OPENING REMARKS
LEARNING TO ADAPT, IMPROVISE, OVERCOME, RETHINK & REBUILD... EDGAR KHACHATRYAN, PEACE DIALOGUE NGO, PRESIDENT Dear Partners and Friends, Beneficiaries and Supporters, 2020 has turned out to be the most difficult year yet in the twelve-year history of our organization. Not long after the year started, the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) burst onto the international scene, and in the months since, the virus has dramatically remoulded the way we, our partners, and all of us see the world. As it upended established patterns, and forced lasting changes on the way of life and activities of peoples the world over, the pandemic also created daunting obstacles to the realization of the ambitious plans and projects that we at Peace Dialogue had envisioned so optimistically for 2020. While humanity was absorbed with adapting to this menace, and as many countries were struggling to develop new strategies to overcome the social, political and economic impacts of the pandemic, full-scale war of an intensity not seen since 1994 erupted again in the South Caucasus in September. Forty-four days of bloody fighting between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces over the breakaway territory of Nagorno-Karabakh and adjoining areas have left a toll of at least 143 civilians dead (including children), as well as thousands of soldiers killed or in4 | PEACE DIALOGUE
