“Us” that is Mariam Kurshudyan, President of “4FEM Women’s Rights NGO” in Armenia, and Yair Rubin, founder and manager of “Face to Face”, an Israeli NGO for youth exchanges between Israel, Germany and Poland. In 2017, they met as participants of the Impact Group “Common Remembrance, Future Relations” and embarked on an insightful joint project to explore the life stories of second-generation Holocaust and Armenien Genocide survivors. Please follow this link to read their full article: 

Kurshudyan & Rubin (2018) – “When I was quite mature and had a child, I felt my father’s pain”: Comparing life stories, thoughts and opinions of second-generation Holocaust and Armenian Genocide survivors

Under patronage of the State Minister for Europe in the Foreign Office, Michael Roth, CISS e. V. conducted a pilot project to promote intercultural dialogue between twenty NGO representatives from Armenia, Germany, France, Israel and Turkey relating to remembrance and overcoming the past. The primary objective of the project was for the participants to develop their own cooperation projects, thereby contributing to the overall sustainability of the project. After a successful initial workshop in Yerevan, Armenia, last May and inspiring work shadowings, the participants met for the third and last time from 7 to 10 September 2017 in Berlin.

At the initial workshop in Yerevan, eight teams formed to develop joint projects. Over the summer, they were hosted by their project partners for three to five days in order to understand their work and come up with specific project ideas. An Israeli participant and his German colleague said about their stay in Armenia: “The work shadowing was crucial for the development of our project. We were able to expand our understanding of Armenian and Jewish/Israeli history and culture and make our project idea realistic.” The team plans to bring together young people from Armenia, Israel and the Jewish diaspora for them to learn about each other’s history and and consequently overcome prejudices.

The work shadowings were also significant for the participants to personally deal with the topics of remembrance and overcoming the past. One German participant reported: “For the first time in my life, and above all on Israeli soil, I met someone who had been interned in several camps and survived a death march – someone who had experienced unimaginable suffering that I had only been able to grasp to a very limited extent from books and films.” With his Israeli project partner, he aims to develop a gamification method for museums to facilitate the visitors’ learning about the Holocaust.

Finally, the evaluation meeting in September enabled the participants to present their project plans, exchange their views on the challenges of international cooperation and expand their project management skills in a fundraising workshop. A meeting with the Directorate-General for Culture and Communication at the Federal Foreign Office provided a special opportunity to reflect on and evaluate the project. In addition, the three-day seminar, included a presentation on remembrance culture in Germany and France and a city walk ‘Berlin as a memorial landscape’ by the Foundation Monument to the Murdered Jews of Europe which enabled deeper insights into Germany’s remembrance culture.

The project “Common Remembrance, Future Relations” hence provided the NGO representatives with assistance to develop joint projects and was officially ended with the meeting in Berlin. CISS e. V. will remain in close contact with the teams to provide advisory support until the implementation of the joint projects.

This article was published in November’s issue of the Diplomatic Magazine.

Processes of commemorating and coming to terms with the past, but also suppressing and stifling memories have shaped Armenian, German, French, Israeli and Turkish societies. These cultures of remembrance are interconnected, at times in conflict with one another, and generate diverging perceptions of the self and others, which can in turn result in conflictual inter-state relations. Practices of commemoration, discursive negotiations on “true” history and the historical legitimation of current policies reconstruct collective memory time and again. Dialogue and the exchange of experiences between civil society actors who attempt to dismantle negative images of the other and to reshape cultures of remembrance provide approaches for reconciliation and cooperation.

Against this backdrop, CISS for the first time invited twenty NGO representatives from the five countries to to Armenia from 24 to 28 May 2017. The three-part pilot project “Common Remembrance, Future Relations” not only provides a platform to examine the different cultures of remembrance and the impact of social constructs of the past on reconciliation and conflict, but also seeks to connect the NGOs and bring about lasting collaboration through joint projects.

