Armenian and Azerbaijani Governments Must Support Public Dialogue: Denis Sammut

“The governments of Armenia and Azerbaijan must provide support, so that the two countries’ societies come in contact with each other. That will assist in resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” said London Information Network on Conflicts and State-building (LINKS) Executive Director Dennis Sammut, who’s in Yerevan attending the 73rd NATO Parliamentary Assembly Rose-Roth Seminar.

According to Sammut, many issues, such as conflicts, won’t be resolved unless democratic mechanisms are used. But the bad news is that authorities in Armenia and Azerbaijan use the Karabakh conflict as a pretext to limit citizens’ human rights.

“We constantly hear governing authorities saying that open discussions between the sides must not be organized unless the Karabakh conflict is resolved,” said Sammut, pointing to that as a reason why people from Azerbaijan do not participate in seminars organized in Armenia, and why the Armenians do not participate in similar seminars in Azerbaijan.

Sammut also mentioned that in order to make improvements and implement democracy, all three countries in the South Caucasus — Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia — should rely upon the European Union as they cannot move forward by themselves, without EU support.