ASIA - Peoples in conflict can learn, beginning with young people, to live side by side

Arezzo (Agenzia Fides) – The Associazione Rondine Cittadella della Pace has begun its “Viaggio di amicizia” ,Journey of Friendship, in the South Caucuses and Turkey. From the Caspian Sea the participants will cross Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia, and end the journey in Turkey on 1 August. The initiative was born of a desire to strengthen existing ties and create new ones, with political, religious and academic institutions in the area, starting from the experience of Studentato Internazionale, unique in its kind, based on peaceful living side by side of peoples in conflict.
For several years the non profit Associazione Rondine Cittadella della Pace has played an active role in promoting a culture of dialogue and peace through Studentato Internazionale, based in the medieval village of Rondine, in the Italian province of Arezzo. Here students, boys and girls, participants in the project from the Balkans, South Caucuses, the Russian Federation, Africa, Middle East, live side by side building relations of respect and friendship. On completing a cycle of studies (degree or masters), they return to their own countries to bear witness, at home, at work, to the concrete possibility for different peoples to live peacefully side by side.
The journey “has the profound sense to build relations with places of tension like South Caucuses where wounds are still open”, says Franco Vaccari, Rondine President. Numerous meetings have been planned in the different countries, at the political, religious and academic level. “We will meet young people and academic institutions because starting from young people, from a great new idea, from their collective dream of a future and of peaceful living side by side, experienced at Rondine, we believe it is possible to open a new page for the future of the whole Caucus region ” says Vaccari. (SL) (Agenzia Fides 16/7/2010)