EU SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE TO WORK CLOSELY WITH OSCE MG

PanARMENIAN.Net
16.03.2006 22:27 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “I first visited Armenia in 1988, when there was
the Spitak earthquake. It was one of most decisive episodes of my
life. I spent a week in Leninakan right after the earthquake. I
worked at the Swedish Embassy in the USSR at the time. Along with
Swedish rescuers we were looking for survivors in shambles,” new EU
Special Representative for the South Caucasus Peter Semneby stated,
reports Mediamax. In his words, “it was a bloodcurdling experience,
however I respected the dignity and will power of people, affected by
the earthquake. I look forward for the day, when arriving in Armenia,
I will be able to visit those places again.”

Peter Semneby remarked, he will work closely with the co-chairs of the
OSCE Minsk Group over settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict to be
sure that any initiative is clearly coordinated. In his words, there is
hope for settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict in 2006. “Taking
into account the fact that expectations of the meeting of the Azeri
and Armenian presidents were not realized, I find it hard to judge
how realistic these hopes are. To get a comprehensive notion of the
situation, I should visit Armenia and Azerbaijan and speak with the
OSCE MG co-chairs. In any case, if the extent of my hope was not high,
I would have not agreed to this work,” Semneby remarked.

He also noted relations between Armenia, Turkey, Georgia and Russia
as a priority.