Let's Pin Down the Headline at the Neighbour's! May 2012 - Armenia

A group of 10 journalists from Turkey visited Armenia from May 3rd to May 9th 2012 in the fourth year of Turkey-Armenia Journalist Dialogue Programme; a programme organized by the Hrant Dink Foundation in cooperation with Heinrich Böll Stiftung Turkey Office since 2009.

In the 4th year of the programme, which aims at strengthening ties between journalists from Turkey and Armenia and contributing to establish direct and accurate means of exchanging news sources, the participating journalists observed the May 6th parliamentary 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, NTV, TVNET, Habertürk, Radikal, Milliyet, Star Gazete, Yeni Şafak, Today’s Zaman and Agos paid their first ever visits to Armenia and thanks to their contacts with the Civilitas Foundation and Regional Studies Center as well as the media outlets such as CIVILNET, YERKIR Media and GALA TV they got to know their colleagues in Armenia and exchanged their questions and opinions about mutual relations.

During the visit, the journalists visited the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia and met the Speaker of the Assembly Samvel Nikoyan, the Head of the Republican Party Fraction Galust Sahakyan, Prosperous Armenia candidate and former Minister of Foreign Affairs Vartan Oskanian, the leader of the Heritage Party Raffi K. Hovannisian and the International Secretary General of the ARF Armenian Revolutionary Federation Dashnaktsutyun Party Giro Manoyan and explored the importance of the elections for the people of Armenia and for Turkey-Armenia relations. 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.

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 and Journalists’ Club Asparez, 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.

As part of the one-week visit, the group came together with the representatives of political parties and non-governmental organisations. Apart from the capital Yerevan and the city of Gyumri, the group also made excursions to, Etchmiadzin, Zvartnots and Khor Virab.