01.08.2000, MEDIAMAX, YEREVAN. On July 31 the president of the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh, Arkady Ghoukasian received the experts of the Brussels Centre for European Policy Studies, the co-authors of the “Caucasian Stability Pact” Michael Emerson and Nathalie Tocci, was reported to MEDIAMAX in the press office of the president of RNK.
Greeting the guests, the president of RNK noted that though not all the points of the “Stability Pact” are acceptable for RNK, nevertheless, the concern of its authors about the regional problems witnesses the interest of the world community in establishing long-term peace and stability in South Caucasus.
Mr. Emerson noted that his visit to the region bears acquainting character. Thanks to the held in the past 3 weeks meetings with the presidents of Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan, he managed to get acquainted with the approaches of these countries regarding the future of the region and the points noted in the project, said Michael Emerson. He also informed that his visit to Stepanakert has the same objective.
In the course of the meeting an exchange of opinions took place, during which Arkady Ghoukasian presented the position of RNK in the issue of the Karabakh conflict settlement. At the end of the meeting, the president of RNK stressed the importance of such meetings in the process of settlement of regional problems and noted that they can assist in specifying the position of the sides and the establishing of mutual trust.
On July 19, 2000 the President of Armenia Robert Kocharian had a meeting with the authors of “Stability Pact” for the Caucasus – the co-chairmen of the CEPS task Force for the Caucasus, Michael Emerson, Senior Research Fellow of CEPS, and Sergio Celac, ambassador-at-large of the Romanian MFA. Emerson and Celac, representing the main provisions of the worked out document to Robert Kocharian, declared that to the impression they have got, all the countries of the region are interested in the establishing a regional security system. Sergio Celac declared that now is an opportune moment for the formation of such a system.
The German foreign minister Joschka Fischer supported the idea of creating the “Stability Pact” for the region of the South Caucasus speaking on July 4 at the conference in Berlin. The head of the ministry of foreign affairs of Germany noted that “all the problems in the Caucasus must be discussed at a negotiation table, so that the enemies became partners”. Fischer also noted that he thought impossible the military solution of crisis situations in the Caucasus. “The only possible solution is a political settlement, to achieve which the interests of all the engaged parties should be taken into consideration”.
In fact, the project of the “Caucasian Stability Pact”, which has been worked out by the Centre for European Policy Studies, proposes to make use of the idea of the retired president of Turkey Suleyman Demirel and to create Caucasus G8, in the composition of which the European Union, Russia, the USA, Iran, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia will be included. -0-
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