ACTIVITIES

From July 5-9, 2013 Dutch organization IKV Pax Christi met with its South Caucasus partners in Istanbul. The aim of the meeting was to jointly create and develop a new methodology of strategic planning for cooperating peace organizations.

According to PD staff, supporting young people to gain skills in documentary filmmaking and interactive theater will, first, give them an opportunity to face manipulations of history by sharing their stories with their peers and, second, have a contribution in shaping a history based on the memories of average people.PD՛s partner organization, CMI, provided each group with cameras and equipment.In this phase, the project aims to develop a youth movement for peace in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict region and simultaneously develop a critical view of history among the participants and a perception that they have an important role in shaping a collective memory.

The simulated court trial, organized using the conflict modeling methodology, was presented to a number of Vanadzor citizens at the Green House Hotel. It was based on a true story. During the simulated court trial regarding the death of a soldier, the audience took on the roles of all parties and strove to achieve justice for their characters.

On April 8, 2013, citizens of Vanadzor had an opportunity to harvest the fruits from the tree of their indifference. That day a group of activists from Peace Dialogue NGO organized an event called “The Tree of Our Indifference,” which took place at Artsakh Park of Vanadzor.

Approximately 60 participants added their own perceptions to the spontaneous action. A group of people expressed their support to those Armenian citizens who, despite many frauds, pressures, and the atmosphere of fear, found power in themselves to vote for their preferred candidates. In their opinion, the action was not a political but a civic one and no matter how the political powers resolve the issue in the end, they intended to support the common citizen.

The video aims to reveal the issue of propaganda in a more obvious and symbolic way–a somewhat simplified way. We are planning to continue the series and to film the second part of the cartoon, which is going to be devoted not to TV but printed media.

There has already been two years of cooperation between the young activist Onur Tahmaz and Peace Dialogue. The cooperation began in 2011, through Joint Civic Education, which is an initiative between the German MitOst and CRISP organizations and Iris Group, based in Georgia.