Young Journalists for Peace

 On September 19-23 a meeting of young journalists from Armenia, Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan took place in Tbilisi. The goal of the meeting was to involve youth of those countries in the peacebuilding process and to raise the problems of conflict victims.

Nine young journalists met in Tbilisi, Georgia, to work together on video materials they prepared in their locations. As a result, a video film was made in the Armenian and Azeri languages, which tells the story of former prisoners of war, refugees and missing persons of the Karabakh war.

The former prisoners of war in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Nagorno Karabakh tell stories about their captivity years, about their hard past and necessity of peaceful future. The refugees miss and remember how they left   their homes. Though their memories are still fresh after so many years, they do not feel much enmity towards the conflicting side any more and world peace becomes a priority for them.

The story of the missing persons from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Nagorno Karabakh is the same and the grief is common. Uncertainty is the pain of their relatives. They are hopeless and they can’t stand waiting any more.

“The journalists should be objective in their comments. Considering the fact that our countries are in conflict, any expression or any word can have a negative impact on societies’ attitude towards the other party, which will actually make the peaceful regulation of the conflict difficult” – mentioned Arzu Abdullayeva, the coordinator of HCA Azerbaijani National committee.

The video film will be presented in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Nagorno Karabakh and will be available in the internet.

This project is implemented within the framework of the project “Formation of Young Peacebuilders’ Brigade” with joint efforts of HCA Vanadzor and HCA Azerbaijan with the support of the British Embassy in Armenia.