Though the future remains unpredictable, last year’s war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh changed the geographical and geopolitical landscape in the South Caucasus after three decades of bitterness, conflict, and division.
I’ve covered too many subject matters and issues in over two decades of being based in the South Caucasus to upload everything to my new website so a few photographs taken at Yerevan’s Boarding School for the Blind, Visually Impaired, and Socially Vulnerable taken in 2002 as a quick blog post. It was part of a much larger multi-year personal project to raise awareness of poverty and social vulnerability in Armenia.
Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso has just published my short piece remembering Armenian human rights and peace activist Georgi Vanyan who sadly passed away recently after testing positive for COVID-19 earlier this month.
It is with great sadness that I write this post. Georgi Vanyan, human rights and peace activist, has died. Upon hearing that he had been moved on to a ventilator after being diagnosed and hospitalised in Tbilisi with COVID-19 I think we knew that this was how it was going to end, but that doesn’t make the loss any less painful. Following last year’s war, Georgi was needed now more than ever.
It was a pleasant surprise to receive a phone call from perhaps Armenia’s main peace builder, theatrical director turned activist Georgi Vanyan. All going well we’ll meet up again in a few days. I had first interviewed him in 2009 and isn’t just one of the main advocates for peace and regional integration, but one of the few genuine ones. His approach has always been refreshing.
Love it or hate it, Zoom has become an integral part of many people’s lives during this pandemic and naturally, given even more closed borders because of the epidemiological situation, conflict-resolution projects. While this is to be applauded given that it has opened up communication in the public sphere, those organisations engaged in Armenia-Azerbaijan peacebuilding continue to fail to use new tools adequately. Indeed, it was an abject failure, continues to be one, and there is little sign that they have learned from their past mistakes too.
The One Caucasus Festival has been and gone, but because of COVID-19 it took on a very different format this year. At first, it seemed as though it would be held as it always has been with musicians from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and elsewhere performing in a festival area conceived and constructed by architects from throughout the region and abroad too.
“In War,” as the saying goes, “truth is the first casualty.”
While the source of that quote is often contested, what isn’t is that it applies to every single war fought in living memory and probably before. As almost everyone knows, it was definitely the case during last year’s fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh.
With the first anniversary of the 2020 war in Nagorno Karabakh approaching it seems timely to consider where Armenia and Azerbaijan are in the post-war environment. The answer to that question won’t surprise anyone. The situation is not good.