by Ani Meladze
After more than a week full of meetings, group work and discussions the ending conference of the Georgia-Armenia-stage of the project Media Dialogue for Conflict Sensitivity and Research was held in Gyumri. The conference was opened by Wolfgang Ressmann. He evaluated the productive past week and thanked all the participants for being a part of it. Mr. Ressmann pointed out the importance of the Media Dialogue and said that he hopes to continue the project in the following years.
“We got many informative facts, we learned a lot about the backgrounds of the current situation in Georgia, Armenia; the role of media and the countries relationships with the government; the coordination’s with artists, professional journalists, universities, is a great possibility to bring people together. We made a great tour from Tbilisi to Gyumri, we saw a lot of sightseeing. There is a lot to discuss, the research that you did as students as participants is very interesting.”
Wolfgang Ressmann, chairman of the Association of Citizen Media of Germany
After Mr. Ressmann Mkrtich Tonoyan who is the main organizer from Armenia came on stage. Besides being president of AKOS Cultural NGO, he is an artist and a filmmaker. The audience was able to contemplate that well during the days spent in Gyumri. Mr. Tonoyan amazed the participants once again by showcasing his film “Antisocial distancing” in the final conference.
“This video is from my last year’s project, we wanted to show the current situation. The documentary clearly shows that we, journalists, can’t sit at home and just see what is happening. We have to be where the pain, war or where the fighting is.
Mkrtich Tonoyan, president of AKOS cultural NGO
I tried to portray how people struggled in two disasters: One is war, where time is very critical and two is Covid-19.”
After watching the emotional film, all the participants stood on their feet for a minute of silence in memory of the people who died in war.
Throughout this whole time in Armenia, Bella Harutyunyan hosted the participants at Gyumri Technological Center and made sure that their working space felt like home.
“Sometimes it’s difficult to express what you feel with words. This project really gives you the chance to value the importance of culture and how exhibitions play a significant role in getting acquainted with all of it”
Bella Harutyunyan, manager of Gyumri Technology Center
A journey into history began when Vladimir Harutyunyan, an expert in conflicts and the history of war, came on stage. He took a one century long step back and revived the very start of the Karabakh conflict. Giving a detailed description of how Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a bloody war over the region in the late 1980s and how it has been the trigger for further violence in the years since. Mr. Harutyunyan accentuated how such projects as Media Dialogue play a constructive role by bringing young people together and establishing a new democratic culture.
After hearing the pleasant speeches, it was time to see the work done by project groups. The first group to get into the stage was the research group which members were Kateryna Sokolova as the responsible person but also Yevhen Tsimbalenko, Vladimir Harutyunyan and Revaz Chitanava.
“You probably discussed this topic many times but we will give you real numbers. The results were surprising.” – Thus began the presentation of the topic covering the similarities and differences between Russian intervention in the armed conflicts in Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine.
“We represent all regions that we talk about. So, we sat down and called the history to see all the reasons and results of the produced conflict.”
Kateryna Sokolova, Institute of Journalism of Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv
The research group was followed by the blog group. Its members wrote several articles starting from Tbilisi to Gyumri but there were still some in progress. The blog group – with the help of video group – made sure to document every experience during the project by creating content for the Media Dialogue blog and its social media channels.
And as mentioned above, last but not least, the video group came on stage to present its final product. The trainer Caroline Wart thanked all participants for the contributed hard work, for the diligence and called the participants to go from the conference room to the GTC gallery to contemplate the exhibition of the video group’s media art wall.
The week-long adventure came to a end. Many people devoted time and energy to the implementation of the project. The closing notes and awarding certificates brought little tears into the participants’ eyes, who were fulfilled by the amazing experiences and memories.
But they only said: Till next time!
