EU URGES CONTACTS BETWEEN NAGORNO-KARABAKH ETHNIC COMMUNITIES

Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS General Newswire
February 20, 2007 Tuesday 7:48 PM MSK

The fact ethnic Azerbaijani and Armenian communities in
Nagorno-Karabakh have gone for nearly two decades with practically
no contact is an abnormality, a European Union envoy said on Tuesday.

Contacts between the two communities would help achieve progress
at talks to settle the Azerbaijani-Armenian conflict over
Nagorno-Karabakh, Peter Semneby, EU special representative for the
South Caucasus, told a news conference in Baku.

Each community would then know better what the other feels, he said.

Semneby said rapprochement between the two communities is inevitable
in any case but that contacts between them would speed it up.

He said he plans a visit to Nagorno-Karabakh to help build bridges
between the two communities.

The envoy raised the matter with the Azerbaijani government and got
the impression that Baku shared his view.

He also expressed hope the EU will be able to help settle the conflict.