Activities Caucasus Network

The documentary 'Panjara' shows the lives and the political work of feminist activists from Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. The film captures them fighting for change and gender equality in the face of patriarchal structures.

Usually associated with outmigration, the South Caucasus has recently become a destination for migrants. Ukrainian refugees, Russian war-induced migrants, labour migrants returnees, among others, find a new refuge in the South Caucasus. In this event, we will discuss the implications of this development.

A State in a State is an experimental documentary film that traces the construction, disruption, and fragmentation of railroads in the South Caucasus and Caspian regions. The film revolves around the scenes of delay and waiting that constitute cargo mobility, countering optimistic narratives about the New Silk Road and examining how the iron foundation of connectivity is used as a weapon of exclusion and geopolitical sabotage.

Processes of connectivity are often accompanied by disconnectivity, for instance due to post-war instability and insecurity. We look at the South Caucasus and discuss how the term 'connectivity' is perceived, bearing in mind the disruptions of recent years, like the pandemic or the wars in Nagorno-Karabakh and Ukraine.

This roundtable focuses on nation-building in the context of religion. This includes the state-religion relationship, but also a bottom-up perspective of religious belonging and challenges of religious diversity. In addition, we will consider the impacts of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine within the South Caucasus states.

2020 and 2021 have been turbulent and transformative years for the societies in the South Caucasus and for EU-South Caucasus relations. The purpose of this roundtable is to discuss whether the recent “resilience turn” in EU foreign policy is the right response to the aggravated challenges, and how we could understand the practical application of this new policy concept.

The concept of neighbourhood seems to have a specific density, producing a crisis-like complexity between proximity and distance. The next Caucasus Network roundtable will focus on questions about the dynamics of neighbourly relations in the Caucasus region from social, political, and spatial perspectives.

The ZOiS Caucasus Network, founded in autumn 2019, met for an online event on 10 December. The aim of the network is the networking and exchange of institutions and individuals working and researching on the regional focus Caucasus.

In the conflict around Nagorno-Karabakh, both Armenia, and Azerbaijan view the other as an enemy with very similar rhetoric reinforcing demonisation of each other. The virtual “Conversation with...” starts a series of discussions focused on challenges and possibilities of living together and living with difference as part of civil protest.

The ZOiS Caucasus Network, founded in autumn 2019, met on June 24 for an inter institutional online event of ZOiS and the Bertelsmann Foundation. The aim of the network is to network and exchange institutions and experts who work and research with the regional focus of the Caucasus.