RESTART
INITIATIVE
Building Connections for Development in
Azerbaijan and the South Caucasus
Events and Projects
Economic Connectivity | Armenia-Azerbaijan Dialogue Series (ECAADS): 2021-2024
In partnership with the Hertie School in Berlin, Restart Initiative is facilitating a bilateral dialogue initiative between Armenian and Azerbaijani experts, focused on concrete economic connectivity topics of mutual benefit and interest.
Since June 2022, six expert dialogues have taken place, on the topics of transport, energy, water, markets and skills-building, and future scenarios of economic connectivity, with additional dialogues planned through 2024. The ECAADS project has been made possible through the support of the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A link to more information is here.
As part of the ECAADS project, the United States is also supporting a media project featuring interviews with dialogue participants on economic connectivity topics, available on our Daha Yaxşı YouTube channel.
Armenian and Azerbaijani Analyst Briefings at the German Bundestag, March 2023
In collaboration with the Candid Foundation and Hertie School, Restart Initiative brought together two prominent Armenian and Azerbaijani political analysts, Dr. Benyamin Poghosyan and Dr. Farhad Mammadov, for a briefing at the German Bundestag. Hosted by Ms. Tabea Rossner, Member of the German Parliament, the experts discussed the current state of negotiations and peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The session provided valuable insights into the complex political situation in the region and highlighted the importance of continuing the dialogue between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Following the event at the Bundestag, Dr. Mammadov and Dr. Poghosyan met with Dr. Matthias Vollert, Head of Division for the South Caucasus and Central Asia at the German MFA, as well as Mr. Michael Roth, MP and Head of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Restart Initiative and Candid Foundation host briefings in Paris at the French MFA, June 2023
In partnership with the Candid Foundation, Restart Initiative organized a meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in France with the leaders of two leading think tanks in Armenia and Azerbaijan Mr. Ahmad Alili and Dr. Benyamin Poghosyan. Meetings were also held at think tanks in Paris, as well as the European Council on Foreign Relations.
Armenian and Azerbaijani Analyst Briefings at the German Bundestag, September 2023
In collaboration with the Candid Foundation and APRI Armenia, Restart Initiative brought together Mr. Ahmad Alili, Director of the Caucasus Policy Analysis Center in Baku, and Ms. Lara Setrakian, President of APRI Armenia, for a briefing at the German Bundestag. Hosted by Mr. Michael Roth, Member of the German Parliament and Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and moderated by Leo Wigger, Associate Partner of the Candid Foundation and editor at zenith Magazine, the experts discussed the current state of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan. In attendance were the Ambassadors for Armenia and Azerbaijan to Germany.
Following the briefing, Ms. Setrakian and Mr. Alili gave an interview to Die Welt newspaper, available in German here.
"New roles for old actors? - Regional powers and security in the South Caucasus" panel event, June 2023
In partnership with the Candid Foundation, Restart Initiative hosted a panel event in Berlin for think tankers and officials. The keynote speakers were Mr. Ali Hajizade and Dr. Benyamin Poghosyan, joined in discussion by Hamidreza Azizi (SWP, Berlin), Huseyin Cicek (Turkey Analyst, Vienna, online), Gallia Lindenstrauss (INSS, Tel Aviv, online), Konstantin Yegert (journalist, Russia), and Igor Semyvolos (Director, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Ukraine). The discussion was about the current state of peace negotiations and geopolitical alliances in the South Caucasus, and the roles and perspectives of Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and Israel, and Iran.
Series on Post-Oil Development of Azerbaijan at Oxford University
In Spring of 2021, Restart Initiative conceptualized and helped organize the first-ever series exclusively on post-oil development in Azerbaijan at Oxford University, featuring Azerbaijani scholars from academic institutions around the globe. See recordings of selected lectures and our interview with Prof. Christopher Gerry, Director of Russian and East European Studies at Oxford University, on our Daha Yaxşı YouTube channel.
On the one-year anniversary of the cease-fire agreement ending the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War between Armenia and Azerbaijan, in November 2021, this panel took stock of the progress and roadblocks in Armenia-Azerbaijan relations over the previous year.
The focus was on a future-oriented discussion of the prospects, opportunities, and challenges for cooperation, economic connectivity and peacebuilding between the two countries.
