Bright Garden Voices

Our second Roundtable was an engaging discussion with Javid Agha, who answered the questions of our audience about society, politics, identity, history and minorities, with a few questions on Udis and Caucasian Albanians as well.

Garo Paylan is a former Turkish-Armenian MP and a founding member of HDP (People’s Democratic Party) in Turkey. He is an outspoken voice about politics, human rights and civil society in regards to Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Paylan joined us for our first Roundtable, a virtual space dedicated to audience interaction special guests.

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.

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". Recorded in August 2023 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Oğul Tuna joined Andrea for a chat about his research and views on history and politics regarding Armenians and Azerbaijanis, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Oğul has researched the parallel lives of the Armenian and Azerbaijani Bolsheviks, Stepan Shahumyan and Nariman Narimanov in order to understand the interplay between nationalism and socialism in the South Caucasus between 1905 and 1925. He is interested in the roots of radicalism and ethnic divisions in the region.

Our third Tət-à-Tեt #3 Raffi Chilingirian is a talented duduk player residing in Beirut, who joined Uli Nasibova in Los Angeles for a conversation about the duduk and about similar and shared musical styles, instruments, and traditions among Armenians, Azerbaijanis, and other peoples in the region. Raffi started the conversation with a masterful and touching performance of Sari Aghjik / Sarı Gəlin.

Our second Tət-à-Tեt features Collectif Medz Bazar, a band with musicians of Armenian, Turkish, American and French descent based in Paris. With their multicultural background, their music not only expresses a lot of these different influences but also spreads a message of fraternity between peoples. In this interview, our collaborator Deniz Aslan interviewed them to ask them about their history, goals, backstages and the messages of Vodki, and what's next in store for them.

In Part 2 of the meeting between Ülviyyə Nasibova and Arnold Alahverdian, Uli first describes her experiences having taken part in Imagine Dialogue, a dialogue initiative which includes programs involving Azerbaijanis and Armenians and recounts her time studying Caucasian Albanians back in 2004, when this was not yet a popular topic among Azerbaijanis.

Our first Tәt-à-Tեt, featuring Uli Nasibova and Arnold Alahverdian, took place on October 2021. Originally from Azerbaijan, Uli is the owner of Uli's Gelato in LA. In Part 1 of this interview, she shares her families' experiences through the first war, her daily life with Armenians in LA, and views on the conflict.

Bright Garden Voices bringt zwei Künstlerinnen zusammen: Silvina Der-Meguerditchian und Fidan Akhundova. Beide leben in Berlin und sprechen offen über ihre Erfahrungen, Wahrnehmungen des Konflikts und die Kraft der Kunst als Brücke zwischen Kulturen. 💬🎨In diesem besonderen Dialog geht es um Identität, Erinnerung und die Frage, wie Kunst Verständigung ermöglichen kann, wo Politik oft scheitert. Ein ehrliches Gespräch über Schmerz, Hoffnung und die Möglichkeit von Verständigung zwischen zwei Welten – erzählt durch persönliche Geschichten und kreative Perspektiven.

Обычный разговор привёл к неожиданному открытию: их мамы оказались астрологами. В этом выпуске Têt-à-Têt мы пригласили двух девушек- армянку и азербайджанку. У них есть кое-что общее: их мамы работают астрологами. Они делятся историями о том, как это повлияло на их жизнь, воспитание и взгляд на будущее.Откровенный разговор, юмор и немного звёздных предсказаний.A simple conversation led to an unexpected discovery: their moms were both astrologers. In this episode of Têt-à-Têt, we bring together two young women - one Armenian and one Azerbaijani. They share something in common: both of their mothers are astrologers. Watch them talk about how this shaped their lives, their upbringing, and their outlook on the future.An open conversation with humor and a touch of starlight predictions.Instagram - / brightgardenvoices Facebook - / brightgardenvoices X - https://x.com/brightgardenvEmail - brightgardenvoices@ gmail.com #BrightGardenVoices #PeaceBuilding #ConflictResolution #ArmeniaAzerbaijan #NagornoKarabakh #CaucasusPeace #VoicesForPeace #DialogueForPeace #HumanRights #SocialImpact #NonViolence #CommunityOfCare #BridgeBuilders #PeaceTalks #TogetherForPeace #Armenia #Azerbaijan #Армения #Азербайджан #МирныйДиалог #ПутьКМиру #МирИПонимание #ДиалогМеждуНародами #ВместеСильнее #trending #trendingnow #viralvideo #fyp #foryou #fy #exploremore #recommendations #videotrending #астрология #mustwatch #astrology #zodiacsigns

Shujaat Ahmadzada discussed his family roots, aspects of the Nagorno-Karabakh / Armenian-Azerbaijani conflicts, conflict transformation, and schools of thought in politics and conflict studies.

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 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 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.

Our tenth Garden Chat featured Mirkamran Huseynli, a PhD fellow at Vytautas Magnus University. In the interview with our co-director Arnold Alahverdian, Huseynli talked about Azerbaijani history textbooks and nationalism, the common notions of alterity (otherness) in the Azerbaijani society and how Armenians fit into that picture. Recorded on July 11th, 2023.

Rauf shares with our volunteer Emmanuel Chacatrjan his experiences and opinions as a refugee from Lachin about the ongoing crisis in Karabakh.

Our Garden Chat #5. A moving and sincere chat with Sevil Suleymanova, hosted by Andrea Mansoorian. Sevil shares about her family's & relatives' experiences of coexistence & suffering, growing up an IDP and how her experiences & feminist stance shapes her views. #armenia #azerbaijan #peace #dialogue #karabakh #KarabakhWar #peacebuilding #conflictresolution #idp #idps 

Our Garden Chat #4 was with Laurence Broers, South Caucasus Programme Director at Conciliation Resources, associate fellow at Chatham House and Co-editor-in-chief of Caucasus Survey. We discussed about his work throughout the years and some of his opinions and perspectives on the Armenian-Azerbaijani and Karabakh conflict. He was interviewed by our co-director Diego Ardouin.   #armenia #azerbaijan #peace #dialogue #karabakh #KarabakhWar #peacebuilding #conflictresolution