Walter Schwimmer, the former secretary general of the Council of Europe (CE), once more pronounced for a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and blabbed out the reasons for concurrent admission of Armenia and Azerbaijan to the CE – a hope that, as European family members, both states would reach a mutually acceptable settlement of the conflict. Besides apparent disappointment over the fact that the two states’ membership in the CE failed to prove crucial for an early settlement of the conflict, Mr. Schwimmer revealed the international community’s superficial approach to the essence of the conflict. His words showed that the conflicting states’ nominal membership in the CE, by definition, might have had a positive impact on the most complicated negotiating process. But there is just a couple of objections to it.

First, it is obvious that states’ officially being CE members and actually meeting democratic standards are not equal factors. Since they were admitted to the CE more than eight years ago, both Armenia and Azerbaijan have repeatedly been accused of failing to meet CE requirements, found themselves on the point of being punished by means of sanctions, which has more often than not been the case of electioneering. European officials have repeatedly stated the former Soviet republics have yet to ‘travel a long road’ to fully meet the democratic standards. What they meant by saying that, and how good the human rights situation is in Europe itself, is a special topic. In any case the fact remains: if both the states are monitored and regularly face a threat of sanctions against them, one can hardly hope their membership in the CE can prove crucial for successful negotiations over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Secondly, Mr. Schwimmer, who was CE Secretary General for five years, has once more convinced us that European officials and international mediators are unwilling to consider the specific features of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the national mentality of the conflicting parties. The approach driving them into Europe settles the matter may influence the conflicting parties in some way. However, it is unquestionable that the negotiations can only be crowned with success if all the causes of the conflict, as well as the peculiarities of the nations’ system of values, are properly considered.