US State Department official talks of joint Azerbaijani-Armenian website

The US State Department official has announced on December 19 an ongoing civil society effort between Azerbaijan and Armenia, TURAN’s Washington DC correspondent reports.

Briefing the participants of the AZAD event on "Azerbaijan's Untapped Potential for the West: Engaging Azerbaijani Society as a US Ally" in Washington DC, Wendy Silverman from State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, said:

“I was lucky enough to be both in Azerbaijan and Armenia last week with my desk, Thomas Melia, and heard firsthand about some small effort going on at the level of civil society as well as other non-governmental remedies… The space is very narrow, but the good news is that it is going on and I heard for the first time of a joint Azerbaijani-Armenian website, for example, on this issue”, she said.

Ms. Silverman’s brief came in response to Richard Kauzlarich's, former US Ambassador to Baku, address to importance of civil society initiatives in Azerbaijan and Armenia.

“My personal concern for years has been a lack of contact between Armenian and Azerbaijani societies… The tragedy is particularly Azerbaijani government has so colored the environment of dealing with the issue - anybody who talks about talking to Armenians is immediately accused to be a traitor”, he said, adding, “until you have enough political space created by the leaderships in both Baku and Yerevan to allow this kind of discussions begin I think it's going to be  hard”.

“The US can organize the events between the two societies but it’s not enough… There might be something else beyond that”, he underscored.

Alakbar Raufoglu

Washington