Georgian Association of History Educators (GAHE) Holds its First Annual Meeting

IJSU On the 5th of July at Ivane Javakhishvili State University in Tbilisi, the Georgian Association of History Educators in conjunction with EUROCLIO hosted its first annual meeting with over 150 participants from all regions of Georgia. ‘The event was a huge success, with trainings from local and international experts, democratic elections for a new president of GAHE, Regional branch activity presentations from most regions of Georgia and the ratification of new statutes to ensure sustainability and democratic procedures are at the core of the association’s legal documents. Patrick Barker, EUROCLIO project manager presented the work of EUROCLIO as an active transnational civil society organization, and its growth since 1993 as an example of civil participation in European history education. Thomas Sherlock (Professor of Political Science at the West Point Military Academy, USA) presented a thought-provoking insight into historical memory from the perspective of countries dealing with difficult pasts; tailored to the current situation in Georgia and the recent events and debates in the media regarding the removal of the Stalin statue in Gori.A Full report is available here

Iryna Kostyuk (former EUROCLIO project coordinator for the EUROCLIO/Matra project New Times, New History, Ukraine) and Yulia Kushnereva (Former project coordinator for the EUROCLIO/Matra project Mosaics of Culture, Russia) provided expert training to participants through their own workshops focusing on tolerance building through history education in a multicultural society. The event was a great success for regional cooperation with participants from history and civics teaching organizations from Armenia, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Russia all present and interacting with Georgian colleagues. The elections were conducted under a transparent process, with a carefully selected board of monitors and a ballot box. Nana Tsikhistavi (project coordinator for the EUROCLIO/Matra Project Tolerance Building Through History Education) was elected unanimously as the new president of GAHE. EUROCLIO executive-director Joke van der Leeuw-Roordwas awarded with an Emeritus membership of GAHE for her continued support and commitment to innovating Georgian history education since first cooperation in 1998. EUROCLIO would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Nana on her achievement and also the GAHE for producing excellent results in democratic participation, and look forward to future cooperation on innovating history education in Georgia. A full report of the event will be available online in the coming days. For additional information, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it