ARKA News Agency
July 27 2005

LONGSTANDING ISOLATION CAUSES NEIGHBORING PEOPLES LOSE CENTURIES-OLD
TRADITIONS OF COOPERATION IN SOUTH CAUCASUS

YEREVAN, July 27. /ARKA/. Long-standing isolation causes gradual
degradation of values, loss of centuries-old traditions of
neighborhood and cooperation in the South Caucasus, says a resolution
adopted as a result of a working meeting of the civil initiative
“South Caucasian Integration: Alternative Start”, the Caucasus Center
of Peace-Making Initiatives (CCPMI) reports. According to the
document, manifestation of nationalism and intolerance marginalize
real public sentiments and the idea of peaceful settlement of all
disagreements and integration, the only idea capable of ensuring the
viability of all the peoples of the South Caucasus. Considering the
above, the CCPMI points out the necessity of uniting the public to
counterbalance political speculations on existing conflicts,
contributing to the formation of public need for peace and
restoration of good-neighborly relations in the South Caucasus,
discussion of ways of settling “frozen” conflicts on the basis of
human rights and freedoms. The first working meeting of the civil
initiative “South Caucasian Integration” Alternative Start” was held
in Yerevan on July 19. P.T. -0–