Let's Pin Down the Headline at the Neighbour's! February 2013 - Armenia

A group of 7 journalists from Turkey visited Armenia from February 14th to 20th, 2013 in the fifth year of Turkey-Armenia Journalists’ Dialogue Programme; a programme organised by the Hrant Dink Foundation in cooperation with Heinrich Böll Stiftung Turkey Office since 2009.

In the 5th year of the programme, which aims at strengthening ties between journalists from Turkey and Armenia and contributing to establishment of direct and accurate means of exchanging news sources, the participating journalists observed the February 18th presidential elections in Armenia right on the spot and informed their readers and viewers about the pre and post election process through their flash interviews and reports from the neighbouring country.

Journalists from CNN Türk, Habertürk, NTV, Milliyet, Radikal, Star Gazete and Today’s Zaman paid their first ever visits to Armenia and thanks to their contacts with the Civilitas Foundation, Caucasus Institute and Regional Studies Center as well as the media outlets and media support organisations such as CIVILNET, Internews and YERKIR Media they got to know their colleagues in Armenia and exchanged their questions and opinions about mutual relations. The group also came together in a dinner with the former programme participants from Armenia who contribute to different newspapers and news portals.

During the visit, the journalists had an exclusive meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs Edward Nalbandian. The group also visited the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia and met the Vice-President of the Assembly Hermine Naghdalyan.

The 3 out of 8 presidential candidates including the former foreign minister and Heritage Party leader Raffi K. Hovannisian, former prime minister and Freedom Party leader Hrant Bagratyan and the Radio Hay Director Andreas Ghukasyan who was then on hunger strike took their time to meet the journalists group in the midst of their campaign and explained the importance of the elections for the people of Armenia and for Turkey-Armenia relations. The group did also come together with the Prosperous Armenia deputy and former foreign minister Vartan Oskanian as well as the International Secretary of Armenian Revolutionary Federation Dashnaktsutyun Giro Manoyan. The discussions with the politicians were not only limited to the elections; but the journalists and politicians elaborated together on the questions how to carry the shared history of the two peoples a better future and how to solve the common problems in this light.

Since OSCE acted as the coordinator of international election observation missions, the group also visited the OSCE Yerevan Office and received an international perspective on the elections and democratization process in Armenia.

Journalists also visited the Office of the Human Rights Defender of Armenia and got first hand information from Ombudsman Karen Andreasyan on a special mission of the Office to observe the elections and their mechanisms for the complaints of citizens.

In their visit to the Genocide Museum-Institute, the journalists asked questions to the Director Hayk Demoyan and learned about the Institute’s plans and preparations for 2015. Thanks to the meetings with the Gyumri City Research Center, YIC Youth Initiative Centre and Caritas Armenia, the group had the chance to learn about the daily lives and expectations of the people living in Gyumri, the second biggest city of Armenia which shares a border with Kars.

After the elections, the group also came together with civil society organisations and university students. Transparency International presented their findings on the presidential elections and informed the group about complaint mechanisms. Thanks to the organisation of AEGEE-Yerevan, the journalists also had the chance to come together with about 30 university students from Yerevan State University and exchanged their feelings and thoughts about the painful past, future of both countries, and press freedom in Turkey.

As part of the one-week visit, apart from the capital Yerevan and the city of Gyumri, the group also made excursions to Etchmiadzin and Khor Virab.

From Press