Ladies and Gentlemen: Honorable Guests.
It’s my pleasure to welcome you in Yerevan. Let me express my gratitude for your participation at our conference organized by Academic Foundation of Political Sciences, Lyon Centre for International Security and Defence Studies and Institute for National and Strategic Studies of the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Armenia.

The South Caucasus has gone through dramatic changes since the last summer. The tragic events in Georgia once more emphasized the importance of regional and trans-regional cooperation as the only possible way to solve the current disputes and secure durable peace and stability in the region. Meanwhile, the required cooperation is achievable only through multi-level contacts including the representatives of governmental agencies and think tanks, civil society leaders and prominent academicians not only from South Caucasus but also from other regional powers as well as international organizations actively involved in South Caucasian geopolitics. I am sure; our conference will serve as an intellectual platform for stability and security of the South Caucasus. We have 20 eminent experts from Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia, Unites States, France, Iran, Turkey, Norway and United Kingdom. Through different sessions and discussions we can deepen our understanding of future developments in the region. Participants from respectful countries will present their perception regarding the current situation and possible ways ahead toward confidence building, conflict settlement and durable peace among the actors presented in the regional orchestra. It is my great pleasure to express my gratitude to the Lyon Centre for International Security and Defence Studies and personally to the Director of the centre, Professor Jean-Paul Joubert and Program Co-Director Annie Jafalian for their initiative to organize this conference in cooperation with our Institute. We value our cooperation with the all participants and we’ll continue efforts to deepen our professional relations. The reality is threatened in our region with a possibility of resuming a war, and no one anticipates easy solutions and all-fitting suggestions, but as far as we are peace proponents and peacemaking developers there is no reasonable alternative to the process of mutual understanding through dialogue and cooperation. As we know, resolution system of armed conflicts relies on three basic pillars of international law: territorial integrity, self-determination of peoples and non-use of force. Combination of all these principles is the only possible approach to secure the stability and security in the South Caucasus. Bellicose statements and actions have a potential to destroy the current volatile balance and pave a way toward a systematic humanitarian tragedy similar one we faced in last August in Georgia. Let me once more welcome all of you and hope that our Conference will make a contribution to the peace and security in our region. Thank you.