Regional Dialogues
Since 1994’s negotiated cease-fire the sides of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict did not manage to reach any agreement. In this context the Imagine Center has started its efforts to establish communication between youth of Armenia and Azerbaijan. Imagine Center for Conflict Transformation (the former Imagine Program for Conflict Transformation) developed a methodology to bring together students that could get involved into reflection on the past and the present of the conflict and envision the peaceful future of two societies.
The Imagine Center’s methodology combines analytic problem-solving with narrative mediation and reflective practice. In our workshops, we rely on direct dialogue confronting the past, the present, and the future of the conflict in a belief that the solution to the present and future problems can be found in critically approaching the past.
The Imagine Center organized its first bilateral meeting between Armenian and Azerbaijani students, in May of 2007, in the United States.
During the dialogue, the core session of the program, the participants analyze the underlying issues of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, starting from historical controversies to core present day issues. After a thorough analysis, the participants spend the last several days discussing steps that they as a group could take to contribute to the improvement of relations between the two societies.
As a result of the dialogue program the participants who come in with the most negative attitudes become advocates for more dialogue programs. Upon participation in the Dialogue, this new generations of participants engage in collaboration in producing joint analytic, policy, and multimedia products exposing unspoken topics or marginalized discourses. The co-authored pieces are published on the CaucasusEdition.net.
Here is the list of the projects held so far:
Imagine Dialogue for Action: Armenian-Azerbaijani Retreat and Dialogue for Muskie Fellows 2007
Imagine Dialogue for Action: Armenian-Azerbaijani Retreat and Dialogue for Muskie and UGRAD Fellows 2008
Dialogue for Action: Armenian-Azerbaijani Retreat and Dialogue, Gudauri, Georgia 2009
Imagine Dialogue for Action: Armenian-Azerbaijani Retreat and Dialogue for UGRAD and Muskie Fellows, West Virginia, USA 2009
Imagine Dialogue for Action: Armenian-Azerbaijani Retreat and Dialogue; Launch of the on-line platforms -the Caucasus Edition and The Neutral Zone 2010
Conflict Resolution Trainings in Yerevan and Baku; the Caucasus Edition; Follow-up project planning workshop 2010
Conflict Resolution and Social Media Trainings in Baku and Yerevan; On-line platforms the Caucasus Edition and The Neutral Zone; Follow-up project planning workshop 2011
Capturing the Mountain: A Turkish-Armenian Dialogue Project in partnership with Turkish Policy Quarterly 2012
Dialogue for Young Journalists and Educators; On-line platforms the Caucasus Edition and The Neutral Zone
Dialogue for Action: Armenian-Azerbaijani Journalists Project 2013
Azerbaijani-Armenian Dialogue for Young Social Activists 2014
Dialogue and Professional Network Building for Young and Experienced Conflict Resolution Practitioners 2015
Summer School and Dialogue for Journalists, Analysts, Civic Activists from the South Caucasus and Turkey 2017
Silenced populations and tabooed topics: Dialogue and Multimedia collaboration in the context of conflicts of South Caucasus 2018
Dialogue and Multimedia Collaboration Across the South Caucasus Conflict Divides 2019