The conclusions of the report “The South Caucasus from War to Peace: 30 measures between now and 2030”, recently published by the Joint Armenian-Azerbaijani Working group on Confidence-Building Measures in support of lasting peace in the South Caucasus (JOLIG), were presented in Yerevan on Monday, 30 May to an audience of diplomats, officials and civil society representatives. Armenian members of the Joint Liaison Group: Stepan Grigoryan, Benyamin Poghosyan and Johnny Melikyan, spoke about the process of dialogue with Azerbaijani counterparts in the preparation of the report, and highlighted the report’s conclusions, including thirty recommendations to help the process of building trust and confidence between Armenia and Azerbaijan and Armenians and Azerbaijanis.
Addressing the event, the Head of the EU Delegation to Armenia, Ambassador Andrea Wiktorin, congratulated the joint Liaison Group for its successful work. She said the report was important and timely and offered many useful ideas that could be implemented in the short, medium and long term in support of peace in the South Caucasus. She spoke about the various initiatives that the EU was implementing in support of dialogue between Armenia and Azerbaijan and Armenia and Turkey, and the trilateral meetings with the participation of the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan, hosted by European Council president, Charles Michel.
In his remarks, the Director of LINKS Europe, Dr Dennis Sammut spoke about the work the organisation had done over decades to promote confidence building measures in the South Caucasus, and the process of setting up the Joint Armenian-Azerbaijani Liaison Group. He said that the Group had worked diligently over a period of six months and its report offered many useful ideas that now needed to be taken forward by a range of local and international partners. He emphasised the importance that all those involved in support of dialogue and peace in the South Caucasus do not see each other as competitors, but rather as allies.
Many of those present made comments on the report, or asked questions. Many participants spoke about the importance of implementing the recommendations contained in the report. Other participants spoke about the importance of including the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh in the various initiatives. Modalities of how this can be done were discussed.
The report of the Joint Armenian Azerbaijani Liaison Group on Confidence building measures in support of lasting peace in the South Caucasus was published in April.
It is available in English here
It is available in Russian, here
