Special Report: Common Ground in the Caucasus
19 February 2010

Since the 1994 cease-fire effectively put the conflict between Armenia
and Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh on hold,
attempts to find a lasting peace have often been frustrated by negative
stereotypes of each side, perpetuated by national governments and media.
Yet Armenians and Azeris have more in common than they often care to
acknowledge. In the Soviet era, both groups lived side by side in urban
centers in Armenia and Azerbaijan; business relationships and even
intermarriage were not uncommon.

An older generation can remember the time when Armenians and
Azerbaijanis lived, studied, and worked alongside each other. A new
generation in both countries has no recollection of that past, and few
opportunities to cross national divides. But in neighboring Georgia,
ethnic Armenians and Azeris still co-inhabit residential districts in
the capital and rural villages in some regions. And young activists
throughout the South Caucasus are increasingly turning to to new media –
blogs, Internet telephony, social networks – to break down information
barriers and forge new alliances.

For this project funded by TOL and the British Embassy in Yerevan,
Armenian journalist Onnik Krikorian traveled with reporters and bloggers
from Azerbaijan and Georgia to neighborhoods where Azeris and Armenians
live peaceably side-by-side. One goal was to explore the utility of
new-media tools such as Twitter and cell phone video to do real-time
reporting and bypass traditional outlets (you can see some of the
results at TOL’s Steady State blog). Another was to show that Armenians’
and Azeris’ view of each other need not be defined by the Karabakh conflict.

Follow the links below to see their written and audio reports on both
the traditional and the burgeoning cooperation among nationalities in
the region.

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