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ARMENIAN, AZERBAIJANI YOUTH HOPE FOR PEACE AND POSITIVE CHANGE IN REGION
LAMIYA ADILGIZI
Today's Zaman
July 29, 2011
Turkey
During the last two weeks the most influential and brightest
of Azerbaijani and Armenian youth came together in neighboring
country Georgia, considered a neutral zone between Azerbaijan and
Armenia, to discuss the decades-long conflict in the disputed area
of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Brought together in the tourist city of Bakuriani by the
Azerbaijani-Armenian Dialogue Program, both Azerbaijani and Armenian
youths made a shared effort together to tear down the negative
stereotypes in both societies by engaging in innovative dialogue
activities and promoting different but cooperative views of the
conflict and solutions for its resolution.
The Azerbaijani-Armenian Dialogue Program, initiated by Armenian
and Azerbaijani conflict resolution professionals and supported by
the Imagine Center for Conflict Transformation since 2007, is being
facilitated by a US conflict transformation trainer experienced in
running programs that create understanding and trust between youth
from cultures in conflict.
The most unusual and particularly interesting part of the program was
bringing participants from both sides into historical discussions of
Nagorno-Karabakh, so that both sides might easily talk about their
own stories and narrations. This was, in fact, aimed at establishing
a comprehensive environment for the sharing of historical facts,
sometimes even realities that were unknown and unacceptable to one
party while being true and irrevocable to the other party.
The most captivating part of the dialogue was the personal stories told
by participants who had either directly or indirectly experienced the
atrocity of the Nagorno-Karabakh war, which resulted in the young
people coming to realize the similarity of their feelings, pain,
injuries and troubles.
In having a chance to express their fears, concerns, needs and hopes,
both publicly and in person, participants in this program challenged
themselves to be much more objective and simultaneously constructive.
Learning to be able to understand and respect the other side's truths
despite feeling misunderstood and criticized was the one of the most
appreciated and successful aspects of the dialogue.
The dialogue program was "very open and constructive" says Sergey
Movsisyan, 28, a representative of the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly
Vanadzor Office. "Through the discussions it was very clear what the
official government point of view is and what the point of view of
ordinary citizens both in Armenia and Azerbaijan is," says Movsisyan.
He considers the current stage of the conflict and society's prospects
for conflict resolution very important and urges both governments to
closely work with NGOs and members of their communities.
Maryam Jabarova, 21, an Azerbaijani participant studying at Khazar
University in Baku, says that she wanted to communicate with Armenian
youth, as she needed to view the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict both
from the Azerbaijani and from the Armenian perspective, and for now
she feels satisfied, as she has got a comprehensive picture of the
conflict after being able to personally compare both side's facts.
"The most important thing is that I learned to listen and understand
the other side ... even there were the facts that I could not
agree with at all," she says, reiterating that "understanding is
not agreeing."
Nermin Nebiyeva, 24, a journalist and blogger from Azerbaijan who
is an internally displaced person (IDP) from Zengilan, one of the
occupied territories of Azerbaijan, considers this program important
especially because of personal stories she has been witnessing since
the program. "As a person who lost her relatives [and] the home where
I first opened my eyes ... [who had] a childhood in damp, dark and
endless refugee camps, I needed to face the people that I consider the
sinners and culprits of what I had to live through all these years."
Nebiyeva felt she needed this meeting in order to collapse the
mountain of hatred inside herself, as she says she finds hatred much
more natural than love. "Hatred is much more real and because of that
it destroys the person. That's why I needed to get involved in this
program, just for myself. Living with hatred that ties you to the past
and does not let you go forward is very hard and feels like jumping
into deep water with a stone tied to your feet," she says with tears
in her eyes.
Nebiyeva continues saying that in the beginning she was afraid of
coming to the program thinking that emotions and feelings would
overshadow the realities, causing the dialogue to fail; however she
was faced with something different. "It was the opposite. Armenians
and Azerbaijanis shared rooms and sat around the same table, giving me
the belief that we could live together as we have lived for centuries.
I understood that the war a war between states not people. No power
can give back the loss that both sides have experienced." When asked
if she has left a difficult past behind her, Nebiyeva responded with
a deep sigh, "The past never leaves you, it is always in your dreams."
Youth opinion on the legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh is different
but interesting During the 10 days of workshops and individual talks,
the Azerbaijani and Armenian youths discussed the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict from both sides' perspectives, which resulted in the emergence
of some very interesting insights.
Sona Dilanyan, 18, a student of Middle Eastern studies at Yerevan
State University, cares more about the lives of people living in
Nagorno-Karabakh rather than territory itself. "If the Azerbaijani
government could provide all the necessary conditions for quality of
life, it would makes no difference for me whether Nagorno-Karabakh
is part of Armenia or Azerbaijan." says Dilanyan. She believes that
if the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh were not treated with
hatred, she would be fine with Nagorno-Karabakh remaining within
Azerbaijan, although she does believe that Azerbaijani government
needs to reconsider its current policy.
