"When food is on the table, it makes it so easy to talk about the sensitive issues. It makes it easy to bring sides of the conflict together around the same table." (25:10)
GULYA NABIEVA, a Senior Program Officer of the Eurasia Program for International Alert, shares with visiting correspondent, Alastair Carr, Recipes for Peace, a 2014 peace project bringing Turkish and Armenian women together to cook in a food and reconciliation process. What began as border research to find similarities in culinary culture became a powerful and emotional project highlighting how food is a connector, rather than a divider, of people. Gulya shares, "Similarities between the sides of the conflict can bring people together because it enables them to think about history and regional links that they once shared." (3:20) Alastair and Gulya also explore topics of gender and food as identity.
To learn more about Recipes for Peace:
International Alert Website: https://www.international-alert.org/news/recipes-for-peace
Caucasus Business and Development Network Website: http://caucasusbusiness.net/our-work-2/recipes-for-peace/