Epress.am News from Armenia
The parties in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Armenia and Azerbaijan, must work harder to establish a dialogue between local authorities, head of the Armenian delegation to the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities Emin Yeritsyan told journalists during his visit to Azerbaijan, reports Baku-based Trend news agency.
“Such a dialogue already exists at the level of NGOs and it is necessary to develop this into a dialogue between local authorities,” Yeritsyan told journalists in Baku today.
According to him, the war brought trouble to both sides and both sides have refugees.
Asked by journalists in Azerbaijan about internally displaced persons in Azerbaijan and their return to their homes, Yeritsyan said, “I think the issue of internally displaced persons and their return to homeland is one of the most important points of the negotiation process. There are many refugees in Armenia too,” reports APA news agency.
Yeritsyan said the resumption of hostilities between the two countries is impossible.
“Our people have already seen war and do not want a repeat conflict,” he said.
The disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh broke away from Azerbaijan after a bloody war in the 1990s and is populated mainly by ethnic Armenians. Today it exists as a de-facto independent state under an uneasy ceasefire, and OSCE-brokered efforts to resolve its status have so far been unsuccessful.