Veronika Aghajanyan, 23, a graduate student from the Budapest-based
Central European University, sees the only possible solution to
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as recognizing the independence of
Nagorno-Karabakh based on the will of its people through a referendum.
Being totally against the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh apart from
the Republic of Azerbaijan (as Aghajanyan puts it) Nebiyeva thinks
that the last stage of the settlement of the conflict needs to be put
to a referendum. However, Nebiyeva is concerned about the ongoing
artificial boost in Armenian population in Nagorno-Karabakh. "My
fear is of an orchestrated flow of Armenians and other people from
different nationalities living in different parts of the world to
Nagorno-Karabakh and its seven adjacent territories. The increasing
Armenian population will place under threat the Azerbaijani citizens
of Nagorno-Karabakh, who were substantially decreased after the war
and dispersed and accommodated across Azerbaijan as IDPs. This would
be especially so during a referendum which will make the Armenian
population gain the majority of votes over Azerbaijani populations,"
Nebiyeva says.
Given the question about the legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh,
Movsisyan said that in the event of an "ideally high status under
which Armenians are legally protected I can consider it possible to
see Nagorno-Karabakh within Azerbaijan." When it comes to current
Azerbaijani domestic politics, meaning human rights violations and
unequal treatment of the civilians, Movsisyan said he preferred not
to talk about this topic.
Sasun Khachatryan, 31, a journalism and media management student at
the Tbilisi-based Georgian Institute of Public Affairs, in recognizing
Nagorno-Karabakh as a de facto republic, rather than as a part of the
territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, calls on Azerbaijan to understand
the status quo and make concessions in terms of the settlement of the
conflict. "Azerbaijani society should realize that it has lost the
war and should yield something in return for any compromise in regards
to the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. This is reality.
Otherwise being unwilling to make concessions and demanding only
things beneficial for only Azerbaijan is pretty much unrealistic and
will hardly ever come true," says Khachatryan.
In the early 1990s, Nagorno-Karabakh (predominantly populated by
ethnic Armenians) and seven adjacent regions (without any Armenian
populations), which were an integral part of Azerbaijan, became
occupied by neighboring country Armenia. Sixteen years of mediation
by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)
Minsk Group has yielded no results and the possibility of military
confrontation has been increasing more than ever. The point at
which both sides become stuck is that Azerbaijan wants to recover
its territorial integrity, which is currently under the control of
Armenia, although Armenia demands Nagorno-Karabakh to be independent
from Azerbaijan. The region has already become a showcase of border
skirmishes, leaving dozens of dead each year from both from Azerbaijan
and Armenia.
LAMIYA ADILGIZI
Today's Zaman
July 29, 2011
Turkey
During the last two weeks the most influential and brightest
of Azerbaijani and Armenian youth came together in neighboring
country Georgia, considered a neutral zone between Azerbaijan and
Armenia, to discuss the decades-long conflict in the disputed area
of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Brought together in the tourist city of Bakuriani by the
Azerbaijani-Armenian Dialogue Program, both Azerbaijani and Armenian
youths made a shared effort together to tear down the negative
stereotypes in both societies by engaging in innovative dialogue
activities and promoting different but cooperative views of the
conflict and solutions for its resolution.
The Azerbaijani-Armenian Dialogue Program, initiated by Armenian
and Azerbaijani conflict resolution professionals and supported by
the Imagine Center for Conflict Transformation since 2007, is being
facilitated by a US conflict transformation trainer experienced in
running programs that create understanding and trust between youth
from cultures in conflict.
The most unusual and particularly interesting part of the program was
bringing participants from both sides into historical discussions of
Nagorno-Karabakh, so that both sides might easily talk about their
own stories and narrations. This was, in fact, aimed at establishing
a comprehensive environment for the sharing of historical facts,
sometimes even realities that were unknown and unacceptable to one
party while being true and irrevocable to the other party.
The most captivating part of the dialogue was the personal stories told
by participants who had either directly or indirectly experienced the
atrocity of the Nagorno-Karabakh war, which resulted in the young
people coming to realize the similarity of their feelings, pain,
injuries and troubles.
In having a chance to express their fears, concerns, needs and hopes,
both publicly and in person, participants in this program challenged
themselves to be much more objective and simultaneously constructive.
Learning to be able to understand and respect the other side's truths
despite feeling misunderstood and criticized was the one of the most
appreciated and successful aspects of the dialogue.
The dialogue program was "very open and constructive" says Sergey
Movsisyan, 28, a representative of the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly
Vanadzor Office. "Through the discussions it was very clear what the
official government point of view is and what the point of view of
ordinary citizens both in Armenia and Azerbaijan is," says Movsisyan.
He considers the current stage of the conflict and society's prospects
for conflict resolution very important and urges both governments to
closely work with NGOs and members of their communities.
Maryam Jabarova, 21, an Azerbaijani participant studying at Khazar
University in Baku, says that she wanted to communicate with Armenian
youth, as she needed to view the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict both
from the Azerbaijani and from the Armenian perspective, and for now
she feels satisfied, as she has got a comprehensive picture of the
conflict after being able to personally compare both side's facts.
