Bright Garden Voices

Elchin Mammadov joins Arnold Alahverdian to discuss Nakhchivan vis-à-vis the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, and his experiences engaging with Armenians in California and on social media.

Our meeting #12 featured Lucia Babayants, a prospective candidate for Eurovision 2012 and Narguiz Birk-Peterson, the host of Eurovision 2012 in Azerbaijan, who discussed how the politics between Armenia and Azerbaijan have long permeated into this contest in various ways.

Our meeting #11, "On the latest developments", took place on September 27th, 2022.

Zaur Shiriyev and Arman Grigoryan discussed the developments in September 2022 in the Armenian-Azerbaijani context, the broader conflict, and their perspectives on a lasting peace

Anush, Argentinian-Armenian, and Bilge, Turkish-Azerbaijani, get to know each other for the first time through questions related to their identity as diasporans of their community, their experiences growing up and encountering "the other".

Garden Chat #15 featured Giorgi Rizhvadze, a Georgian civil society activist, who joined Diego to talk about the recent protests in Georgia around the controversial "foreign agent" bill, the state of the local civil society, as well as the potential impact of new law on Armenian and Azerbaijani civil societies.

Our meeting #16 featured Uli Nasibova and Maria Zakaryan, whose family histories include the enclaves of Yukhari Askipara and Artsvashen respectively. Uli and Maria shared their family stories and their opinions about the ongoing delimitation process.

Our Garden Chat #14 featured Rufat Agayev, a stand up comedian of Armenian and Azerbaijani heritage, who joined Marat to discuss his experience of growing up during the first war, his journey to the US and the role of humor in political and social issues.

Our tenth meeting was a special meeting in honor of the late Georgi (Georgy) Vanyan. On October 15th, 2021, Georgi left us after losing a battle with Covid-19. He passed away in Georgia, the same country where some of his initiatives came to life. Since the 1990s, Georgi had advocated for peaceful relations between Armenians and Azerbaijanis, setting in motion various initiatives. He envisioned a South Caucasus where all the peoples in the region would coexist peacefully and in mutual prosperity. We were joined by Georgi’s friends and acquaintances to discuss his work and legacy: Yuri Manvelyan, Zam Abassanova, Edita Badasyan and Haji Hajiyev.

Our thirteenth Garden Chat featured Elnura Hüseynova, an Azerbaijani poet and literary historian. She joined our volunteer Narek Aleksanyan for a conversation about her new article on Sayat-Nova in Azerbaijani national memory and historiography.

Our 12th Garden Chat featured Thomas de Waal, a veteran journalist and writer specializing on South Caucasus and Eastern Europe. In the interview with our volunteer Marat Grigoryan, de Waal talked about his work and the developments in Nagorno-Karabakh and between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the fall of 2023.