1905 (Fraser et al., 655) and hostilities continued
into the First World War. This was followed by sev-
eral decades of relative quiet under Soviet control.
From 1988 to 1994, the two sides engaged in open
warfare over Nagorno-Karabakh, and although a
cease-fire has been in place since 1994, the conflict
remains largely unresolved. Women on both sides
have responded with peace efforts. For example, in
1999 a group of women from Azerbaijan and
Armenia, both of which had a history of activism
at the local level, were involved in founding the
Women Waging Peace initiative with backing from
a United States foundation that has sponsored
similar initiatives elsewhere. Azeri and Armenian
members of Women Waging Peace have worked
to promote peace over Nagorno-Karabakh both
locally and in national and international forums
(Women Waging Peace 2004).The dilemma of the naturalized
association of women with
peace
A longstanding association of women with peace
and men with conflict persists in the popular dis-
course of diverse societies and among activists and
analysts of peace movements. This portrayal and
the dilemma that it presents have been the subject
of numerous recent articles on the subject of peace
movements and conflict resolution by academi-
cians and activists. Tickner (2001, 21) offers this
summary of the dangers: “Besides the obviously
problematic slide into distinctions such as good
women/bad men, the association of women with
maternal qualities and peacemaking has the effect
of disempowering both women and peace and fur-
ther delegitimating women’s voices in matters of
international politics.”
In an article in which she touts women’s strength
in conflict resolution due to their “already existing
roles” but also points out some of the dangers asso-
ciated with such generalizations, Anderson (1999)
cites several examples from the Caucasus and
Turkey, including the “practical” work of the IDP
Women’s Association of Georgia in bringing Geor-
gian, Abkhazian, and Ossetian children together at
summer camps, and the revival in the 1990s of an
old custom whereby women waved white scarves
to intervene in the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.
Among women peace campaigners in the Caucasus
and Turkey, the deployment of women’s “tradi-
tional” roles and already-existing networks seems
to have more legitimizing than marginalizing power.
A Turkish woman leader in the peace movement in
Cyprus noted this, pointing out that when bi-com-630 political-social movements: peace movements
munal peace groups started to grow in the 1990s
and were eventually shut down by government
authorities, they targeted the women’s peace groups
first. She theorized that the women’s groups were
more threatening to the authorities than mixed-
gender groups (Uluda©1999).
Whether they continue to use the social capital
uniquely afforded to them by their gender, or decide
to downplay “tradition” in favor of less gender-
bound expressions, ongoing conflicts ensure that
women peace activists in Turkey and the Caucasus
have plenty of work yet to do.Bibliography
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