Azernews.Az

BAKU – The Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) will hold a joint Azerbaijani-Armenian journalist mission in Georgia on July 13-14 under the Neighbors Project.

The project focuses on issues affecting ethnic Armenian and Azerbaijani minority communities in two regions of Georgia - Kvemo Kartli and Samtkhe-Javakaheti, the institute told the Baku-based Trend news agency.

The IWPR Neighbors Project is a unique collaborative platform for Azerbaijani and Armenian journalists, which establishes relations despite the long-standing conflict between the two countries. The project provides resources, information, and networking opportunities for both communities while aiming to break down communication barriers and create a "single informational space" in the region. Dissolving existing misunderstandings and prejudices is hoped to allow for objective regional news coverage.

The Neighbors Project places particular importance on establishing relations with young reporters. 30 young journalists from Azerbaijan and Armenia have already been trained by IWPR on topics including social media, international journalism standards, conflict-sensitive reporting, human rights, and justice.

As a result, 12 newspaper supplements, written jointly by young Azerbaijani and Armenian journalists, have been published in leading newspapers of the two countries reaching an audience of at least 10,000 people.

During the new mission to Georgia, journalists will take part in workshops and meet with local government officials, analysts, experts and NGO representatives working on issues pertaining to national and religious minorities. They will then work in inter-ethnic groups to develop stories for media outlets and for publication by IWPR.

The Neighbors project is part of IWPR Building Bridges/Building Capacity in the South Caucasus Program. The program is focused on integrated training, reporting, and outreach activities to support democracy-building and conflict-resolution throughout the South Caucasus.

The project’s current stage is carried out with support by the US embassy in Armenia. The Building Bridges/Building Capacity in the South Caucasus Program is funded by the Dutch foreign ministry.

Azerbaijan and Armenia waged a war in the early 1990s, which claimed some 30,000 lives and displaced about a million Azerbaijanis. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory since then. A ceasefire accord was signed in 1994, but OSCE-brokered peace talks have been largely fruitless so far.