South Caucasus
The Council of Europe has been working with history specialists from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia since 1996, first under the Secretary General’s New Initiative, then, in 2002 and 2003, within the framework of the Joint Programme of co-operation between the European Commission and the Council of Europe to strengthen democratic stability in South Caucasus.
This helped the History Education Section to carry out one seminar in Armenia, one in Azerbaijan and one in Georgia on topics that were of immediate concern to the countries.
The history specialists in all the countries welcomed the opportunity to continue to discuss issues related to history education and share experiences with specialists from other European countries. The topics of the seminars were selected jointly by the Council of Europe and the Ministries of Education of the countries.
The programme also served to maintain and extend the contacts and results achieved within the framework of The Tbilisi Initiative, in which Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia were involved, while Georgia was also part of the other main initiative that took place in the region: the Black Sea Initiative.