Black Garden

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Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War
Black Garden.jpg
First edition
AuthorThomas de Waal
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
SubjectFirst Nagorno-Karabakh War
PublisherNYU Press
Publication date
2003
Media typePrint
Pages360 pages
ISBN0-8147-6032-5

Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War is a 2003 book by Thomas de Waal, based on a study of Armenia and Azerbaijan, two former Soviet republics, during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.[1] It consists of a history of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict since 1988 combined with interviews conducted on the ground in the aftermath of the war.[2]

The book won the Outstanding Academic Title 2003 award from Choice Reviews.[3]

Reviews[]

Neal Ascherson in The New York Review of Books described Black Garden as "admirable and rigorous"[4] and Amer Latif in Parameters called it "a lucid, evenhanded analysis of the intricacies of this conflict".[5] Time magazine reviewer Paul Quinn-Judge and Robert Chenciner in International Affairs also gave the book positive reviews.[6][7]

The book was particularly praised for its balanced approach given the ethno-nationalist nature of the conflict. In African and Asian Studies, Samuel Andoh wrote that "most articles on the conflict tend to partial towards one side or the other, putting the blame on Armenia or Azerbaijan ... Black Garden ... is probably one of the few exceptions."[8]

Writing in Foreign Affairs, Robert Legvold praised de Waal for providing "a deeper and more compelling account of the conflict than anyone before ... one likely to exercise give-no-quarters partisans on both sides."[9]

Criticism[]

A number of Armenian academics and analysts were critical of the book, arguing that it presents a false balance between Armenia and Azerbaijan and contains inaccuracies. Professor Alexander Manasyan of Yerevan State University, in reviewing Black Garden, wrote that de Waal "supports the point of view which is steered by the propaganda machine of Baku" and "carries out [the] Azerbaijani position by distorting the essence of the problem, masterfully going around all the unfavorable to Azerbaijani position facts and events [sic], skillfully offering lie as believable truth".[10]

The book was also criticized by Karen Vrtanesyan, an Armenian expert for the Ararat Center for Strategic Research, as "a banal propaganda but not an objective research on [the] Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict."[11] Vrtanesyan concludes that "Black Garden is not an unbiased work, neither can its author be considered a neutral observer."[12]

Tatul Hakobyan, an independent Armenian analyst and journalist, wrote that de Waal had quoted Serzh Sargsyan out of context in the Black Garden regarding the latter's comments about the Khojaly Massacre.[13]

References[]

  1. ^ "Thomas de Waal". belgradeforum.org. Belgrade Security Forum. Archived from the original on 7 July 2013. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
  2. ^ "Thomas de Waal presents supplemented version of his "Black Garden" book in Yerevan". mediamax.am. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
  3. ^ "Awards & Grants: Black garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through peace and war". Choice Reviews. American Library Association. Retrieved 16 May 2021.
  4. ^ Ascherson, Neal (20 November 2003). "In the Black Garden". The New York Review. Retrieved 17 May 2021.
  5. ^ Dr. Latif, Amer (2005). "Book Reviews". Parameters. 35 (1): 141–143. Retrieved 17 May 2021.
  6. ^ Quinn-Judge, Paul (2 February 2004). "Two Peoples, One Nightmare". Time. Retrieved 17 May 2021.
  7. ^ Chenciner, Robert (2011). "Review". International Affairs. 87 (3): 742. ISSN 0020-5850. JSTOR 20869740. [de Waal's] magisterial histories are an essential part of a comprehensible explanation of the intractable problems that beset the region.
  8. ^ Andoh, Samuel K. (9 May 2014). "Book review: Armenia and Azerbaijan through Peace and War: Black Garden: 10 Year Anniversary Edition, written by Thomas de Waal". African and Asian Studies. Brill. 13 (1–2): 241–244. doi:10.1163/15692108-12341295.
  9. ^ Legvold, Robert (November 2003). "Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War". Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 17 May 2021.
  10. ^ Manasyan, Alexander (19 February 2007). "Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict: on the Frontlines of the Information War, or the Last "Accord" of the Year". International Center for Human Development. Retrieved 30 September 2007.
  11. ^ "Studies on Strategy and Security", compiled and edited, with an introduction and commentary by Dr Armen Ayvazyan, Yerevan, Lusakn, 2007, 684 pp. , p. 657
  12. ^ Vrtanesyan, Karen. ""The Black Garden": In Search of Imagined Balance". Ararat Center for Strategic Research. Retrieved 29 September 2007..
  13. ^ Hakobyan, Tatul (26 February 2018). "Խոջալուի մասին Սերժ Սարգսյանի խոսքերը Թոմաս դե Վաալը ենթատեքստից դուրս է մեջբերել". aniarc.am (in Armenian).


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