“Both in Armenia and, to a certain extent, in Azerbaijan, anger, distrust, and resentment prevail. This depth of animosity and hatred over a 35-year period is entirely natural. The Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict is not the only conflict where such events occur. However, it is unique in terms of the level of hatred and the emergence of animosity to a certain degree. And we still have a lot of work to do to resolve these issues and overcome these feelings”.
Modern.az reports that Areq Kochinyan, a representative of Armenian civil society who visited Azerbaijan on November 21-22 within the framework of the "Bridge of Peace" initiative, stated this during a meeting with journalists on November 24.
"When Azerbaijani experts and civil society representatives were in Armenia, we saw many people recalling their previous statements and speeches and saying, "Are these peacebuilders?" I want to say that the same thing happened to us. Our previous statements and actions were circulated, and people were saying, "So, have these people come to build peace with us?"
Now we have the opportunity to draw a "red line" and go beyond it. In other words, if we were to go back to the past and calculate who said what, who did what, and how everyone behaved, we would conclude that it would be a dead end. In this regard, I must note that there is a certain mutual understanding with our Azerbaijani partners on this issue. Various political figures try to exploit this anger, frustration, distrust, and to some extent, fear, to benefit their own political goals. This, in my opinion, is a rather despicable act. In my opinion, anyone in Armenia who opposes the Armenia-Azerbaijan and Armenia-Turkey peace process is either a foreign agent, a scoundrel, or a fool outside of politics who doesn't know what they are talking about", Kochinyan emphasized.
