Past Event

Please join us to listen to author Farid Shaafiyev’s present his new book titled “Resettling the Borderlands: State Relocations and Ethnic Conflict in the South Caucasus. A Study of Imperial Russian and Soviet resettlement policies in the South Caucasus and their impact on the ethnic conflict”.

Until the arrival of the Russian Empire in the early nineteenth century, the South Caucasus was traditionally contested by two Muslim empires, the Ottomans and the Persians. Over the following two centuries, Orthodox Christian Russia – and later the officially atheist Soviet Union – expanded into the densely populated Muslim towns and villages and began a long process of resettlement, deportation, and interventionist population management in an attempt to incorporate the region into its own lands and culture. He also offers insights on the complexities of empire-building and managing space and people in the Muslim borderlands to reveal the impact of demographic changes on the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.

Combining in-depth and original analysis of archival material with a clear and accessible narrative, Resettling the Borderlands provides a new interpretation of the colonial policies, ideologies, and strategic visions in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union.

Farid Shafiyev is a diplomat and scholar from Azerbaijan. He holds a PhD from Carleton University and an MPA from Harvard Kennedy School of Government as well as Bachelor of Law and Diploma in History from Baku State University. Farid Shafiyev served as ambassador of Azerbaijan to Canada and currently posted in the Czech Republic. He is author of “Resettling the Borderlands: State Relocations and Ethnic Conflict in the South Caucasus” by McGill-Queen’s University Press (2018) and numerous articles and op-eds.

This event is free and open to the public. Registration is required.