VITALY NAUMKIN: STEPANAKERT PARTICIPATION IN TALKS NECESSARY
PanARMENIAN.Net
14.11.2007 14:15 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Stepanakert participation in the negotiation process
is necessary, said Valery Naumkin, Dartmouth Conference Co-chair on
Nagorno Karabakh, Director of the Russian Center of Strategic and
Political Studies.
"I would not like to criticize the Minsk Group. Our format doesn’t
replace the processes going on within the MG. These two formats are
mutually complementary: if the Minsk group functions at the level of
state diplomacy, the Dartmouth Conference organizes a dialogue at the
level of civil publics. One more thing, Nagorno Karabakh is a party to
Dartmouth conference and we suppose that there will be no progress in
the talks without Stepanakert’s participation. Actually, the opposition
is going on between Azerbaijan and Karabakh," the Russian expert
said. "Any agreement signed by the state leaders is put into practice
by people living in those states and if the diplomats’ groundwork
doesn’t justify people’s expectations, it will never be successful."
"History knows many cases when agreements remained on
paper. Presidential talks are insufficient. Our format aims at a public
dialogue," Naumkin said in an interview with Argumenty i Fakty Armenia.