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Presentation of the Book “Trust and Peace Building in the South Caucasus”

November 9, 2015
  Rati Kharatishvili

On November 5, book Trust and peace Building in the South Caucasus was presented in the National Library of Georgia. The purpose of the book is to find resources for dialogue and cooperation and to contribute to starting a new phase in the history of the South Caucasus: the rebuilding of trust. The book comprises different views of the representatives of the South Caucasus countries and regions. 

The Coalition for Trust was established in the South Caucasus and unifies civil society organizations from three UN member states – Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia as well as non-recognized statelets – Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Nagorno Karabakh. 

“Project Coalition for Rebuilding Trust is approaching the end. The Norwegian Helsinki Committee was implementing it in the region and Human Rights Center and Multinational Georgia were local partners of the project in Georgia. We work on the strategy and action plan of the Coalition to continue working on new projects and ideas on trust building and reconciliation,” executive director of Human Rights Center Aleko Tskitishvili said at the presentation.

The book Trust and Peace Building in the South Caucasus has five volumes in it, which includes different articles.

“Authors of the articles in the book had chance to write their views about conflicts. For example, readers in Georgia do not know what Abkhaz and Ossetian people think about our conflicts; opinions of some authors maybe inacceptable for us but we, working on the publication, agreed that we would present the articles of Abkhaz and Ossetian authors to the Georgian readers in original version. We think many people will change minds about things having read this book,” deputy executive director of Human Rights Center Nino Tlashadze said.

Public Defender of Georgia Ucha Nanuashvili is author of one of the articles in the book. He said engagement of state institutions, NGOs, business, media, church and general society shall increase in the conflict resolution and trust-building process.

“It is very important to publish such an inclusive book. It is first step to speak about the topics related with the conflict resolution, human rights state in conflict affected regions, and transitional justice. I am glad that my article was also published in this book. It is important that these issues were more actively discussed in the society, that more discussions and debates were organized about conflict transformation and resolution. Role of state institutions and NGOs was not completely used either; I think we have more resources to conduct trust-building activities. Media also has a significant role. Ossetian and Abkhaz communities should also participate in this process,” the Ombudsman said.

“I think this book should have covered more issues but it has justification because it is not easy to conduct similar survey in the South Caucasus region. I believe it would be better if conflicts will be studied in separate regions and countries and if concrete trust and peacebuilding initiatives are better presented,” said doctor of philology Naira Bepievi.

Coalition for Trust will continue working on the action plan to change public perception about the conflict and enhance dialogue between Abkhaz, Ossetian and Georgian peoples.

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