On June 8, 2023, I participated as a speaker in an event organized by the Candid Foundation and Restart Initiative in Berlin, focusing on the South Caucasus. The discussions centered around topics such as “Between Kinship and Conflict – The South Caucasus and Its Southern Neighborhood” and “The South Caucasus and the Russian Invasion in Ukraine – Challenges and Implications.”

The event featured opening remarks by Mr. Daniel Gerlach, CEO of the Candid Foundation. The panel included experts such as Benyamin Poghosyan (Chairman, Center for Political and Economic Strategic Studies, Armenia), Hamidreza Azizi (SWP, Germany), Gallia Lindenstrauss (INSS, Israel), Hüseyin Cicek (Turkey Analyst, Austria), Konstantin Eggert (DW Correspondent, Berlin), and Igor Semyvolos (Director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Ukraine). The discussion was moderated by Leo Wigger (Associate Fellow, Candid Foundation).

A distinctive feature of this event was the examination of regional and extra-regional players’ approaches and interests in achieving peaceful settlement and coexistence in the South Caucasus. As a follow-up, on June 9, Azerbaijani and Armenian experts visited the Zentrum Liberale Moderne for further discussions and later met with Ambassador Matthias Luttenberg, Director for Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia at the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs.