Secretary General of the Council of Europe Alain Berset has underlined the need for sustained dialogue and trust-building as the only path toward peace in the South Caucasus, stressing that progress cannot be achieved by severing ties.
Speaking at the autumn session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Berset noted that the population in Armenia has faced particularly difficult conditions, but emphasized that recent diplomatic moves — most notably the draft peace agreement discussed in Washington in early August — should be seen as an important step toward stability.
“Peace is always a process. It needs some time. It needs some improvement. It needs some collaboration. It needs working together to try to restore, where possible, a certain trust,” Berset said.
Addressing concerns about Armenian detainees in Azerbaijan, the Secretary General acknowledged the issue and said it must remain on the agenda. However, he stressed that progress can only be made through continued engagement.
“The only way to make some progress is never to cut ties. It is to be in contact, and to have this development of a certain trust and level of collaboration. Not just speaking about the fact that we are in contact, but working on the substance,” he said.
Berset said he had held a “very good” meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan the previous evening, and had also met Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in New York last week to discuss these sensitive issues. Regular contact with both leaders, he added, is essential to creating the conditions in which deeper problems can be addressed.
“This is exactly what I tried to do,” Berset concluded. “To create conditions where we can address then other issues or the next issues.”
