CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2021
| Author | Huseynova, Sevinj |
|---|---|
| Title | Why do The Winners of a War Become Angry? Identity Crisis in The Aftermath of The Second Nagorno-Karabakh War |
| Summary | Despite winning the second Nagorno Karabakh war and liberating the occupied territories and restoring the territorial integrity of the country, Azerbaijanis are angered and experiencing “peace anxiety”. Bahar Rumelili’s definition of “peace anxiety” is where conflict resolution does not bring up peace to individuals, rather it unleashes anxieties in varying degrees and ways by disrupting the old routines and habits people developed during conflicts. In this research project, I analyze the ontological (in)security of the Azerbaijani identity in the postwar period. The literature on ontological security situates the security of identity in routinized social relationships that generate a basic trust system. I question how the peace deal challenges the old routines that Azerbaijanis are strongly attached to. To address this question, I conduct a discursive analysis of Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev’s speeches after the peace deal was signed in November 2020. The notion of “peace anxiety” enables me to study these speeches and explain that the President’s separatist political narrative aims to focus on old routines that constitute the core of the Azerbaijani identity. In fact, Aliyev himself experiences anxiety and fails to address the new reality via his belligerent speeches. The failure of deconstructing the enmity relationship between the Armenian and Azerbaijani identities poses a challenge for future prospects of peace and the possibility of coexistence. |
| Supervisor | Xymena Kurowska |
| Department | International Relations MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2021/huseynova_sevinj.pdf |
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