ANTHROPOLOGY OF ETHNIC CONFLICT IN THE CONTEXT OF EVERYDAY LIFE
ANTHROPOLOGY OF ETHNIC CONFLICT IN THE CONTEXT OF EVERYDAY LIFE

Summary/Abstract: The Karabakh conflict, which started in 1988, was accompanied by massive socio-political activities, different manifestations of ethnic violence, and torrents of refugees. How was the conflict manifested at the local level and in everyday life? What were the “people’s” mechanisms employed for conflict resolution in the time of crisis? Against the general background of the conflict, the case of the exchange of the Armenian village of Kerkenj and Azerbaijani village of Kzl-Shafag occupies an important place as an example of people’s diplomacy and civic initiative. The situation of conflict during 1988−1989 brought about the idea of exchange, new mechanisms of community self-organization, transformations of formal and informal relations of the authority, actualization of collective memory resulting in behavioural changes, as well as application of people’s diplomacy in the time of crisis. As a result of this, the populations of the Armenian village of Kerkenj in the Azerbaijani SSR and the Azerbaijani village of Kzl-Shafag (now Dzyunashogh) in the Armenian SSR exchanged their settlements on the basis of a mutual agreement. The agreement envisaged the exchange of houses, handing over of community property to each other, preservation of each other’s cemeteries and the possibility of reciprocal visits. The agreement still stands, and the non-formal relations between the people of the two villages continue.

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