Sevil Huseynova
Dr. Sevil Huseynova is a Social Anthropologist. She graduated from the Baku State University. In 2005, as a Fellow of the Heinrich-Boell-Foundation's Scholarship Program (Tbilisi), she conducted her first individual research dedicated to the everyday life practices of Baku Armenians. From 2007 to 2010, Sevil Huseynova was a PhD candidate at the Institute of Philosophy, Sociology, and Law of the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan. At the same time, she has been working as a representative of the Heinrich-Boell Foundation in Azerbaijan. Since 2010, she studied European Ethnology at the Institute for European Ethnology of the Humboldt-University of Berlin and defended her dissertation at the same Institute in 2018. Since 2016, Sevil has been a member and Project Manager of the CISR e.V. Berlin. Her main research interests include memory, conflict, and migration studies.
Common Historical Myths before and after the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War
The two key events around which the most popular historical myths are constructed are the following: the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict (1988-present) and the establishment of the Aliyev hereditary political regime in 1993. (Waal 2003; Ottaway 2003; Rumyantsev 2017). One of the main characteristics of memory politics is that the rigid authoritarian regime, claiming to be the only political actor with the power to determine the past, seeks to fully control all public spaces and to marginalize all its opponents. Aleida Assman, through a successful metaphor of the "long shadow of the past'', points to "the aspect of the unfreedom of subsequent generations from the traumatic past and the impossibility to deal with it at will" (Assman 2006: 16). The memory of 1918-1920, the events of the collapse of the Russian Empire, and attempts to create the first Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR) (Świętochowski 1985), was not always a convenient past for the ruling regime. The memory of the traumatic events of the Nagorno-Karabakh War of 1992-1994 and the ongoing conflict is also not always possible to manage on their own. But these dates remain relevant, and events are mythologized to conform to the official version of the historical narrative. Similarly, the events related to Heydar Aliyev's stay in power during the Soviet period (head of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan in 1968-1982) and as president after the collapse of the USSR - 1993- 2003 - are reconstructed and mythologized. Among the main strategies of mastering the past, as Michalski would probably say, are the industry of production of political public monuments (Michalski 1998), as well as the organization of collective/ mass ceremonies and rituals under the patronage and control of the authorities. Several relevant questions to be answered can be found by following Aleida Assman: "who remains outside the cultural memory? What are the principles of inclusion and exclusion? These questions are necessarily related to questions of acquiring and maintaining power, which means that the change in power relations will also produce a change in the structure of cultural memory" (Assman 2009: 35). Assmann A. (2006), Der lange Schatten der Vergangenheit: Erinnerungskultur und Geschichtspolitik.
Assmann A. (2006), Der lange Schatten der Vergangenheit: Erinnerungskultur und Geschichtspolitik. Assmann A. (2009) "Plunging into nothingness"Michalski (1998) Public Monuments: Art in Political Bondage 1870-1997 Świętochowski (1985) Russian Azerbaijan, 1905-1920: The Shaping of a National Identity in a Muslim Community (Soviet and East European Studies)
Assmann A. (2006), Der lange Schatten der Vergangenheit: Erinnerungskultur und Geschichtspolitik. Assmann A. (2009) "Plunging into nothingness"Michalski (1998) Public Monuments: Art in Political Bondage 1870-1997 Świętochowski (1985) Russian Azerbaijan, 1905-1920: The Shaping of a National Identity in a Muslim Community (Soviet and East European Studies)
Sevil Huseynova
Dr. Sevil Huseynova is a Social Anthropologist. She graduated from the Baku State University. In 2005, as a Fellow of the Heinrich-Boell-Foundation's Scholarship Program (Tbilisi), she conducted her first individual research dedicated to the everyday life practices of Baku Armenians. From 2007 to 2010, Sevil Huseynova was a PhD candidate at the Institute of Philosophy, Sociology, and Law of the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan. At the same time, she has been working as a representative of the Heinrich-Boell Foundation in Azerbaijan. Since 2010, she studied European Ethnology at the Institute for European Ethnology of the Humboldt-University of Berlin and defended her dissertation at the same Institute in 2018. Since 2016, Sevil has been a member and Project Manager of the CISR e.V. Berlin. Her main research interests include memory, conflict, and migration studies.
Common Historical Myths before and after the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War
The two key events around which the most popular historical myths are constructed are the following: the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict (1988-present) and the establishment of the Aliyev hereditary political regime in 1993. (Waal 2003; Ottaway 2003; Rumyantsev 2017). One of the main characteristics of memory politics is that the rigid authoritarian regime, claiming to be the only political actor with the power to determine the past, seeks to fully control all public spaces and to marginalize all its opponents. Aleida Assman, through a successful metaphor of the "long shadow of the past'', points to "the aspect of the unfreedom of subsequent generations from the traumatic past and the impossibility to deal with it at will" (Assman 2006: 16). The memory of 1918-1920, the events of the collapse of the Russian Empire, and attempts to create the first Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR) (Świętochowski 1985), was not always a convenient past for the ruling regime. The memory of the traumatic events of the Nagorno-Karabakh War of 1992-1994 and the ongoing conflict is also not always possible to manage on their own. But these dates remain relevant, and events are mythologized to conform to the official version of the historical narrative. Similarly, the events related to Heydar Aliyev's stay in power during the Soviet period (head of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan in 1968-1982) and as president after the collapse of the USSR - 1993- 2003 - are reconstructed and mythologized. Among the main strategies of mastering the past, as Michalski would probably say, are the industry of production of political public monuments (Michalski 1998), as well as the organization of collective/ mass ceremonies and rituals under the patronage and control of the authorities. Several relevant questions to be answered can be found by following Aleida Assman: "who remains outside the cultural memory? What are the principles of inclusion and exclusion? These questions are necessarily related to questions of acquiring and maintaining power, which means that the change in power relations will also produce a change in the structure of cultural memory" (Assman 2009: 35). Assmann A. (2006), Der lange Schatten der Vergangenheit: Erinnerungskultur und Geschichtspolitik.
Assmann A. (2006), Der lange Schatten der Vergangenheit: Erinnerungskultur und Geschichtspolitik. Assmann A. (2009) "Plunging into nothingness"Michalski (1998) Public Monuments: Art in Political Bondage 1870-1997 Świętochowski (1985) Russian Azerbaijan, 1905-1920: The Shaping of a National Identity in a Muslim Community (Soviet and East European Studies)
Assmann A. (2006), Der lange Schatten der Vergangenheit: Erinnerungskultur und Geschichtspolitik. Assmann A. (2009) "Plunging into nothingness"Michalski (1998) Public Monuments: Art in Political Bondage 1870-1997 Świętochowski (1985) Russian Azerbaijan, 1905-1920: The Shaping of a National Identity in a Muslim Community (Soviet and East European Studies)