Life and Freedom. The autobiography of the former president of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabach

Для кого эта книга:

• All readers 16+.

«The Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh became one of the first precursors of the USSR’s demise. The weakening central power was evidently unable to cope with the economic challenges, while «perestroika» and «glasnost» were swiftly and dramatically undermining the nation’s system of governance. The authorities proved ineffective in proposing anything innovative, appealing, and capable of mobilizing society. The country, anchored in absolute centralization and held together by a uniform ideology, was rapidly losing its bearings. But despite all of this, the threat to the Soviet Union’s integrity became real and even inevitable only when cracks appeared along its most vulnerable fault line — the ethnic divide».

«During these turbulent times, I found myself at the epicenter of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, emerging as one of the key figures. Whenever protest rallies, strikes, states of emergency, martial law, armed militias, ethnic clashes, confrontations with the military, or war took place in the Soviet Union, they first happened in or around Karabakh».