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On the other hand, the percentage of the titular nation increased dramatically: while in 1939, Azerbaijani-Turkish speaking Muslims formed only 58% of the total population, in 1959, '67.5 percent of people in the Azerbaijan SSR were categorized as Azerbaijani' (pp. 133, 130). Therefore, when Soviet Azerbaijan officials spoke about "Leninist national rights", they actually meant the rights of the titular nationality (p. 129), not those of the other, smaller ethnic groups. This "double assimilation" led to discrimination against smaller ethnic groups, who were forcibly assimilated within the titular nation as a first step towards the final goal, the fusion of all nationalities into the ultimate group, that of Soviet citizens, a progressive, socialist identity. [Extracted from the article]

A series of events in 2008 influenced the Karabakh conflict resolution efforts: the Kosovo declaration of independence, the August war, and Russian recognition of independent Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Two new diplomatic initiatives to resolve the Karabakh conflict were launched immediately after the August war, one by Russia and the second by Turkey. This article discusses why the two initiatives failed, and the structural problems of Karabakh conflict resolution efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the five days' war between Georgia and Russia, a highly politicized debate began about 'who started the war'. While this debate is far from over, it is important to analyse whether the 2008 war marks an important evolution in the series of conflicts that started in the Caucasus simultaneously with the weakening and collapse of the Soviet Union. While in the late 1980s and early 1990s the conflicts were the result of mass mobilization around the banner of the nation, marking a revolutionary period of paradigm shifts, the 2008 war was much closer to classical wars between states and their centrally commanded armies. The direct Russian military intervention, Moscow's recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as 'independent' states, further modifies the nature of the Caucasus conflicts. The 2008 war also reveals how much the Georgian state has evolved since the Rose Revolution, from one described as 'weak state' to a state capable of surviving a military defeat without internal collapse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]