A new civil initiative launched - "Youth for the Peaceful Settlement of the Karabakh Conflict"

Baku / 07.07.17 / Turan: A new civil initiative "Youth for Peaceful Settlement of the Karabakh Conflict" has been established. It was created by a group of young people who previously participated in peacekeeping projects within the framework of the EU's Eastern Partnership program.

The project involves young people from Azerbaijan and Armenia, representatives of the Azerbaijani and Armenian communities of Nagorno-Karabakh.

One of the founders was awarded a scholarship by Ulov Palme Center for a research program on how social media can work to achieve a peaceful settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, Turan was told by Arzu Abdullayeva, the co-chairman of the Helsinki Civil Assembly and head of its national committee.

In addition to Abdullaeva, other well-known representatives of civil society are involved as experts in the program, such as Zardusht Alizade, Ali Abbasov, Irada Bagirova, and others.

The program will monitor the media, social networks, Internet publications for coverage and attitudes to the conflict, and information about it.

Recent events in the village of Alkhanly, the death of a little girl and her grandmother caused a "new explosion" in the social networks of discussions on the topic of conflict.

Participants in the program will monitor the impact of such events on public opinion, manipulation of such facts, the development of conflicts.

"Of course, the death of little Zahra and her grandmother became a great tragedy for their family and shocked the entire Azerbaijani society," Abdullayeva said. She drew attention to the fact that each time an escalation of the conflict occurs on the eve of important negotiations on the settlement of the problem. "Therefore, it is important that societies can recognize - to whom the disruption of the peace process is beneficial," Abdullayeva said, referring to the meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia scheduled for July 11.

"Apparently certain centers of power, our neighbors, do not want to see settlement by other, and in particular Western structures, and that's why such escalations are taking place. Of course, this does not relieve the responsibility for shelling civilians, and the perpetrators must be punished," Abdullayeva said.

However, in her opinion, societies must also be able to overcome the obstacles that lead them to peace. At the same time, the political settlement of the conflict is the guarantee of a reliable, stable and long-term peace, maintaining the status quo is always an opportunity for interested forces to ignite the war, said Abdullaeva.-06B-