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Some Positive News from Pankisi, Georgia
Radio Way (ICK/CCA), Duisi, Georgia © Onnik James Krikorian 2016 It’s not often there’s some positive news coming out of Pankisi, better known these days as the birth place of Tarkhan Batirashvili, aka ISIS’ Abu Omar al-Shishani, but some does exist. In addition to being a tranquil and scenic part of Georgia, and perhaps contrary to popular opinion, local civil society is clued up to the problems facing the region and there are individuals and organisations trying to make a difference. One of...
The Street Kids of Tbilisi
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty has just published a photo story as part of my long time personal project on social vulnerability in Armenia and Georgia. It’s been going on since 2000 or 2001 and I’ve written countless articles and produced many more photo projects that at some point I need to upload to this site. Anyway, for now the RFE/RL photo story.
UNODC Counter-Terrorism Expert Meeting, Vienna
The text of my presentation for a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Expert Group Meeting on Counterterrorism and Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) in Vienna, Austria, 16-18 November 2015.
Cross Riders Motorcycle Club (MC), Tbilisi, Georgia
Over the past few weeks a number of publications have published my photo story on the Cross Riders Motorcycle Club (MC) in Tbilisi, Georgia — probably the first ever ‘classic’ MC, as we know the term in the West, in the South Caucasus. True, I covered the Hye Riders MC in Armenia a decade ago, but it was more nationalist in spirit rather than the Cross Riders who instead seem to be united only by a love of bikes and drinking crazily.
BBC Azeri: Azerbaijani Carpets Rewoven
Last week BBC Azeri published my video report on reWoven, a sustainable development project to revive and sustain the art of traditional carpet weaving among Georgia’s ethnic Azeri minority. I had interviewed Ryan Smith, reWoven’s founder, over a month ago during an exhibition of some of the carpets made as part of the project, but only got to visit one of the villages where some of the weavers live last weekend.
Photos on the sidelines of a cross-border South Caucasus media workshop in Luxor, Egypt
Late last month through to the beginning of this one I was in Egypt to present for and facilitate a cross-border workshop for journalists and analysts from Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia as well as the disputed territories of Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Nagorno Karabakh.
Media Freedom and Responsibilities in the Context of Counter-Terrorism Policies
Following February’s Expert Workshop on Regional Co-operation and Effective Responses to the Phenomenon of Foreign Terrorist Fighters organised by the OSCE Office in Tajikistan I’ve been at a few other related meetings. In June I participated in the OSCE-wide Counter-Terrorism Expert Conference on Countering the Incitement and Recruitment of Foreign Terrorist Fighters in Vienna, and from 7-8 October spoke on a panel at an expert workshop in Bucharest on Media Freedom and Responsibilities in the Context of Counter-Terrorism Policies organised by the OSCE Transnational Threat Department and OSCE Representative of the Freedom of the Media.
#NKPeace: BBC Azeri Interview with U.S. OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair Ambassador James B. Warlick
As tensions escalate on the Line of Contact (LoC) separating Armenian and Azerbaijani forces still locked in deadlock over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh, the BBC’s Azerbaijan Service last month published my interview with the U.S. Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, Ambassador James B. Warlick.
Jazz Without Borders
Cross-border projects in a conflict-riven region come in many forms, but perhaps the most overlooked has arguably been those in the area of culture. There have been some notable exceptions such as the CIS Youth Symphony Orchestra that performed in Yerevan and Baku as well as elsewhere, but otherwise most cultural events featuring both Armenian and Azerbaijani musicians perform in neighbouring Georgia.