on any terms
"A [sic] Historical Atlas of Azerbaijan" is a volume of virtues, albeit rather small ones.This slim tome takes up little room on a bookshelf, although no less than it warrants.It affords a general view of Azerbaijani history, aimed at those who have no idea what or where the place is.It has a number of colorful maps which are somewhat informative.The maps of modern Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabagh are more nearly acceptable than most of the others.The text is reasonably informative, with some good historical detail.The illustrations look good and are generally to the point.

So much for virtues, such as they are.It should be observed that the text is some half-century out of date.It still uses the outmoded "BC/AD" system of dating - rather than the better Common Era dating (BCE/CE).The text furthermore is not well supported by the maps ... e.g., it refers at one point to "Albania and [Media] Atropatene".One map shows Albania (the Caucasian, not the European, state), but no map shows the location of Media Atropatene.Very few readers will know the location of either the former or the latter.

And the maps are the real problem here ... especially so since this is billed as an historical atlas.The maps are usually very (even overly) general; others are more detailed but reproduced from other and much older atlases - usually Breasted or a related work.Some don't show the area of modern Azerbaijan or anywhere near it.

P. 8: showing early cultural sites, 5000 BCE and before - none of which is in modern Azerbaijan.P. 10: showing the ancient (c.10-5 million years BCE) Sarmatic Sea, an isolated arm of the Tethys Sea encompassing the Black and Caspian Seas and surrounding areas.It is so named for the Sarmatians, an ancient people in and around the modern Ukraine in Graeco-Roman times.This is interesting, if of marginal interest.P. 13: showing the Scythian raids into western Asia (7th Century BCE), superimposed on a generalized map of the western Persian Empire (5th Century BCE!!!).This sort of anachronism has no place in an alleged reference work.

P. 16: a map of the Alexandrian Empire, photo-copied from a much older historical atlas.Newer maps are more accurate.In any event, alas, Azerbaijan wasn't part of that empire, which marginalizes the utility of the map.P. 19: Asia Minor & surrounding areas, 63 BCE.More relevant & also cribbed from a much older atlas.At this point, a small part of Azerbaijan was part of the Armenian kingdom.P. 20: a map showing (mostly) religious affiliations of people in western Asia.It gives a date of c.700, but by then Islam had displaced most of the other religions; a date of c.600 is preferable.P. 23: a map showing the expansion of Islam, highly generalized.

P. 25: the expansion of the Khazar state.Not bad at all.(By the way, the best book on the Khazars is "The Thirteenth Tribe" by Arthur Koestler.)P. 26: Asia Minor and the Balkans, 1265.Another photo-copied map, very good in its own right - but is entirely west of Azerbaijan.P. 29:the Mongol Empire in 1227 and 1280.Very generalized and, besides showing that Azerbaijan was in the empire, not very useful.P.32: the various Mongol states, 1300-1405.Another photo-copied map, quite a good one, but aside from showing Azerbaijan's (very tiny) place in all this, not a big contribution.

P. 35:Anatolia and the Balkans, 1355.A photo-copied map which is very useful - except that the area of modern Azerbaijan appears nowhere on it.P. 36:Copied from the same source, the growth of the Ottoman Empire.At least Azerbaijan shows up over on the eastern border, almost unnoticeable.P. 40:Expansion of European Russia, 1300-1796.Again, photocopied from the same source.The term Azerbaijan doesn't appear, but the territory does.P. 49: the Caucasus, 1921.The 3 SSRs are shown, in a very generalized fashion, but no cities.Three ASSRs are also shown, but not named.No map is given for the Caucasian republics in the 1918-1920 period.P. 55:A large map, not all that detailed, of modern Azerbaijan.P. 57:A detailed map of the Nagorno-Karabagh (-kh) enclave.

This atlas gives almost no clue that there are in fact 2 Azerbaijans - the modern republic to the north, south of which is an area in northwestern Iran also called Azerbaijan.Furthermore, it barely mentions and provides no maps of the numerous independent and autonomous emirates and other states within Azerbaijan:Arran, Shirvan, the Rawwadids, the Sheddadids, and so on, from the 9th Century to the 19th.The atlas has no ethno-linguistic map of the region - and ethnicity and linguistic affiliation are central to the problems of the Caucasian republics.There is no hint of the relationship of Azerbaijan and Daghestan (nor even the existence of the latter).This book also gives short shrift to a central historical problem: the origin and composition of the Azeri people.

