The fifth international conference titled “Security Problems and Information Cooperation in the South Caucasus” opened in Yerevan today.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan sent a message to the participants, stressing importance of mass media in maintaining peace and stability in the South Caucasus, region with unresolved conflicts and interests of many powers. In his message, Serzh Sargsyan also said that there is no alternative to peace and tolerance, and such conferences will for sure help to achieve peace.

Alexander Iskandaryan, the Director of Caucasus Institute,  noted that Russia and Armenia need each other and the situation will not change in the future despite various processes on European integration and democratization. According to him, Russia is Armenia’s “umbrella” in the region. “If, due to some reasons, Armenia disappears, Russia will not be present in the region, as Georgia and Azerbaijan are not capable of providing its presence here,” the expert said.

Another Armenian expert Alexander Markarov stated that regional countries are linked by a single chain of social, economic and political problems, commonality of unresolved territorial conflicts. According to him, security in the South Caucasus mainly depends on external forces and processes, bringing the Armenian-Turkish process, mainly boosted by external forces, as an example.

Georgian expert Giya Meparishvili touched upon necessity to preserve and develop Russian-language press in post-Soviet area, as a system to incite integration processes.