TECALI PROCESS
Vestnik Kavkaza
June 21 2012
Russia
It is hard to attend the meetings of the Caucasus Center for
Peacekeeping Initiatives, even the ones organized in Tecali, a Georgian
village easily reachable from Azerbaijan and Armenia. Yerevan reporters
and journalists arrived through Noemberyan where they had spent the
night. Taxi drivers ditched them and refused to take to Georgia.
Human rights activist Georgy Vanyan, head of the Armenian Center,
said that it is the first time such thing has happened. He has
failed to host the Azerbaijani film festival in Armenia for over two
years. Just as the taxi drivers, the building owners are negotiating
rent by Vanyan and then quit agreements after “pressure from above”.
A solution has been found. The border can be crossed on foot and the
Tecali Village can be reached using local cars. Others were taken by
the Noemberyan taxi drivers and drivers from nearby villages.
Tecali was reached late. Dozens of border villagers of Kazakh, Ganja,
Baku, Tbilisi and Marneuli were settled near Borchaly (the old name
of the Kvemo-Kartli Region, mainly inhabited by Azerbaijanis).
“Violation of the cease-fire regime on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border:
is public interference real?” was the topic for public discussions.
Speeches were made by:
-Ali Abbasov, PhD for Philosophy, head of a section of the Institute
for Philosophy and Rights of the Azerbaijani AS;
-Magerram Joyshoglu from the Public Association of Resources of Kazakh
Regional Development;
– Natig Javadly, a journalist of the Bizim Yol paper (New Way);
– Louisa Pogosyan, coordinator of programs of the Caucasus Center
for Peacekeeping Initiatives;
– Yuri Manvelyan, co-editor of Epress.am;
– Samvel Israelyan, an expert and physicist.
There were no intense debates. Locals from Armenian and Azerbaijani
border villages had common statements, because terms “violation of
the cease-fire regime”, “diversion”, “losses”, “adequate reaction”,
“symmetric response” are a daily threat and the deaths of relatives
and friends means an inability to plant and collect harvest, wake up
after every rustle and live in a mist with hopes for migration.
Another benefit of the meeting is that none of the speakers tried to
act as a guide of governmental policy, nor tried to speak on behalf
of presidents, ministers or propagandists. Speeches were primarily
made for their own side, not their opponents. The recent murders
demonstrate the price of the atmosphere of hatred and gave a picture
of distance between people spilling blood and the ones giving orders.
Such atmosphere ruled out outcries of analysts, theorists and
journalists serving governmental interests. They were listening and
noting the talks, but made no declarations of “self-identification”,
“territorial unity” and “historic right”, the way Kazakhs and
Voskepartsses did in response to verbal threats and online intolerance
at the border.
As a result, the topic of “Is public interference real?” turned into
a question of whether people in the region could be human rights
activists to protect human rights, be journalists without serving
the government, to live without fear.
The majority of attendants spoke for public interference. Moreover,
preliminary agreements on formation of a rapid reaction group were
made. The group will prevent incidents on the border and inspect the
situation at the border. Georgia may join the group if necessary.
Doctors, taxi drivers, farmers and Aqsaqals could make the first
steps by keeping in touch with each other, especially with account
of the fact that the initiatives are open for everyone to join.
The Georgraphic center of the region will host the first Tecali South
Caucasus Cinema Festival.
Public talks were organized by the Tecali Association (Georgia),
the Center for Regional Cooperation and Development of Communities
(Azerbaijan), Caucasus Center for Peacekeeping Initiatives (Armenia)
with support of the US Democracy Assistance Fund.
The Network of Independent Journalists – Epress.am