KARABAKH CONFLICT TO BE CONSIDERED IN CONTEXT OF TRANSFORMATION OF BLACK SEA REGION

Today, Azerbaijan
May 30 2006

Black Sea Forum for Dialog and Partnership will be held in Bucharest
(Romania) June 4-5.

As head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry’s press office Vassily
Filipchuk informs, participants of the forum are expected “to continue
their dialog about democracy, stability and development started by a
forum of the Commonwealth of Democratic Choice held in Kiev in December
2005 and Vilnius conference ‘Common Vision for Common Neighborhood’.”

The final goal of the process, according to Filipchuk, will be
transformation of the Black Sea region into a Euro-integration space
of interaction of sovereign states in the territory with active market
economy systems, transparent and effective governmental bodies.

“This process is also aimed at maintaining strong ties with the
Euro-Atlantic community aimed at further extension and consolidation of
the zone of freedom, security and stability in the Black Sea region,”
he said.

It is worth mentioning, within frameworks of the forum a meeting of
Armenian President Robert Kocharyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev is planned. By the way, Robert Kocharyan did not participate
in the events in Kiev and Vilnius that anticipated the summit in
Bucharest.

It is also worth mentioning that neither Armenia nor Azerbaijan
are states with assess to the Black Sea. Meanwhile, according to
the Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan, there is a document
at the negotiation table over Nagorno Karabakh settlement, and the
presidents are expected to work it out. Last meeting of the Armenian
and Azerbaijani presidents was held in Rambouillet and bore no positive
results, though, became a stage to more intensified activity of the
mediators in the settlement process, especially in the US.

As independent Armenian experts believe, the fact of holding another
Kocharyan-Aliyev meeting in Bucharest means that the Karabakh problem
is being treated in the context of processes in the Black Sea and
Caspian region on the whole, REGNUM reports.

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