Edited by Antero Leitzinger

Description:

The book "CAUCASUS and an unholy alliance" (348 pages in A5 size, with soft covers) contains articles by both Caucasian statesmen and foreign researchers on the history and politics of the four Caucasian states (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Chechenia). The articles are grouped into four main groups, roughly 50 to 120 pages each:

1) articles on Armenia and Azerbaijan, tracing back the Karabakh conflict to Russian provocations in earlier times;

2) articles on Georgia, focusing on the Abkhazian War and the destroying of democracy by current president Shevardnadze;

3) articles on Chechenia, comparing the conquests in the 19th century and the continuous fighting for freedom ever since with the Chechen War 1994-1996;

4) articles introducing the main players around the Caucasus: Russia, Iran, Turkey and the West, with their vexed interests.

The main idea of the book is to provide information from different sources leading to similar conclusions - by comparing what has happened in all these countries during the last 10 years, and comparing contemporary politics with 19th century history, the common denominators, now and then, in Georgia as well as in Azerbaijan, may be more easily detected than if concentrating on each issue separately. The similarities of Russia's 19th century colonial policy and modern behaviour, as well as between certain tragical incidents (a. o. the so-called "ethnic conflicts") in different parts of the region can not be disregarded. What makes a difference between the fates of let us say Armenia and Chechenia, is nothing but their different level of resistance.

As the editor and several contributors are Finnish experts on Caucasian affairs, certain analogies to the renaissance of traditional Russian (imperial) policy in the 1930s are natural. The name of the book projects the fear, that Russia and the West are once again committed into an unholy alliance - this time together with Iranian-style Islamism - and have abandoned the principles of justice and the right to self-determination of Caucasian nations.