South Caucasus; conflict; Abkhazia; Nagorno-Karabakh; Ajara; South Ossetia; Lower Kartli; Javakheti; Lezgistan; Talysh-Mughan; Mingrelia

Formation of territorial autonomy used to be described in scientific literature for quite a long time as a method for solving the conflicts and as a functional tool for conflict prevention. But in a specific conditions which emerged in newly born Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan after the break up of Soviet Union, we claim that the fact of autonomous status for Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Nagorno Karabakh did not supported peaceful resolution of conflicts in these regions but on the other hand supported escalation of conflicts into a violent form. Working hypothesis claims that beside autonomy another important factor which lead to wars in Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Nagorno Karabakh was politicization of ethnicity while other control variables such as cultural differences, religion, external actors or historical state entities played only a marginal role.