Customer Reviews

The Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict: Causes and Implications

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Be wary of the "facts" presented in this book. I was struck by a decidedly anti-Azerbaijani tone in the chapters dealing with the history of Karabakh. Low and behold, only very basic information was taken from works written by people specializing in Azerbaijan's history; most of the sources (for Azerbaijani history!) were Armenian. There may be useful information in the book, but Croissant really seems to take one side in the conflict, rather than presenting an unbiased view, as he claims. To get a better idea of the causes of the Karabakh conflict, one should be looking for sources which present both sides of the issue.

I tend to agree with a reviewer from Texas that the book provide one-sided information. Scholars, involved in the study of ethnic conflicts, should be always aware of the complexity of the issues, contradicting narratives and, therefore, try to present a balanced story. Croissant failed to do so. It should be acknowledges also that the book was written in mid-1990s when not much resources were available. However, that does not justifies the poor performance of the authors. For unbiased view of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan number one book is Tom de Waal's "Black Garden".