Our longtime project partner for Armenia-Azerbaijan dialogue, Avaz Hasanov, passed away totally unexpected last Friday. His death is a great loss for civil-society efforts towards a peaceful resolution of the Nagorny Karabakh conflict. A tribute to Avaz has been published (in Russian) on BBC. Reflections of his friend and Armenian counterpart Artak Kirakosyan, director of the Civil Society Insitute in Yerevan can be read here.
As one of his last actions, Avaz – in the framenwork of our current project ‘Restoring Readiness for dialogue after the 2020 war’ – coordinated along with other network partners interviews with and trauma-related support for war-affected women, which resulted in the publication of the artice ‚The womens‘ side of war‘ in Azerbaijani, Russian and English just a couple of days ago. This was mirrored by parallel activities in Armenia and the article ‚Overcoming war traumas‘ in Armenian, Russian and English.
Our thoughts are with Avaz’ family. We hope to be able to contribute a modest part in keeping up his legacy for peace.