Armenia-Turkey Policy and Media Discussions

Armenian and Turkish journalists and civil society activists met in Yerevan for a three-day conference organized by GPoT Center in cooperation with the Eurasia Partnership Foundation (EPF) and Yerevan Press Club (YPC) to discuss the current state of the Armenia-Turkey relations and upcoming parliamentary elections in Turkey.

During the event, which was entitled "Armenia-Turkey Policy and Media Discussions", results of various researches on media coverage of the relations between Turkey and Armenia were presented and the participants discussed in detail the political relations between the two countries.

Armenian and Turkish journalists, who were on a two week long Media Reporting Bus Tour through Turkey, Georgia, and Armenia joined the meeting and shared their impressions from the trip. The bus tour activity was part of a long-term project, that GPoT Center implemented together with its partner organizations YPC and Internews Armenia.

On the last day of the conference, a Journalism Award Ceremony was held with the participation of the DGO Director of USAID, Mr. Stephen Brager. The Armenian winner for the year of 2011 is Mr. Eduard Mkhitaryan, who is a TV journalist working for GALA TV, a regional TV station in Gyumri. You can watch the Award winning film “Who Is Your Neighbor?” by Mr. Mkhitaryan on the GALA TV's website here. The second part of the Journalism Award Ceremony, during which the Turkish winner will be announced, was scheduled to be held in Istanbul in July 2011. While this year is the first year of the award for journalists covering Turkey-Armenia relations, GPoT Center, in partnership with the YPC, intends to hold the ceremony annually.

The "Armenia-Turkey Policy and Media Discussions" as well as the "Journalism Award" were funded by the USAID.