Both Turkey and Armenia must be applauded for the strong political will leading to the signing of Protocols last October, Federal Councilor and Head of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs Micheline Calmy-Rey said at the PACE spring session.

She pointed out that any step forward in Armenia-Turkey relations should be considered in the context of normalization.

Switzerland also chairs the CE Ministers’ Committee, thus both Armenian and Azerbaijani MPs asked Calmy-Rey questions concerning Nagorno-Karabakh.

Karabakh peace process is actively going on within the OSCE Minsk Group, she stated, emphasizing the necessity for encouraging meetings between the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders. According to her, the OSCE Minsk Group is actively working to settle the conflict.

Responding to the Azeri parliamentarians’ questions about “20 per cent of Azerbaijani territories occupied by Armenians”, Azerbaijani refugees’ hopeless situation, the Minister said that “the issue is within the jurisdiction of OSCE Minsk Group.”

T.P