The opening workshop in Yerevan offered a varied, interactive programme with a multitude of expert talks, group discussions and visits. The engaging expert talks on past events, cultural memory, remembrance culture and reconciliation set a valuable theoretical framework for the conference. The subsequent group discussions were particularly fascinating and informative. The enthusiastic participants discussed the role of memory in their respective countries and its impact on domestic and foreign policy decisions, as well as opportunities for action and the influence of NGOs on remembrance cultures and reconciliation. The issue of memory was furthermore illustrated on the example of Armenia through an excursion to the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial, as well as to Geghard and Garni.

Due to the project’s focus on exchanging experiences from the civil society sector and on developing ideas for effective cooperation, a talk on transnational projects provided insightful information and best practices for the participants’ future projects. The final day of the seminar was then geared towards finding a cooperation partner, devising a joint concept and preparing the second phase of the project, the work shadowing.

The participants will complete a reciprocal, a week-long work shadowing with their partner organisation by the end of August. This will not only enable them to get to know their partner’s work but also to develop their project further, both concerning the content and organizational aspects. The concluding evaluation meeting will take place in Berlin from 7 to 10 September 2017. The focus is then on sharing experiences regarding the work shadowing and challenges of the planning process as well as to present the projects and take part in workshops that refine the participants’ project management skills.

This article was published in July’s issue of the Diplomatic Magazine.

In summer 2016, King Mohammed VI announced that Morocco wanted to retake “its natural place” in the “family” of African states. Emphatic diplomatic lobbying finally resulted in a significant majority of the 54 member states voting for Morocco’s readmission at the AU summit in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa at the end of January. Nevertheless, some states displayed considerable resistance and demanded the establishment of a commission to investigate whether Morocco’s membership was a violation of the AU Foundation Act.

The point of contention is Western Sahara on the Atlantic coast in northwest Africa bordering Morocco, Algeria and Mauritania. When Morocco claimed the region in 1975 after the withdrawal of the Spanish colonial authority, despite the fact that the International Court had granted the indigenous Sahrawi people the right to determine the future of Western Sahara themselves, the international community was shocked. After all, by occupying the region, Morocco de facto assumed the role of Spain, turned Western Sahara into Africa’s last colony and triggered a devastating war with the Polisario Front, which is fighting for the liberation of Western Sahara and backed by Algeria. The Polisario Front is considered the Sahrawi people’s representative, though only a few UN states recognise the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) proclaimed by the Front in 1976.

Morocco’s interest in the region? Abundant fishing resources, the largest phosphate deposits in the world and considerable oil reserves make Western Sahara attractive to the kingdom. The raw materials boost Morocco’s employment market, as well as its shares in the global phosphate market, and could also reduce its dependency on oil imports. Morocco manages the region as if it was part of the kingdom. The Sahrawi people who live to the west of the 2,500-kilometre sand berm, on the other hand, do not perceive any economic growth, but instead experience human rights abuses, discrimination in the job market and the flow of economic gains to Morocco.

The opponents of Morocco’s readmission, particularly Algeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe, have been vehement supporters of an independent Western Sahara since their recognition of the SADR. In addition, Algeria is considered as a player with its own political agenda in this conflict: to limit Morocco’s expansion and regional influence. Algeria has been backing the Polisario forces both militarily and financially since the conflict’s beginning. Morocco’s neighbouring country also provides humanitarian aid. According to UNHCR estimates, the refugee camps in Tindouf in southwestern Algeria accommodate roughly 90,000 people.

Morocco’s readmission undoubtedly holds great symbolic significance for the future of the African continent. It is, however, problematic for the question of Western Sahara. The decision in favour of Morocco and the lack of any prior discussion regarding the status of Western Africa could support Morocco’s presence in Western Sahara and delay a diplomatic solution even further. Since the armistice in 1991, numerous talks regarding a referendum in Western Sahara have failed. Although the Polisario Front’s spokesperson called for further talks and announced that these would now be on equal terms, Morocco has ruled out the region’s independence. The economic gains at stake for the kingdom are too great.

This article was published in April’s issue of the Diplomatic Magazine.