Areg Kochinyan: Peace Bridge will continue efforts to bring Baku and Yerevan closer

Participants of the Peace Bridge initiative will continue their activities to strengthen peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia, Areg Kochinyan, the Armenian-side coordinator of the Peace Bridge initiative and president of the Armenian Council, said.

According to Report's correspondent in Gabala, Kochiyan was speaking at a press conference following the meeting of civil society representatives from the two countries.

According to him, the goals of the Peace Bridge initiative are to facilitate contacts and meetings between representatives of civil society, experts, and the media.

"This is a platform to prepare our societies for peace after more than 30 years of conflict. This is very important. It is a platform where experts can bring forward new ideas, discuss issues that have not yet been addressed in official negotiations, and assess the approaches of the sides to these issues," he noted.

According to him, the very fact that the fourth meeting of the "Peace Bridge" initiative is taking place today is already an important result.

"This was the fourth meeting, and we are not going to stop. (...) This in itself is an important factor. We also agreed that in the near future there will be a number of initiatives - articles, research, joint events - which will complement our work and our cooperation," Kochinyan said.

He added that during the first and second visits of civil society representatives, there was a lot of criticism and doubt about the possibility of continuing and institutionalizing this initiative: "The fact that we are now holding the fourth meeting and are not going to stop shows that the criticism was unfounded."