"The most important thing is that I learned to listen and understand
the other side ... even there were the facts that I could not
agree with at all," she says, reiterating that "understanding is
not agreeing."
Nermin Nebiyeva, 24, a journalist and blogger from Azerbaijan who
is an internally displaced person (IDP) from Zengilan, one of the
occupied territories of Azerbaijan, considers this program important
especially because of personal stories she has been witnessing since
the program. "As a person who lost her relatives [and] the home where
I first opened my eyes ... [who had] a childhood in damp, dark and
endless refugee camps, I needed to face the people that I consider the
sinners and culprits of what I had to live through all these years."
Nebiyeva felt she needed this meeting in order to collapse the
mountain of hatred inside herself, as she says she finds hatred much
more natural than love. "Hatred is much more real and because of that
it destroys the person. That's why I needed to get involved in this
program, just for myself. Living with hatred that ties you to the past
and does not let you go forward is very hard and feels like jumping
into deep water with a stone tied to your feet," she says with tears
in her eyes.
Nebiyeva continues saying that in the beginning she was afraid of
coming to the program thinking that emotions and feelings would
overshadow the realities, causing the dialogue to fail; however she
was faced with something different. "It was the opposite. Armenians
and Azerbaijanis shared rooms and sat around the same table, giving me
the belief that we could live together as we have lived for centuries.
I understood that the war a war between states not people. No power
can give back the loss that both sides have experienced." When asked
if she has left a difficult past behind her, Nebiyeva responded with
a deep sigh, "The past never leaves you, it is always in your dreams."
Youth opinion on the legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh is different
but interesting During the 10 days of workshops and individual talks,
the Azerbaijani and Armenian youths discussed the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict from both sides' perspectives, which resulted in the emergence
of some very interesting insights.
Sona Dilanyan, 18, a student of Middle Eastern studies at Yerevan
State University, cares more about the lives of people living in
Nagorno-Karabakh rather than territory itself. "If the Azerbaijani
government could provide all the necessary conditions for quality of
life, it would makes no difference for me whether Nagorno-Karabakh
is part of Armenia or Azerbaijan." says Dilanyan. She believes that
if the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh were not treated with
hatred, she would be fine with Nagorno-Karabakh remaining within
Azerbaijan, although she does believe that Azerbaijani government
needs to reconsider its current policy.
Veronika Aghajanyan, 23, a graduate student from the Budapest-based
Central European University, sees the only possible solution to
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as recognizing the independence of
Nagorno-Karabakh based on the will of its people through a referendum.
Being totally against the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh apart from
the Republic of Azerbaijan (as Aghajanyan puts it) Nebiyeva thinks
that the last stage of the settlement of the conflict needs to be put
to a referendum. However, Nebiyeva is concerned about the ongoing
artificial boost in Armenian population in Nagorno-Karabakh. "My
fear is of an orchestrated flow of Armenians and other people from
different nationalities living in different parts of the world to
Nagorno-Karabakh and its seven adjacent territories. The increasing
Armenian population will place under threat the Azerbaijani citizens
of Nagorno-Karabakh, who were substantially decreased after the war
and dispersed and accommodated across Azerbaijan as IDPs. This would
be especially so during a referendum which will make the Armenian
population gain the majority of votes over Azerbaijani populations,"
Nebiyeva says.
Given the question about the legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh,
Movsisyan said that in the event of an "ideally high status under
which Armenians are legally protected I can consider it possible to
see Nagorno-Karabakh within Azerbaijan." When it comes to current
Azerbaijani domestic politics, meaning human rights violations and
unequal treatment of the civilians, Movsisyan said he preferred not
to talk about this topic.
Sasun Khachatryan, 31, a journalism and media management student at
the Tbilisi-based Georgian Institute of Public Affairs, in recognizing
Nagorno-Karabakh as a de facto republic, rather than as a part of the
territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, calls on Azerbaijan to understand
the status quo and make concessions in terms of the settlement of the
conflict. "Azerbaijani society should realize that it has lost the
war and should yield something in return for any compromise in regards
to the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. This is reality.
Otherwise being unwilling to make concessions and demanding only
things beneficial for only Azerbaijan is pretty much unrealistic and
will hardly ever come true," says Khachatryan.
In the early 1990s, Nagorno-Karabakh (predominantly populated by
ethnic Armenians) and seven adjacent regions (without any Armenian
populations), which were an integral part of Azerbaijan, became
occupied by neighboring country Armenia. Sixteen years of mediation
by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)
Minsk Group has yielded no results and the possibility of military
confrontation has been increasing more than ever. The point at
which both sides become stuck is that Azerbaijan wants to recover
its territorial integrity, which is currently under the control of
Armenia, although Armenia demands Nagorno-Karabakh to be independent
from Azerbaijan. The region has already become a showcase of border
skirmishes, leaving dozens of dead each year from both from Azerbaijan
and Armenia.