South Caucasus Regional Office

Main goal of the South Caucasus Regional Office of the Heinrich Boell Foundation is to contribute to the forming of free, fair and tolerant societies in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Nowadays, the Foundation offers young scientists from across the region sur-place scholarships for researches in history, sociology and urban study and develops cross-border media and education projects. Regional Office fosters civil society dialogue for peaceful transformation of conflicts in Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Together with the Istanbul office it organizes a Turkish-Armenian dialogue series on non-official level.

In the frameworks of the democratic political culture promotion programme the South Caucasus Regional Office supports initiatives of social and political empowerment of women and sexual minorities; on a regular basis it organizes public debates on key issues of Georgian politics in its office in Tbilisi as well as in the regions. Since 2009, rethinking of Soviet History and studies on totalitarian past has been added to the main working priorities of the Office.

A particular aim of the Foundation is to give impulses for an active and consistent policy of the European Union towards the South Caucasus. The Foundation regularly organizes workshops and discussions in Berlin and Brussels as well as in the region to discuss the role of a common European foreign and security policy towards the conflicts in the region, and to support the inclusion of the region into the “Wider Europe” concept of the EU.

About the Heinrich Böll Foundation

Fostering democracy and upholding human rights, taking action to prevent the destruction of the global ecosystem, advancing equality between women and men, securing peace through con flict prevention in crisis zones, and defending the freedom of individuals against excessive state and economic power – these are the objectives that drive the ideas and actions of the Heinrich Böll Foundation. We maintain close ties to the German Green Party (Alliance 90/The Greens) and as a think tank for green visions and projects, we are part of an international network encompassing well over 100 partner projects in approximately 60 countries.

The Heinrich Böll Foundation works independently and nurtures a spirit of intellectual openness. We maintain a world wide network with currently 30 international offices. We cooperate closely with 16 state-level Böll Foundations in each of Germany’s federal states, and we support talented, socio-politically engaged undergraduate and graduate students in Germany and abroad.

We gladly follow Heinrich Böll’s exhortation for citizens to get involved in politics, and we want to inspire others to do the same.