In short, this "atlas" is nothing of the sort.It is a brief and overgeneralized historical survey of Azerbaijan with a few maps (many of them useless to the point) and a few illustrations.You can do much better of Wikipedia - but of course even Wikipedia is woefully short on historical maps of most areas of the Middle East (exception: Armenia).

I can recommend this book only for people who want a very general idea of Azerbaijani history without being really very interested in it.

Excellent
Ms. Liberman is a fine writer, and this long-awaited survey of Azerbaijan is a real treat, a riveting tale of this fascinating land.3 cheers!! Highly recommended. ... Read more

Product Description
One in a series of books analyzing the political, economic, social and national security systems and institutions of a range of countries, and how they are shaped by cultural factors. Here, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia are examined both as they existed before and during the Soviet era, and how they have developed since 1991. The marked relaxation of information restrictions, which began in the late 1980s and accelerated after 1991, has allowed the reporting of nearly complete data on every aspect of life in the three countries. ... Read more

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A remarkable view of how geopolitics affects ordinary people, this book documents, in words and pictures, the lives of Armenians in the last two decades. Based on intimate interviews with three hundred Armenians and featuring Jerry Berndt's superb photographs, it brings together firsthand testimony about the social, economic, and spiritual circumstances of Armenians during the 1980s and 1990s, when the country faced an earthquake, pogroms, and war. At times shocking and deeply emotional, Armenia: Portraits of Survival and Hope is a story of extreme suffering and hardship, a searching look at the fight for independence, and an exceptionally complex portrait of the human spirit.

A companion to the Millers' highly acclaimed work Survivors: An Oral History of the Armenian Genocide, which documented the genocide of 1915, this book focuses on four groups of people: survivors of the earthquakes that devastated northwestern Armenia in 1988; refugees from Azerbaijan who fled Baku and Sumgait because of pogroms against them; women, children, and soldiers who were affected by the war in Nagorno-Karabakh; and ordinary citizens who survived several winters without heat because of the blockade against Armenia by Turkey and Azerbaijan. The Millers' narrative situates these accounts contextually and thematically, but the voices of individuals remain paramount. The Millers also describe their personal experiences in repeated research trips, inviting us to look beyond the headlines and think beyond the circumstances of our own lives as they bring contemporary Armenia to life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Excellent book
To the Turkish "review"ers:

This is the case always when any is published about any subject that bears the name Armenia. Armenia is "fake, bandit, criminal, murderous, genocidal" and the list goes on and on... I again ask objectively and scholarly as to where, when, how, who, why are these people charged with these heavy charges, when it was the OTTOMAN EMPIRE which ruled for over 630 years, over the known Christian world, from the doors of Vienna to the shores of Yemen, and from the Atlantic Ocean to the Black sea shores and Persia. During that period how many millions of Christians were forcefully converted to Islam, tortured, massacred, brutalized, their properties, wives and daughters confiscated and dishonored, and also how many wars did it have against even Muslim powers like the Persian Kingdom, the Berbers, the Albanians, the Kurds and Arabs?

Sure, it is easy to yeal "WE DIDN'T DO IT!" in regards to the Armenian Genocide.. Oh but hold it! Don't the Neo-Nazis say the same about the Holocaust? Don't the Khmer militia say the same about Cambodia? Don't SOME Hutus say the same about the Tutsis? DOES THE GOVERNMENT OF SUDAN OR DOES YOUR GOVERNMENT IN TURKEY OR AZERBAIJAN say there is a Genocide going on in SUDAN? (I know exactly why can't you say it). Sudan would tell you to "look into a mirror..."

