by David Zenian
Rouben Shugarian, Armenian Ambassador to the U.S., and his Azerbaijani counterpart, Djeihun Molla-Zade, Chargé d’Affairs to the U.S., participated in a conference on conflict resolution at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia. The three day International Negotiation Network (INN) Conference, February 17-19, was attended by a number of high level diplomats from around the world. Among those present were: former President Jimmy Carter; Javier Pérez de Cuéllar former Secretary-General of the UN; Jan Eliasson, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs; Nils Eliasson, Director of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE); Andrew Young, former U.S. Ambassador to the UN; General Olusegun Obasanjo, former President of Nigeria and Ted Koppel who moderated an panel discussion on "Regional Perspectives on Conflict".
In addition to the panel discussions, the conference devoted a half day to sessions of small groups on five areas of conflict; the Caucuses, Haiti, Burma, Macedonia and Kosovo, and Zaire. These smaller groups provided a forum for participants to express specific ideas about the roots and potential resolution of the targeted conflict.
The INN meeting also provided an excellent opportunity for the Armenian delegation, Ambassador Shugarian and Ashot Voskanian, Member of the Armenian Parliament, to establish contacts with representatives of powerful international organizations such as the UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs, the CSCE, the Arab League, the Organization of American States and others. The Armenian and Azerbaijani delegations were able to present their case to a prestigious gathering of not only politicians and diplomats, but scholars, thinkers and would-be power brokers.
The deliberations were crowned by a closed door meeting headed by Carter and the Armenian and Azerbaijani delegation. Carter and the other participants had no direct comment after the meeting, but an INN source said the two delegations outlined their perspectives of a peaceful solution to the Karabagh conflict.
