Azernews.Az

By Rashid Shirinov

Last week Tbilisi hosted the First General Assembly of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Civil Peace Platform. Already at its first congress, the Platform showed that it has every opportunity to become one of the serious assistants for resolving the long-standing Armenia-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Head of the Caucasus History Center Rizvan Huseynov, who is a member of the of the Platform’s Board, talked about the event in an interview with Day.az.

The historian said the assembly showed that the Peace Platform has a future and a great prospect. Despite various attempts to discredit this initiative, to denigrate it and present as a failed project, the assembly and the subsequent conference showed the great interest, support and understanding of international organizations and diplomatic missions of the countries whose representatives participated in the event.

The assembly participants appealed to the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs with the initiative to establish a review board of representatives of the Armenian and Azerbaijani civil societies, which would have an advisory mandate within the Minsk Group.

Huseynov noted that the idea of creating such a​​ review board was presented in Tbilisi. The expert believes that this will help to intensify the Minsk Group’s activities and make them accountable to the civil sector.

The event was held at a fairly high level. The Armenian side was represented by an entrepreneur from St. Petersburg, a native of Baku Erik Khachaturov, a well-known researcher, a native of Nagorno-Karabakh Arthur Agajanov, Baku Armenian Oksana Altunyan. Moreover, famous economist Rafael Isakhanyan and public figure living in Ukraine Philip Ekoziants joined the event via Skype.

“On behalf of Karabakh Armenians, Arthur Agajanov described the tragedy of the situation arising from the fact that Karabakh is temporarily cut off from Azerbaijan. Agadzhanov consistently stands for the sovereignty of Azerbaijan, and resolution of the conflict within the territorial integrity of the country,”

Agadzhanov also proposed an economic formula that would involve Karabakh Armenians in integration processes, and his suggestions aroused great interest in the expert community.

Predictably, the assembly in Tbilisi was not publicized by the Armenian media. However, the Platform’s Board is going to visit Yerevan within the initiative.

“The updated composition of the Platform is people who do not engage in politics and do not criticize the authorities of Armenia, they simply offer peace. The next stage should be a trip to Yerevan within the framework of the Platform. We are waiting for a response from non-governmental organizations, civil sector and political circles of Armenia. We are waiting for the answer to the question if they want peace or not,” he said.

Thanks to the event in Tbilisi, the international community – representatives of international organizations, diplomats, experts, scientists – understood who is responsible for the escalation in the frontline and on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. Hopefully, the Armenian leadership will eventually abandon its aggressive and unjustified position on the long-standing problem, and the country’s society will be more willing and decisive in joining the Civil Peace Platform in order to help resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as soon as possible.

---

Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz