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From Hopeful to Hopeless or from Hopeless to Hopeful. Democratic Transition in the Caucasus

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  • Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
  • When: October 22, 2018, 19:00 – 21:00

Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia are three countries bound together by geography but with very little else in common. Armenia’s velvet revolution in April has catapulted the country from kleptocracy onto the road to democracy. All eyes are on the charismatic new Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his new government as they translate revolutionary expectation into realistic policy. Armenia can do worse than look to its northern neighbour, Georgia to understand the difficulties ahead. Fifteen years have passed since its Rose revolution and despite making strides in accountably, transparency and democracy the momentum has stalled. As Georgians go to the polls in October to elect a new president the country’s future is far from certain. Meanwhile there seems to be little hope for change in authoritarian Azerbaijan whose repressive government is showing little sign of loosening its grip. Yet as Armenia has shown, change can happen at the most unexpected moments.

Join our expert panel for a discussion on the situation in their own countries and their thoughts on how events in Armenia will reverberate around the region. Will it lead to wider change? What will it mean for relations with Azerbaijan? Is Georgia no longer the poster child of change in the Caucasus?

From Armenia, Mikayel Zolyan, programme coordinator and research analysist at the Yerevan Press Club. From Georgia, Tinatin Khidasheli, former Minister for Defence and security expert. From Azerbaijan, Arzu Geybulla, a freelance writer currently living in exile in Turkey, expert on human rights and democracy in the country and one of the BBC’s top 100 Women changemakers.

Co-organised by Prague Civil Society Centre and Václav Havel Library.

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