PSIA Seminar: Perspectives on the Karabakh Conflict Transformation

The seminar explores the current stalemate in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and perspectives for conflict transformation. As the conflict has remained dormant for more than 20 years, the political systems of the countries engaged have adjusted to the conflict situation. The existing status quo serves the interests of the authorities, hence, the ruling regimes do not have strong incentives to seek conflict resolution. In these conditions, conflict transformation approaches are considered a necessary means to deal with the conflict. Given that, political elites have little incentive to implement such transformation, civil society actors come increasingly to the fore. We believe that only through multi-track initiatives supported by civil society actors, can conflict transformation practices advance and subsequently bring peace to the region.

Dr. Artak Ayunts has more than ten years of experience in peace research and conflict studies in the South Caucasus and Central Asia. He also has vast experience in research design conducting qualitative and quantitative studies in the fields of conflict resolution, peace-building, transition democracies and discourse analysis. During the last several years Dr. Ayunts has been engaged with various international and local non-for profit organisations and educational institutions, in particular International Alert, Caucasus Research Resource Center-Armenia, Yerevan State University and UNDP. In 2014, Dr. Ayunts joined the Eurasia Partnership Foundation where he covers peace-building programs, focusing on Armenia-Turkey normalization and Nagorny-Karabakh conflict. Dr. Ayunts holds an MA degree in Sociology from the Yerevan State University (YSU), MA degree in Conflict Resolution from Bradford University, Peace Studies Department, United Kingdom. He completed his PhD studies at YSU in 2004. Dr. Ayunts is an author of more than twenty academic publications and research articles. He has also been a DAAD Fellow at Peace Research Institute Frankfurt in 2012 and Visiting Scholar at the Institute for the Study of Human Rights, Columbia University in 2013.