26 November, 2009
NEITHER WAR NOR PEACE
number of views: 480
Vahagn Antonyan, ArmenPress news-agency press correspondent for Lori Marz and member of Peace Dialogue NGO, is involved in a joint Armenian-Azerbaijani project to create a documentary on problems of victims of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The aim of the documentary, with the working title “Neither War nor Peace,” is to show what war is, to show disasters of war based on individual stories of those who have suffered from it, with the expectation of reducing the enemy image among the societies of conflicting parties.
Materials shot in Armenia and Azerbaijan will be jointly edited in Tbilisi and will be presented to the societies in order to focus their attention to the problems of groups who have suffered most from conflict: ex-combatants; the wounded; refugees; and POWs. The documentary will also show the common problems of the societies divided by conflict. The documentary consists of two stories each from Armenia and Azerbaijan about their war experience, their losses, and their past and present opinions on war. The documentary will be ready by the end of the year.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, accompanied by his wife and representatives of the Russian government, arrived in Yerevan on August 19 on a state visit to cement the Russo-Armenian military alliance with a new defence agreement. During his visit he also took part in unofficial summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). 
The screening discussion of the documentary “Neither War nor Peace” was organized by Peace Dialogue NGO for Zangakatun charitable foundation’s Zangak social service center’s beneficiaries on August 27. The previous screening discussion of Peace Dialogue member Vahagn Antonyan and his Azerbaijani colleague Asef Guliev from AzTV was held in “Crossing Roads” NGO on August 2. Several participants of “One day with my friends” project of Peace Dialogue also attended the discussion in Zangak, who had been actively involved in the discussion and shared together with the Zangak beneficiaries their emotions and thoughts after seeing the documentary. 
The screening discussion of the documentary “Neither War nor Peace” made by Vahagn Antonyan from Peace Dialogue and his Azeri colleague Asef Guliyev from AzTV was held on August 2 at Crossing Roads NGO in Vanadzor. The screening was organized by the initiative of Crossing Roads NGO for the group of young leaders who are the beneficiaries of this NGO. The editorial team of the documentary, the staff of Peace Dialogue NGO, and one of the characters of the documentary, Razmik Madaryan were present at the screening. 
The Peace Action, Training and Research Institute of Romania (PATRIR) is recognized as a leading organisation in the fields of peacebuilding, conflict transformation, violence prevention and post-war recovery.