EU South Caucasus envoy Peter Semneby believes real progress is being made in the settlement of Nagorno Karabakh conflict. “It is clear that if you look at the negotiation process, it is intensifying,” Peter Semneby, who is visiting Russia, told Reuters. “We had two meetings in a month and there will be another relatively soon between the presidents,” he said.

Talking about the risk of the conflict, Semneby said it would be foolish to neglect it but he felt both sides understood the enormous value which would be involved in any large-scale military engagement. “If anything, the Georgia war (last year with Russia), demonstrated the risks of military engagement … it was also a wake-up call to both countries how vulnerable they are.”

Touching on Turkey-Armenia relations, EU envoy said: “Turkey has taken a “tactical step backwards” on normalizing relations with Armenia because of hostile domestic reaction to the move. A step back was taken by the Turkish side … but this is not a U-turn. We expect the conversations will continue.”

APA