PUBLICATIONS

This report specifically focuses on monitoring the actions planned by the Armenian Government for the 2023-2024 period, with a particular focus on protecting the right to life within the defense sector.

To assess the relevance of the actions included in the Armenian government’s 2023-2025 Action Plan, Peace Dialogue submitted a series of inquiries to the Office of the Prosecutor General, the Ministry of Defence, and the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Armenia. In addition, Peace Dialogue conducted in-depth anonymous interviews with former conscripts across a broad geographic range, including Yerevan and nearly all regions of Armenia.

For over a decade, Peace Dialogue NGO has been committed to enhancing human rights conditions within the Armenian Armed Forces. Since 2015, the organization’s monitoring group has been diligently assessing and monitoring these conditions. Between June and August 2024, Peace Dialogue’s monitoring group conducted a series of in-depth interviews with participants of the military training program in the Armenian Army. The goal was to gather comprehensive insights into the human rights conditions experienced during these military trainings.

This report presents findings from standardized interviews conducted with individuals displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh who have found refuge in Armenia. It includes perspectives from those displaced during the mass exodus in September 2023.

This research specifically aims at identifying the perceptions existing within the Armenian society regarding issues such as security (including peace), freedom, identity, and prosperity. The theories on basic human needs, particularly Johan Galtung’s typology of Basic Human Needs shape the theoretical framework of the research. A particular objective was set forth to determine societal expectations regarding the process of normalizing the Armenian-Azerbaijani relations and to identify the prevailing narratives on the Armenian-Azerbaijani relations.

During the period from July to September 2023, Peace Dialogue’s monitoring group conducted a series of surveys. These surveys targeted individuals who had taken part in military training sessions at various intervals, with the goal of gathering comprehensive insights into the human rights conditions experienced during these training sessions.

This study represents a modest contribution to the peacebuilding efforts in the region, offering a nuanced understanding of the societal impact of the conflict. The research illustrates the risks of an overly narrow and top-down ‘normalization’ process that fails to address the popular concerns identified here and points to problems with the sustainability of a ‘thin’ peace treaty and process that neglects these issues.