Analytical Centre on Globalisation and Regional Cooperation
New ACGRC publication:
Essays on History of the South Caucasian Countries (A Multi-perspective View of History)
In November 2007, the Analytical
Centre on Globalisation and Regional Cooperation together with its partners,
Public Union of the Azerbaijan historians and Caritas Georgia, initiated a
meeting of historians and civic activists of Armenia, Azerbaijan and
Georgia. The meeting was organised with assistance of Caritas France.
Such a framework for cooperation was chosen because the experience of the
recent few years’ developments in the South Caucasus had showed that many
problematic issues in relations between the peoples of the region arise
because of different interpretation of historical facts, different views and
approaches to events that occurred in the South Caucasus. Therefore, it was
needed to organise regular meetings and to develop cooperation between
historians and civic activists of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.
The main result of the aforementioned meeting was the
communiqué
adopted on 13 November 2007. In the communiqué it was, particularly, said:
After having the debates and discussions we,
participants of the working meeting, state that it is important and
beneficial for the peoples of the South Caucasus:
- To organise meetings of civil activists and historians of the South
Caucasian countries on regular basis <…> that helps to create an atmosphere
of tolerance, respect, and mutual understanding <…>;
- We are interested in publishing joint articles and essays in scientific
journals and non-affiliated magazines, as proposed by some of the
participants of the working meeting;
- The Tbilisi initiative of the Council of Europe, providing for a joint
project on Caucasus History, is a positive example of cooperation of
historians from the South Caucasian countries;
- This format is one of the directions for continued efforts of our
countries’ citizens aimed to the development of civil society, finding
historical factors that keep us together, democratisation and European
integration of the South Caucasian countries.
During the aforementioned meeting, the participants showed great interest
for the working session dedicated to the experience of Armenian, Azerbaijani
and Georgian historians who had worked together on a book titled The History
of Caucasus. That project was frozen in 2003 because of several
disagreements between Armenian and Azerbaijani experts (we consider that one
of the main reasons for such a failure had been the extremely different task
assigned to the experts – to write joint history of the South Caucasian
countries and to overcome all differences in approach). On the other side,
the work that was done deserves close attention, because it was a positive
example of cooperation between historians of three countries. We offered the
authors who had worked on that project – Armen Khachikyan from Armenia,
Aydin Aslanov from Azerbaijan and Paata Ramishvili from Georgia – to go back
to the accomplished work and, using the experience they had gained, to
prepare new essays on history of their respective countries, centred on a
multi-perspective view. New essays would be based on the previously used
materials, as well as would count on the new factors that emerged during the
recent 10-12 years. In fact, that meant publishing the first comprehensive
joint work of Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgian historians.
The newly-published book, Essays on History of the South Caucasian
Countries, contains essays about the historical past of the peoples of the
South Caucasus, from the ancient times till the establishment of the Soviet
authority in the region. We hope that the book will be interesting and
useful for the readers. The first part of the book reveals the historical
context of the development of the South Caucasus from the ancient times till
the establishment of the Soviet authority in the region, and the second part
presents the cultural treasures of the South Caucasian countries. The book
contains a number of illustrations.
Being addressed to both scientific and popular audiences, Essays on History
of the South Caucasian Countries is addressed to a wide circle of readers,
first of all, to civil society institutions, academics, state institutions,
younger generation, as well as international organisations concerned with
peacemaking and development of cooperation in the South Caucasus.
The authors worked on the book for near two years. They attempted to let the
readers know about the main instances in the history of the three countries.
It was important not just to provide some information, but also to introduce
the readers to the neighbour peoples’ views to the same events, so the
peoples of the region might develop tolerance and mutual understanding.
Besides, the book provides different interpretations of a number of regional
events, using a multi-perspective approach; in fact, that means having three
different viewpoints on certain historical events. That is also important
for readers living in the region, as well as outside, because they may see
how contemporary historians from the South Caucasian countries interpret the
historical events. It is natural that historians from different countries
have different approaches according to their personal, cultural and national
identities.
Such an approach has important characteristics:
1. The society of each country may get familiar with the viewpoints of
others on the same historical events.
2. Historians from each country may have an opportunity to discuss the
viewpoints of their colleagues from other countries within a scientific
framework.
3. Being better informed will let the societies of three countries to
develop dialogue.
So, the essays in the first part of the book may not match each other.
Sometimes they may contain conflicting statements. As a result, any
impartial reader will have to think. Any reader may choose one of the
explanations for historical events, but it should be remembered that other
explanations, which lead to other interpretations, also have the right to
exist.
Finally, let us congratulate the historians and civil societies of the South
Caucasian countries for publishing of the book, which is the first example
of joint scientific work of academics from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia
in the period of independence of our countries.
© ACGRC, 2002 - 2010