WILL CONSORTIUM’S CONTRIBUTION TO KARABAKH INCREASE?

Lragir, Armenia
Nov 6 2006

Catherine Barns, strategic adviser to the Consortium Initiative,
has recently met with the NKR government officials, who commended
the work of the Consortium.

The Consortium Initiative was set up three years ago to seek ways of
settlement of the Karabakh conflict. It is financed by the British
government. We have learned that the CI will work for another three
years. The CI includes four organizations, which attend to a separate
strand of work: LINKS works on the level of political dialogue,
Conciliation Resourses addresses the media, International Alert focuses
on civil society work and Catholic Relief Services addresses issues
of conflict sensitivity and grassroots engagement. We have learned
that the latter is no longer a member of the Consortium Initiative.

The presence of the Consortium would not be that tangible if other
international organizations worked in Karabakh, as well as other
places in the region. Karabakh is closed for the international
organizations. And only the Consortium Initiative has a "permit" to
work in Karabakh, though along with Azerbaijan. Thanks to the CI a
number of important projects were launched in Karabakh. Conciliation
Resources set up the Demo newspaper, which is one of the most popular
ones. A radio project is implemented, the purpose of which is to
record stories of ordinary people. Also a TV project has been launched,
documentary films are made, and a production studio was set up.

International Alert set up Resource Centers for NGOs in Yerevan,
Baku and Stepanakert, which carried out considerable "enlightenment".

Namely, it enabled the Stepanakert center to expand its activities,
go to the regions and restore the tradition of public debates on
common problems in Karabakh.

For LINKS, it cannot be considered effective in Karabakh. At least
because the NKR members of parliament were not invited to the meetings
of the parliamentarians of Armenia and Azerbaijan organized by LINKS.

We have learned that the CI is starting to deal with a new strand –
European. Apparently, the so-called international community has decided
that the best settlement of the Karabakh conflict can be reached in
the framework of integration of the South Caucasus with Europe.

One way or another, projects are already considered which will enable
the civil society of Karabakh to become closer to the Western values.