Youth Seminar

Nart Kubov, a post-graduate student of History Department, won the competition to participate in the seminar for young people of the Caucasus in Istanbul on February 25 - March 2.

The seminar was held within the Consortium Initiative, financed by British Department for International Development. International Alert, the leading agency working with civil society, promoted the project and organized the seminar.

This four-day seminar was dedicated to the role of young people in building trust and peace. This event was held within the initiative supporting the process of peaceful settlement of the conflict between Armenians and Azerbaijanis. Though most participants were Armenians and Azerbaijanis, there were also representatives of other regions of the Northern and Southern Caucasus. The main reason for inviting people from other regions of the Caucasus is for them to learn from similar situations.

Also, the main trends for working with civil society were singled out at the seminar. Their goals are as follows:

• To enlarge the number of young leaders who could participate in the settlement of regional conflicts through communication and dialogue.
• To augment the role of young leaders in the communities, as well as their capacity to participate in dialogue processes and change stereotypes.

Within this framework the following tasks were defined:

• to consolidate the existing youth networks and coalitions working on general problems in the Caucasus, including conflict zones
• to increase the effectiveness of youth initiative by improving coordination and communication among young leaders
• to create the space for constructive dialogue and interpersonal communication
• to improve general conditions for building peace in the region.

The seminar included the issues of peace and trust building and the development of civil society. Special attention was focused on working out the strategy for improving local youth initiative and communication among young leaders who work on the prospects of peaceful conflict settlements.

Thirty-six participants from different regions of the Caucasus took part in the work of the seminar. Among the trainers and facilitators were Batal Kobakhiya, Director of the Center for Humanitarian Problems (Abkhaz Republic), Seidabas Abasov Ali Ogly, Ph.D., the head of the department working on new trends in philosophy and gender research at the Institute of Philosophy and Law of National Academy of Science, Director of the Southern Caucasus Center for World Culture and Civilization Dialogue, the head of Center for Modern Social Research "AREAT" (Azerbaijan) and Ashot Khurshudyan (Armenia). All of them have great experience in peacemaking dialogues and building safe space.

The seminar resulted in creating a number of joint projects aimed at the implementation of the seminar's aims and tasks. At present, one of these projects - creating the all-Caucasus database of NGO and youth initiatives - has begun its work. One of the authors is Nart Kubov, the post-graduate student of ASU.