Hearings on frozen conflicts open in Berlin

PanARMENIAN.Net - An event on frozen conflicts organized by the Monitoring Committee of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) and German Institute for International and Security Affairs opened in Bundestag today.



Armenia is represented by Davit Harutyunian, head of the RA delegation to PACE, Armen Rustamian, chairman of the permanent parliamentary committee on foreign affairs and Karine Ghazinian, RA Ambassador to Germany.



The event is chaired by Eduard Lintner, chief of PACE Monitoring Committee.



Peter Semneby, European Union Special representative for the South Caucasus, Thomas Marker, deputy secretary of Council of Europe Venice Commission, Sergei Markedonov, Russian political scientist and Bruno Coppieters, Associate Professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussels also attended the meeting.



Eduard Lintner making a keynote speech said the Council of Europe pays attention to the "frozen conflicts" and expressed his anxiety for the existence of these conflicts in the CE member states.



The other initiator of the event, Dr Uwe Halbach of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, also made a report. He stated that history of several conflicts in former Soviet countries dates back to the decline of USSR. Dr Halbakh said that ceasefire is observed on these conflicts at present, but problem was not solved.



The second part of the event will be dedicated to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict and will be presided by Lord Russell Johnston, the head of the PACE Ad Hoc Committee. Jonathan Cohen and Nottingham University professor Stephan Wolf are expected to give reports.



Speeches of the heads of Azerbaijani and Armenian delegations will be followed by debates, APA reports.