CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VIII (1) ContemporaryEurasia81 | Page 97

NAREK SUKIASYAN
existence of the NKAO, major inter-ethnic clashes did not occur, arguably
due to the authoritative character of Soviet rule. At least from the
humanitarian point of view, this relative peace can be considered the biggest
achievement in terms of relations between Armenians and Azerbaijanis,
albeit not thanks to this strategy. Further attempts to address the conflict by
granting the de facto independent Karabakh autonomous status within
Azerbaijan have not been accepted. 39
Secession
Secession is the process where a part of a state pursues the
establishment of its own sovereignty. It “severs and recasts the link between
the seceding unit (the people and the territory) and the host state, and it
reduces the population and territorial scope of the old state while
establishing a new state”. 40 The goal of independent statehood can be
reached either through peaceful agreement or by violent mobilization and
even civil war. According to Gurr, the potential of collective violence
correlates to a group’s relative deprivation, which is the gap between what a
particular group perceives it is entitled to in welfare, power or other terms
(value aspiration) and what it actually possesses (value position). 41 In a
discussion of secession as a right, Buchanan draws an analogy of secession
and revolution – “[w]hen the people suffer prolonged and serious injustices,
the people will rise”. 42 Alternatively, to put it in Gurr’s terms, when relative
deprivation increases, the people will rise. Wood suggests preconditions in
five spheres of public life that engender secessionist struggle: a)
geographical – a defined territory of the potential secessionists, b) social –
group solidarity, c) economic – falling short of economic expectations, d)
political – decline (or perception) of legitimacy, e) psychological –
emotionally motivated struggle. 43 When the disagreement between the
conflicting groups and elites grows and the stakeholders do not believe in the
39
Pokalova, “Conflict Resolution in Frozen Conflicts”, 74.;
Ի՞նչ է նշանակում բարձր աստիճանի ինքնավարություն. ԼՂ ժողովուրդն իր դիրքո- րոշումը
հստակ արտահայտել է. Փաշինյան [What does a high level of autonomy mean? The people of
Nagorno Karabakh have expressed their position clearly: Pashinyan], Shantnews, March 06,
2019,
https://www.shantnews.am/news/view/306668.html; Vartan Oskanian, “Old states and new
shifting paradigms and the complex road to peace in Nagorny Karabakh”, The Limits of
Leadership: Elites and Societies in the Nagorny Karabakh Peace Process. Accord 17 ed.
Laurence Broers (London: Conciliation Resources, 2005): 21.
40
Anderson, “The Institutional Basis of Secessionist Politics”, 2.
41
Ted Robert Gurr, Why men rebel, (Princeton, N.J.: Published for the Center of International
Studies, Princeton University Princeton University Press, 1970), 24-29.
42
Allen Buchanan, “Theories of Secession,” Philosophy and Public Affairs 26 (1) (1997): 31-
61.
43
John R. Wood, “Secession: A Comparative Analytical Framework,” Canadian Journal of
Political Science 14 (1981): 112-120.
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