Epress.am News from Armenia
Youth from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh (NKR) met in Tbilisi from Dec. 9–11 as part of a program called “Youth in politics” organized by the Dutch peacekeeping organization IPV Pax Christi.
Azerbaijani representatives from the Dalga Youth Movement and the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly were in attendance, while Armenia was represented by the youth wings of the Republican Party of Armenia, Prosperous Armenia, Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) and the Conservative Party of Armenia, as well as representatives from the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly.
From Nagorno-Karabakh, representatives from the Democratic Party of Artsakh, Free Homeland party and Helsinki Initiative 92 had gone to Georgia to attend the meeting, which was mediated by the head of Consent IDP Women Association Julia Kharashvili.
Participants at the meeting attempted to formulate the main problems of youth in their countries, discussing the reasons of these and the ways to overcome them. Dutch participants did the same for their country.
It turned out that the problem of affordable housing exists in Armenia, Azerbaijan, NKR and the Netherlands. The issue of high-cost, poor-quality education was considered the most important problem in the Caucasus. The insignificant role of students in the issue of university management was particularly noted by those from Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh. In addition to socioeconomic issues, the participants from Armenia named financial pressure on independent TV networks as issues in their country.
The spectrum of policy challenges facing the youth from Azerbaijan was quite wide — from the lack of career opportunities for young people to the arrest of youth movement activists and discrimination in universities because of their political views. During discussions, a problem inherent in all six regions of the South Caucasus was identified: the lack of knowledge and interest in what is happening in neighboring countries.
The meeting was also attended by representatives of the youth forum members of Georgia’s United National Movement and youth from the Sukhumi State University in Tbilisi. They also presented their assessment of the situation of youth in Georgia.