Council of Europe can contribute to the resolution of the Karabakh peace process only by organizing meetings for public society representatives of the conflicting parties, CoE Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland told the reporters asked about CoE’s attitude towards Baku’s war rhetoric.

Jagland stressed that Council of Europe cannot directly interfere with the Karabakh conflict, adding that the OSCE Minsk Group, engaged in the peace processs, is constantly speaking of impossibility to resolve it by military means. Council of Europe can assist the negotiation process just by following the sides to fulfill their commitment to build civil society. In this context, Jagland, for some reason, recalled the Armenian-Turkish protocols, saying that ratification of the documents would contribute to resolution of the conflict.  However, noticing bewilderment of the journalists who could hardly find linkage between the Karabakh issue and Armenian-Turkish protocols, Jagland hesitated to clarify the details, stressing he meant necessity to settle relations between Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey.