Nagorno-Karabakh: Learning from the Flemish Experience within Belgium?

Abstract

The story of Nagorno-Karabakh is of a people struggling for more autonomy in order to maintain their culture and nationhood. It is also about opposition to this endeavour from the state of which it is a part, according to international law. In this sense, Nagorno-Karabakh could mutatis mutandis be compared to Flanders, which is officially a federated entity of Belgium, but considers itself to be a nation in pursuit of more autonomy and — as some observers believe — its independence. However, the major difference is that Flanders is free from war, physical threat and violence on a mass scale, while in NK people have suffered from often fatal traumata inflicted by the parent state over many years and on ethnic grounds; the motivations for independence in Flanders are much more mundane. Moreover, the international community is not (yet) involved in searching for a solution to “the Belgian problem”. What the populations in Nagorno-Karabakh and Flanders do have in common, however, are strong sense of identity and the drive to shape this feeling into an adequate state structure.