Do you want just one example of Genocide commited not only against the Armenians, but against every Christian minority for 630 years? WHERE DID YOU RECRUIT THE JANISSARIES FROM...? Being christian children forcefully taken as tax from their parents and grown as turks to massacre christians is or isn't a classical, methodological, systematic way to shrink or eliminate a race? What about the 300,000 Armenians massacred by the Hamidiye forces between 1894-1896? What about the 30,000 plus Armenians butchered in Adana in 1909? What about the 1,500,000 Armenians, and more than 400,000 Greeks, 250,000 Assyrians, and thousands of other non-turkic minorities between 1915 and 1923...? Some Turkish diplomats were shot during the Cold War by Armenian activists? What a pity... 30 plus diplomats for you weigh more than millions upon millions of other people... Elif Shafak the daughter of one of those diplomats shot, is more couragous than anyone to objectively examine for the truth and getting convinced that Turkey did commit the ultimate crime against humanity, that these Armenians acted for the recognition of the Genocide (even though the ways were extreme and sometimes unjustified.) Wasn't it the interior minister of Azerbaijan who in 2005 said that "Armenia would not exist in 30 years from now..? Any better words for Genocide?

Let the honest, unbiased, historically sound minded person objectively examine the events, and come to the conclusions. Conclusions that are nowadays reached by Turkish intellectuals (Akcam, Berktay, Muge, Ertem, Zarakoglu, Shafak, and many more) who recognize and condemn the first Genocide of the 20th Century.

"NOW GO AND LOOK INTO A MIRROR..."

Not the best read on the region
The books doesn't worst buying. It is poorly written, and is more about the "brainwashing" than presenting and objectively analysing the facts about Armenia ...

Biased, deceptive, non-factual
This book is another cheap-shot in the decades-long propaganda war between Armenian and Turkish and Azerbaijani nationalists. Not only the author tells only one-side of the story, but the book is completely based on fiction and non-facts. It has nothing to say about the massacre of Turks, Kurds, Jews and Azerbaijanis in 1890-1924 by the hands of Armenian gangs and military forces, ethnic cleansing and mass killings conducted from 1988 to present by Armenian forces in Karabakh and other areas of Azerbaijan, and brutal terrorist campaign by Armenian ASALA and other terror groups against Turkish and Azerbaijani diplomats and other civilians throughout 20th century. The author tries to reverse the facts, portray the aggressor (Armenian Republic and its militant gangs in Karabakh) as the victim, and uses religion as a tool to galvanize Christian readers against Muslim victims of Armeinian war crimes. While the conflict is a classic case of territorial dispute and ethnic hatred, the book tries to present the events as a result of a religious war, which is non-sense considering the overwhelming secular character of populations of all sides involved (Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan). The only way I would recommend this book - is as an example of the product of typical biased propaganda campaign.

The first 20th century holocaust was against Armenians
The first 20th century holocaust was against the thousands of innocent Armenians massacred by Turkishtroops in the First World War. No soon as that war was over than most Armenians, if they were not forced under Turkish rule, became Soviet citizens. Then when they finally got their independence back after the end of the USSR, they found themselves involved in a bloody war with Azerbaijan. Few peoples have suffered as much as the Armenians in the past 20 years and a book like this is absolutely essential reading if we are to understand the people of the oldest continually Christian country in the world. Buy this book and then give all your friends this book as a present for Christmas. Christopher Catherwood, author of CHRISTIANS,MUSLIMS AND ISLAMIC RAGE (Zondervan, 2003) ... Read more

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The planktonic foraminifera have, for over forty years, beenrecognised to be the most valuable stratigraphic indices for marinesediments of Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic age. However, theirevolutionary origins in the Jurassic and their development,morphological evolution and systematics in the Early Cretaceous have,until now, been poorly understood. This book illustrates for the first time all the published taxa knownfrom the Jurassic, and clarifies and corrects their taxonomy. The taxonomy and stratigraphic distribution of the Early Cretaceousplanktonic foraminifera are also revised, and all of the publishedspecies are illustrated, using the type specimens. The systematics ofthe Early Cretaceous forms are clearly set out, both for species andfor genera: their evolution is explained as well as the ecologicalimportance of the morphological changes they have undergone. Moreover,by analogy with the Recent Globigerinacea the palaeoenvironmentalsignificance of these Early Cretaceous taxa is discussed. The book deals with 136 species belonging to 26 genera, five of which-- Compactogerina, Haeuslerina (of the Jurassic),Lilliputianelloides; Claviblowiella andPlanohedbergella (of the Cretaceous) -- are new. Rangecharts are provided, as are extensive keys for the more importantgenera. Superbly illustrated, with 65 high-quality plates, this work will bean invaluable reference for all micropalaeontolists andbiostratigraphers worldwide, with many species illustrated by SEM forthe first time. This is the first book to collate all knowninformationon the early evolutionary origins of the planktonicforaminifera. ... Read more

