The escalations along the Nagorno-Karbakh frontline in April reminded us, yet another time, of the volatile peace in the region, Switzerland’s ambassador to Armenia has said, calling for an increased attention to the situation in the South Caucasus.
April events reminded us of fragile peace over Karabakh: Swiss ambassador
STEPANAKERT, MAY 30, ARTSAKHPRESS: At a news conference in Yerevan, Lukas Gasser highlighted particularly the region’s importance for their diplomatic activities, emphasizing the need of finding reliable partners to ensure a higher degree of stability, Tert.am informs.
“The Caucasus has been important to us since the start of my diplomatic career. Switzerland was then part of the OSCE Minsk Group. Very little has changed over the past 20 years; what happened in April only reminded us of the fragile situation,” he said.
Commenting on the situation in Georgia, Giorgi Kanashvili, the executive director of the Tbilisi based think-tank Caucasian House, added that the generally calm political life in the country has at times seen what he called hysteric eruptions over the past four years.
“Political life became stable in Georgia, so 2015 was no exception. As we are holding a parliamentary election, I think the main accentuation should be on that,” he said, describing Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili’s move to step down as the most interesting and somewhat surprising development.
Another key trend, he said, was the political forces’ fragmentation and consolidation. “No special landmarks as far as fragmentation and consolidation are concerned. We saw about a 3% economic growth , with the [national currency] Lari becoming stable. Yet, nobody understands the reason; that’s due to the elections, probably. Also, the unemployment rate dropped by 1.7%, and the salaries increased considerably,” he added.
