A Consortium of eight civil society organisations from Armenia and Turkey announces the launch of the Support to the Armenia-Turkey Normalisation Process programme funded by the European Union under the Instrument for Stability.

The programme aims to promote civil society efforts towards the normalisation of relations between Turkey and Armenia and towards an open border by enhancing people-to-people contacts, expanding economic and business links, promoting cultural and educational activities and facilitating access to balanced information in both societies. The programme will last for 18 months starting from January 2014. The programme’s budget is € 2,000,000.

The programme will be implemented by Civilitas Foundation (CF), Eurasia Partnership Foundation (EPF), Public Journalism Club (PJC), Regional Studies Center (RSC) from Armenia; and Anadolu Kültür, the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV), Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly (hCa), and Hrant Dink Foundation from Turkey.

The programme will include a series of activities such as media support, TV talk shows and citizen reporting to contribute to better mutual understanding. The programme will also include travelling discussions; workshops and trainings for youth and teachers; exchange of artists, architects, and entrepreneurs; fellowship opportunities and travel support to enhance encounters and cooperation across the border. Research on business and economic opportunities; celebrity discussions about the past; and opinion exchanges of high-level former officials will also be a part of the programme.

The programme includes a sub-grant scheme, which will invite individuals and civil society organisations to propose and implement their own project ideas. The call for proposals for the sub-grant scheme will be announced in April 2014.

The results of all activities will be shared with the public through a trilingual website, which will serve as a networking tool featuring the overall picture of the past, current, and future developments in Armenia-Turkey dialogue initiatives.