The Final Meeting of the participants of “Formation of Young Peacebuilders’ Brigade”

HCA Vanadzor has implemented the project “Formation of Young Peacebuilders’ Brigade” since August 2008 with the support of the British Embassy in Yerevan.

The goal of the project was  to involve the youth from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Nagorno Karabakh in peacebuilding processes, to promote increase of their role and effective participation in the peaceful resolution of the conflict.

On March 19-21, 2010 the final meeting within the project took place in Tbilisi. The meeting aimed to summarize the activities implemented – the results of the monitoring conducted among the conflict victims (refugees, relatives of missing persons, former POWs), presentation of the results to the state and public structures, the  work done for the preparation of the film “Conflict Victims” and the creation of the blog.

The project staff, the young peacebuilders  and young journalists from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Nagorno Karabakh participated in the meeting.
At the beginning of the meeting the coordinator of HCA Vanadzor Artur Sakunts suggested presenting not only the monitoring results but also the difficulties the participants faced.

The monitors from Armenia underlined the psychological conditions of the conflict victims, the fact that they lack in attention and support from the state.  They pointed out that the most difficult for them was to hold interviews with the refugees and former POWs. The refugees left their favourbale conditions and they cannot adapt to the new, unfavourable conditions. They do not feel a full member of society.

The former POWs are also out of attention. They are unemployed, they are unhealthy, they can’t earn for their families.

The only demand of the relatives of missing persons is to stop their uncertainty, they want concrete information about their missing relatives.

The monitors from Armenia mentioned that such initiatives were very important; as they lived side by side with those people and did not know anything about their problems. “The thing that we present the problems of those people to state structures, will enable to change the situation and gradually solve their problems.”

A participant from Azerbaijan said that unlike the refugees in Armenia the refugees in Azerbaijan had some privileges, they are in the focus of authorities’ attention and in many cases people get a status of a refugee, which is more beneficial for them.
The relatives of missing persons in Armenia and Azerbaijan share the common demand – information about their missing relative.

The survey was not made among former POWs in Azerbaijan as they are considered traitors and they are usually put to prison. International organizations sometimes help them to go away from the country. “People go to war, they fight for their country and when they come back they get punishment”-said one of the Azerbaijani participants.

The results of the monitoring conducted in Nagorno Karabakh showed that the conflict victims have the same problems, they lack in attention and psychological support.

The young journalists made the film “Conflict Victims” where the problems of refugees, former POWs and relatives of missing persons from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Nagorno Karabakh are presented. The journalists pointed out that they were very interested in being involved in such projects, as they could get familiar with such problems and raise them.

During the meeting the blog www.hcav.am/blog was presented to the participants, which presents information on the project activities, analyses, discussions on peacebuilding issues and through this blog people are informed about peacebuilding processes going on in the world.

At the end of the project the coordinator of HCA Vanadzor summed up the project and talked about the further actions, projects, issues which need attention. 

The participants suggested organizing Armenian-Azeri trainings with role plays, joint work, preparation of short films but not only about the conflict, organization of exhibitions, watching and discussing films. They suggested involving the conflict victims, starting discussions on a neutral topic where Armenians and Azerbaijani will represent one party.

The project “Formation of Young Peacebuilders’ Brigade” is implemented with the support of the British Embassy in Yerevan.