Round-table on threats faced by South Caucasus held in Baku - PHOTOS

International and national experts discussed global trends and threats facing the South Caucasus region at the round-table in the Center for Strategic Research under the Azerbaijani President.

Environmental threats and threats of military conflicts were mentioned at the discussions.

In his speech, Secretary-General of the international organization International Alert Dan Smith focused on environmental threats in the region. He stressed the importance of proper and effective governance while helping people confronted with the problems of climate change.

"It is important to hold open debates on the pressing threats and bring as many people as possible to the existing problems," he said.

A cultural dialogue was marked as one of the ways to solve international conflicts.

"From this point of view, Azerbaijan is the traditional place of intercultural dialogue. Azerbaijan is actively cooperating with the European Union. Its Islamic traditions are strong. This will help to improve the intercultural dialogue", the Center for Strategic Studies foreign policy analysis department head Gulshan Pashayeva said.

Political analyst Fikret Sadikhov considers terrorism and separatism as a major threat on the South Caucasus.

"Reality shows that the existence of uncontrolled territories entails an increase in drug trafficking, arms smuggling and human trafficking," a professor of the West University Sadikhov said.

Precedents of Armenian separatism existed after the peace agreement in 1994, he said.

Sadikhov believes it is necessary to use pressure on Armenia for it to adopt an updated version of the Madrid principles to prevent these threats. It is important for powerful states not to equate Azerbaijan with Armenia, since Azerbaijan suffers from the threat of separatism.

Head of the National Center of Environmental Projection Telman Zeynalov and founder of the NGO "Youth for Development" Anar Aslanov were among the speakers.

Today's debate in the center was a continuation of discussions by the international expert community in Tbilisi on the same theme.


/Trend/

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