ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
March 17, 2004

Escalation of conflict in Adjaria may be avoided – Passy

By Tigran Liloyan

YEREVAN

Solomon Passy, the OSCE chairman-in-office and Bulgarian Foreign
Minister believes that the escalation of the conflict around Adjaria
can be avoided and called on the parties to the conflict to begin
dialogue.

Dialogue is the best means in diplomacy and it is the right mechanism
to avoid escalation, he said at a press conference in the Armenian
Foreign Ministry on Wednesday.

For his part Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanyan noted that “a
quite tense situation” around Adjaria causes concern to the Armenian
authorities. He is confident that “further escalation of the standoff
will have negative consequences for Georgia and the whole region.”