Last week Moscow hosted the first meeting (after a four-year break) of representatives of Azeri and Armenian civil societies. The meeting was held in the framwork of a round-table discussion headlined “The role of civil society and inter-cultural dialogue in conflict management”.
Mikhail Shvydkoi, ex-Minister of Culture of Russian Federation, one of the event’s organizers:
I met my Azeri and Armenian colleagues after 4 years, it was the first contact between representatives of the intelligentsia of the two countries. If you see that on the Internet, I am not afraid of this, I will not reveal any state secrets. We are most afraid of the fact that we will start making decisions, that we will formalize our relations and we will write something about the relations between the intellectuals of the two countries. We have a happy opportunity to lead the idea of a Public Chamber to its highest realization - not to formalize anything, but just to organize a couple of joint events that can take place in Baku, Yerevan or Russia, Ukraine, or wherever. Why did I ask my colleagues from the Public Chamber, which I take very seriously, this is an institute that makes political discussion in the country civilized? Now before the elections everything is escalating, if you went to a rally on the wrong street, you are already an enemy to some people and if you cross the road, you are an enemy to the others. Children go to one rally, parents to another. The public chamber unites people with very different opinions and see in each other not enemies but opponents. We live in one state or in neighbouring states, we can be opponents but not enemies, this is the most meaningless position.
Polad Bul-Bul Ogly, the Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Russia:
We as public representatives would like to create a positive background that would help the politicians solve global problems. It is not a secret that the intelligentsia is very concerned about the extreme propaganda on both sides in the last 20 years, in the mass media and on the internet, where not only particular people but the whole nations are insulted. I believe this is unacceptable, because no matter what the conflict, conflicts happen between neighbors, but God made us live together, on the same territory, therefore we need to respect each other and our cultures and histories so that it would be possible to cohabitate and collaborate in the future. I think this is very important. It was said that the new generation is appearing in the post-Soviet space, and the older generation, we know each other pretty well, we met each other somewhere, but 20 years have passed, and those who were 5 are now 25, these are people who are now graduating from universities and getting married, so conscious citizens of their countries. We need to have to relations with our neighbours, I think this is very important. There is no other choice, we have to live together. All wars at one point end with peace, and life should be normalized. We, three former republics of the USSR, share a very small piece of land, and we are connected by nature, should there, God forbid, be a natural disaster, it will affect the whole region. Now the situation with Iran is very difficult and should there be a conflict it will affect the whole region, nobody will be able to stay aside. These international questions should not leave us impartial, I do not want to interfere in high politics, but life pushes us to make common decisions against external global threats. We are on the right path, we need to communicate, to look each other in the eyes to understand what we want from each other. As it was said, it is not about some formalized papers, it is about people communicating, You should know that there are not simply some millions of people there, but you know some real concrete people. You met them and talked with them, shared your opinion. This is the chance to help our political leaders to solve global questions.
Oleg Yesayan, Armenian Ambassador to Russia:
If this were a meeting of the intelligentsia of countries with a high level of political and economic communication, then maybe this meeting would not have such importance, but when between our countries there is practically no communication on the level of civil society, then this meeting obtains a very important role. It is maybe even good that there are no precise questions, so that people can simply communicate. I would like to stress one more point about the importance of these meetings. Each society as a rule has four generations. The first and fourth generations mean children and very old people. We remain with the second and third generation, those who grew up and developed in the situation of independent states in the situation of the complete absence of any communication and the third generation that is now, how to say it, ruling the countries. This is the only generation that can allow itself these meetings. As a man, a citizen and ambassador I believe that this is why this meeting is so important.
Germine Nagdalyan, Deputy of the Armenian National Assembly:
There is a big pressure today, today you can communicate while at home, reading newspapers or the internet, and it became much easier to spread both hostility and something positive. I would like all the people participating in the process, and I treat all of them with great respect our Azeri colleagues and participants, to think how we can at least a little bit reduce this stream of dirt, evil, slander, that might sometimes have some real grounds behind it, but even then does it become better or easier if we spread it? Maybe it will be easier if we try to stop it? To close this page and to go further? Maybe we can try to start from ourselves and then something will change in our world? This is just a proposition that is coming from a woman, and I think that politicians and state leaders have really a lot of opportunities to express their opinions. Maybe it is more important to say it as a woman, although you might think that this is superficial and not supported, but I think that there are many women in Azerbaijan and Armenia, those who have families and raise their children and they are very concerned that their children could grow up in this atmosphere of hatred.
Farhad Badalbeili, Rector of Baku Musical Academy:
That is true, hatred has reached an absolutely unacceptable level, and I represent here the Azeri community of Karabakh and want to be the most ardent peace-maker. And I have a problem with the community who reproach me for being to soft and intellectual and a bad Karabakhian. But I still continue this line, because I believe that hatred is a road to nowhere. If it were not for the occupied region, if only some step was made to start a cultural project. Whatever project we start now, it will immediately encounter the question “How can you start a project if a region which is not a part of Karabakh is occupied?” And I do not know what to reply. I try to say that it will be solved with time, but this question just puts me in the corner, like in boxing. The great French composer Maurice Ravel went to World War One, he was a medical orderly, and the French Union of Composers forbade the performance of composers from Austria-Hungary, including Bela Bartok and Schoenberg, and he wrote a letter to the Union of Composers saying that he was on the front line but he is completely against banning the great masterpieces of this country. Unfortunately, we are not at this level yet. I have to admit it bitterly, neither in Armenia, nor in Azerbaijan, we got separated from each other and hysterically insult each other on Armenian and Azeri web-sites, and all the world is watching us, in France, in Berlin, I think, Germans are watching us and thinking how can we behave like primitive tribes.
