I think that it is extremely important for the two countries, which have been in a serious dispute since the end of the war, to start talking with each other, apart from the existing contact which continues at a presidential level, as the meeting that recently took place between President Ilham Aliyev and President Robert Kocharyan, Lord Russell Johnston, Chairman of the Special Committee for Nagorno-Karabakh of PACE, has exclusively told Trend today.
According to Lord Russell Johnston, the meeting between Azerbaijani and Armenian MP's is expected to be held under his chairmanship during the session of PACE to be held in Strasburg at the end of January, 2007.
The Chairman of the PACE Subcommittee said that their first exercise should be getting to know each other. It is not necessary to tackle big serious questions straight away. My objective is not suddenly and magically to cure everything. That is not possible. But simply to create a better atmosphere and then discuss the areas where possibly one can pursue a dialogue, like, for example, the transport connection issue, he said.
He also said that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict could be settled only by the Governments of the countries involved in the conflict, and the task of the Subcommittee is to pave a way. But I think that it is extremely important to launch a general dialogue. On the one hand, if there is a settlement of the issue, then it should occur after the both parties making some concessions to each other. However, none of the parties is ready to make a compromise. Therefore, the only thing that could be done is to begin to talk to each other, said Mr. Russell Johnston.