Armenian, Azerbaijani,Russian public figures visit Nagorno-Karabakh
04.07.2009, 07.02
BAKU, July 4 (Itar-Tass) — A one-and-a-half-hour meeting with
Azerbaijan’s President Ilkham Aliyev was the last event of a tour of
Nagorno-Karabakh, Yerevan and Baku by Armenian, Azerbaijani and Russian
public figures.
`There was a fundamental and no easy discussion of all aspects of
relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia,’ Russia’s special
presidential representative, Mikhail Shvydkoi, told Itar-Tass over the
telephone.
The meeting was arranged on Friday evening at the initiative of
Azerbaijani and Armenian ambassadors in Russia, Polad Bul-bul Ogly and
Armen Smbatian. Before the visit to Baku the intellectuals from both
countries visited Nagorno-Karabakh and also Yerevan and were received
by Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan.
`The presidents of both countries appreciated our tour. It looks like
it raised some hopes,’ Shvydkoi said. `We agreed that by time of the
presidents’ meeting, due on July 17 in Moscow we – the ambassadors of
Azerbaijan and Armenia in Russia Polad Bul-bul Ogly and Armen Smbatian
and yours truly – will draft proposals for humanitarian cooperation
between the two countries. These proposals will contribute to the
negotiating process between Armenia and Azerbaijan.’
`One should say that just as the president of the Republic of Armenia,
Serzh Sargsyan, the president of Azerbaijan accepts the negotiating
process. He is aware that it is the last chance not to be missed by any
means and that it will allow for finding an early settlement of the
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict on the basis of the Meindorf declaration
on Nagorno-Karabakh, signed at the Russian presidential residence near
Moscow on November 2, 2008.
`Both presidents said that the 15-year-long neither-war-nor-peace
situation considerably harmed relations between the two states,’
Shvydkoi went on to say. After the losses both countries have sustained
over these fifteen years `it is very hard to eliminate the shortfalls
that there have emerged in the negotiating process.’
`It is absolutely clear that the second meeting of culture workers and
public figures from Armenia and Azerbaijan and Russia expanded the
agenda’ s format. Also it cleared up the public opinion in the two
countries and in Nagorno-Karabakh.’
As Azerbaijan’s news agency Azertadj has said, Ilkham Aliyev explained
his country’s position on the issue of settling the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict. He said the problem could be resolved exclusively within the
framework of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and the
inviolability of its borders and a high degree of autonomy granted to
Nagorno-Karabakh.
It was a second meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian intellectuals with
the heads of state. The first such meeting was in June 2007. This time
members of both countries’ parliaments took part.
Azerbaijan’s ambassador in Russia, Polad Bul-bul Ogly, said President
Aliyev had held a very interesting meeting with the Azerbaijani and
Armenian delegations and explained his vision of a future settlement of
the Karabakh conflict.
`There was a very informal and informative exchange of opinion. The
most important thing, though, is the president supported that format
and approved it. He said there was a need for more contacts at the
level of civil society and citizen’s diplomacy with the aim to
establish mutual understanding and diversified contacts,’ he told
Itar-Tass from Baku over the telephone.
The Armenian ambassador in Russia, Armen Smbatian, too, said the
meeting with Ilkham Aliyev was of great interest.
Interviewed by Itar-Tass over the telephone, he said `The meeting with
the president of Azerbaijan was a remarkable one. We were able to hear
the positions of the president of Armenia, of Nagorno-Karabakh and of
Azerbaijan. We shall dedicate ourselves to the negotiating process. We
are the people who prepare the basis for negotiations. Without such a
basis achieving any results will be impossible.’
`This is a very complicated process, but we’ve got to give thought to
it. Before that, though, we invite authoritative members of society,
personalities who have influence on their entourage. I believe that we
shall succeed in achieving positive results,’ the Armenian ambassador
in Russia said.
`For this reason our one-day meeting in the format
Karabakh-Armenia-Azerbaijan will yield a favorable result. The message
we would like to drive home is we are neighboring countries,
neighboring peoples, we must take care of the future and of the future
generations.’
`It is very important that after so many years of mutual animosity
direct people-to-people contacts have begun at last. There have begun
certain processes that bring people closer together,’ the Azerbaijani
ambassador in Russia, Polad Bul-bul Ogly said for his part. `We have
said more than once that points agreement must be looked for and found.
For instance, the victory in World War II. Its 65th anniversary will be
celebrated next year.’
At the meeting in Stepanakert, the main city of the Nagorno-Karabkh
enclave, the Azerbaijani and Armenian intellectuals discussed
humanitarian cooperation between their peoples, and joint projects that
could be implemented for the sake of starting contacts between the two
countries after the fifteen years of `no war and no peace.’
The first such meeting, called at the initiative of the Azerbaijani and
Armenian ambassadors in Russia, took more than two years ago, Shvydkoi
recalled.
`It was clear already then that without contacts between
representatives of civil society no settlement initiative had any
chances to succeed. What distinguished this meeting from the previous
one was that taking part in it were not only intellectuals, but also
legislators, political figures and Russian representatives.’
`Naturally, meetings of civil society representatives cannot substitute
for the negotiations by the presidents of Azerbaijan, Armenia and
Russia,’ Shvydkoi said. `All participants are aware that it is the
Moscow declaration, just as the forthcoming meeting of the two
presidents in Moscow in July will determine the further steps towards a
political and military settlement. It is likewise clear that without
contacts by civil society representatives, without the awareness of the
need for abiding by the rules of neighborly relations it will be very
hard to translate into reality any agreements achieved at the summit
level.’
`We remember that we are neighbors,’ Smbatian said. `We can like or
dislike each other, we may respect each other or not, but we are
obliged to take into account each other’s interests and look into the
future.’
`We believe that such meetings are worth holding as confidence-building
events that foster trust and mutual understanding between people,’
Polad Bul-bul Ogly said. `There were interesting meetings and very
interesting debates. We visited beautiful places in Nagorno-Karabakh.
And there are many initiatives we shall try to act on.’
The participants in the forum had met with the president of the
self-proclaimed republic of Nagorno-Karabakh Bako Saakian and then flew
over to Yerevan for a discussion with Armenia’s President Serzh
Sargsyan.