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.
Recent clashes on the Line of Contact (LOC) separating Armenian and Azerbaijani forces have again raised concerns over the fragility of the 1994 ceasefire agreement. That should have put fighting over the disputed territory of Karabakh on hold, but with a final peace deal still elusive, thousands have been killed in cross-border skirmishes in the eighteen years since. At least three Armenian and five Azerbaijani soldiers died in the latest major skirmishes on the LOC, which reportedly included incursions into Armenia proper, while both sides blamed the other for the violence.
Fifteen years after the 1994 ceasefire put the conflict over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh on hold, reports that the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan might be moving closer to a final peace settlement have caught many unaware. The last time international mediators were as optimistic about the prospects for peace was in 2001 at Key West, Florida. However, no agreement materialized.