The two Caucasus countries Georgia and Armenia are currently dealing with challenges concerning both domestic and foreign politics. In this context media play a crucial role – they can contribute to solving conflicts but can also make finding solutions more difficult. To learn more about the situation in Georgia and Armenia and to discuss how media can have a positive impact on the development the online conference Georgia, Armenia and a “German perspective” on the situation in the Caucasus region was held on 20th of July 2021. This was the start of the project Media Dialogue 2021 for Conflict Sensitivity and Research.
At the beginning the moderator Lena Kronenbürger welcomed the participants who were from Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Poland and Germany. Then Wolfgang Ressmann, one of the project’s organisers, hold his keynote speech. First, he introduced everyone to the Media Dialogue projects which are taking place since 2015 and continue in 2021 starting with this online conference. To get an impression of the last years’ projects he recommended the participants to visit the new Media Dialogue website. In the following Mr. Ressmann gave an overview of the media coverage in Germany regarding the current situation in the Caucasus region.
During the online conference there were three more keynote speeches: Eka Akobia, the dean of Caucasus School of Governance and an expert for international relations, informed the participants about the current situation in Georgia, its historical background and the country’s challenges. The next keynote speech was by Tevan Poghosyan, a former member of the Armenian parliament and the president of the International Center for Human Development (ICHD). He gave an introduction to the role media play in Armenia and internationally connected to the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war and its after-effects. At the end the Ukrainian journalist and member of the Tripartite Contact Group (TCG) on Donbas, Serhiy Garmash, talked about Russia’s policy concerning Donbas and Crimea and compared it to the situation in Georgia.
After each of the keynote speeches the participants came together in breakout rooms with about three people to discuss the different topics and the way how media can support positive change. Following each discussion, the participants brought their ideas back into the big group.
Besides the keynote speeches and the discussions, the two different working groups were presented by the media trainers: There is the video group which will produce video reports during the different stages of the project in 2021 and there is the blog group which publishes articles about the project and the corresponding topics.
Here you can find a report about the online conference on the website of the Caucasus University in Tbilisi, Georgia and here is an article on the website of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine.
