AUTHORS’ FOREWORD TO THE THIRD EDITION

A. Abasov, H. Khachatrian

Whereas the first edition of our book,“KARABAKH CONFLICT. Variants of Settlement: Concepts and Reality”appeared in 2002 simultaneously in four languages (Armenian, Azerbaijani, Russian and English), and the second edition was in Russian only, this third edition is in English. This edition is basically an English translation of the second Russian edition, which was published in Moscow in 2004. At the same time, we tried not to be behind the times, and whenever possible, to reflect in this book the new events that have taken place after the issue of the aforementioned edition. In particular, Chapter IV, “The conflict and the social-political atmosphere in the two countries” is written completely anew. A great number of amendments and additions are also presented in the text, with the largest passages marked with special references. We have also made attempts, through the embassies of the United States and France in our countries, to receive comments on our book from former co-chairmen of these countries in the Minsk Group like those of a representative of the Russian Federation, Ambassador Vladimir Kazimirov. Unfortunately, our efforts have failed. We do hope, however, that such important comments will appear after the publication of this edition.

We express special gratitude to the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung for their help in the publication of the present English edition, which will become available to foreign experts and a wider audience of readers.