Support for Civil Peace Initiatives

Peace Dialogue NGO studied the election programs of the afore-mentioned political units, the statements made by the representatives of these forces during the campaign, interviews, the ideas and thoughts voiced during the political debates, in order to find out what the visions of these forces are for overcoming the crisis and possible ways to resolve the problems.

On the initiative of Peace Dialogue NGO, a public discussion entitled Prospect took place on 10-11 April, 2021. The purpose of the meeting was to promote public discourse on possible ways of overcoming the challenges of security, human rights protection and democracy in the newly-created situation as a result of the 44-day war. From a long-term perspective, the event was aimed at shaping a realistic vision of the future with the involvement of various public groups based on critical and self-critical analysis of lessons from the past and the present.

Since February Peace Dialogue NGO has been conducting a series of workshops involving young participants from Nagorno-Karabakh who found a temporary or permanent residence in Lori region of Armenia. One of the main directions of the meetings is workshopping documentary photography, with the aim of developing young participants’ photography skills which will help them to create photo stories about their daily routine, hobbies, and challenges, thus bringing into effect their creative ideas.

During the training, the participants discussed manifold women’s rights issues existing in their regions as well as addressed the challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on women and girls in the South Caucasus. Besides, the participants were introduced to a number of effective methods and tools for identifying women’s issues and carrying out a root cause analysis in the respective regions.

On August 20-27, 2018, 24 young people aged 18-25 representing France, Germany, Turkey, and Armenia, reunited in Vanadzor and Yerevan for implementing the second phase of the four-national exchange program launched in November, 2017. The project is organized by the Marseille-based organization “Une Terre Culturelle” with the participation of Centre Français de Berlin (French Center in Berlin), AFS in Istanbul, and the Vanadzor-based “Peace Dialogue” NGO.

On August 2-12, the 3rd Summer School organized within the scope of “ARENA: Community Theatre and Public Art” took place in Borjomi, Georgia. Around 40 activists from Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Germany, and Georgia participated in the final meeting of the four-year program initiated by Peace Dialogue NGO and its German partner OWEN e.V.

According to official numbers, more than 496,000 people were forcibly evicted from Chechnya and Ingushetia by Stalin’s regime in 1944. The official documents state that 411,000 people were sent to Kazakhstan and 86,000 to Kyrgyzstan. Other sources put the number much higher, at over 650,000. Chechen historians claim that about 400,000 people died during the deportation.

“People were put in cattle wagons, which would stop on the way only to let people relieve themselves” – tells Hava Mahmudova, remembering the stories her mother told her about the deportation of her family to Kazakhstan. – “During the stops, soldiers demanded that the bodies of the dead were unloaded…