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Chapters: Ambassadors of Israel to Azerbaijan, Ambassadors of Romania to Azerbaijan, Ambassadors of Russia to Azerbaijan, United States Ambassadors to Azerbaijan, Arthur Lenk, Ross Wilson, Tahsin Gemil, Richard Miles, Stanley Tuemler Escudero, Alexander Blokhin, Reno L. Harnish, Richard Kauzlarich, Robert Finn, Anne E. Derse, United States Ambassador to Azerbaijan, List of Ambassadors From the United Kingdom to Azerbaijan, Steinar Gil, Olav Berstad. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 43. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: The Ambassador from the United Kingdom to Azerbaijan is the United Kingdom's foremost diplomatic representative in Azerbaijan, and in charge of the UK's diplomatic mission in Baku. ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=19728396 ... Read more

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The Caspian Sea has been the focus of states and peoples in and out of the area for the last decade. The surrounding states are interested in getting a decent share of the lakeÂ’s resources. The industrial states are interested in taking the oil, gas and other natural wealth of the Caspian Sea to world markets as soon as possible. The populations of the littoral states, which are all ruled by undemocratic regimes, are concerned with whether their governments will retain their just rights in the Caspian Sea. They realize that the highest priority for their current rulers is to keep their grip on power, not their nationÂ’s present or future interests.

How have the respective governments in Azerbaijan, the Federation of Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and especially, Iran, thought and acted in regard to the situation of the Caspian Sea and their interests?

The issue has a special reference to Iran because it is experiencing a terrible situation in regard to the Caspian Sea due to the poor management of its foreign policy and international relations. Iran will end up with the smallest share of the Caspian Sea, whether it likes it or not. This is a serious setback for a country that once shared the Caspian Sea with the former Soviet Union. IranÂ’s mismanagement of its Caspian Sea rights is a political and diplomatic lesson in what not to do.

This book gives everyone, even those without legal or political backgrounds in this issue, an opportunity to survey the facts and history; and to analyze the legal and political realities of the present political situation of the worldÂ’s largest lake. ... Read more

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This study of women and gender in a Muslim society draws on archival and literary sources as well as the life stories of women of different generations to offer a unique ethnographic and historical account of the lives of urban women in contemporary Azerbaijan. Focussing on a group of professional women in Baku, it provides insight into the impact of the Soviet system on the position of Azeri women, their conceptions of femininity and the significant changes brought about by the post-Soviet transition to a market economy and growing western influence. Also explored are the ways in which local cultural expectations and Islamic beliefs were accommodated to different modernisation projects. ... Read more

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Politics of Language in the Ex-Soviet Muslim States offers a unique and timely analysis of language policies in the central Asian states of the former Soviet Union. The authors relate these policies to broad issues such as nation-building, language planning, and multilingualism. The book is a comprehensive survey of language policy in the five newly independent states with largely Turkic-speaking populations and in the Tajic republic, with its mainly Iranian-speaking population. It addresses each state's consideration over how the use of Russian--widespread as a second language among the Turkic-speaking peoples and known as a first language for Soviet-era immigrants regardless of ethnicity--should relate to use of the local varieties of Turkic or Iranian. It also addresses efforts in each state to elaborate the local variety of Turkic or Iranian for use as public discourse in administration, law, business, and politics, including teaching the language to its nominal speakers, and considers the relation between these languages and those of local ethnic minorities. The authors utilize previously unpublished empirical data, which is presented in both a clear narrative and conceptual framework.
Jacob M. Landau is Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Barbara Kellner-Heinkele is Professor of Turkic Studies, Free University of Berlin.
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This work presents the medieval historical cartography of the south Caucasus. Volume contains 82 mediaeval maps with 24 details from Latin, Byzantine, Islamic, Syriac and Armenian traditions. 98 of these illustrations are in full colour. Co-published by Gomidas Institute (London) and PrintInfo (Yerevan). ... Read more

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