Georgia has long been an obvious choice for hosting most Track II initiatives that bring Armenians and Azerbaijanis together on neutral ground. Despite this, however, it rarely gets the credit it deserves for doing so. Bordering both Armenia and Azerbaijan, not only is it perfectly situated geographically, keeping travel and accommodation costs lower, but it also keeps such initiatives in the region.
Moreover, by holding Track II meetings in Georgia and allowing a wider pool of participants to attend, they can also potentially encourage a more regional way of thinking. After all, key to successfully resolving the long-running conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan might arguably prove to be through the integration of the region’s economic, political, and cultural potential as a whole.
Overlooking Georgia in any regional trade and infrastructure projects could also well prove to be their undoing, contributing to further separation and division in much the same way that Azerbaijan’s policy of excluding Armenia once did. Moreover, Georgia is the main location where informal Armenia-Azerbaijan trade takes place even today. That is likely to remain the case for the foreseeable future.
Georgia also has its own contribution to make in other ways too. As the only country in the region where ethnic Armenians and Azerbaijanis, the two largest minorities in the country, co-exist and even co-inhabit the same villages and urban centres in places, the nationalist narrative of ‘ethnic incompatibility’ can be instantly discredited and disproven.
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