January, 2004 | Stockholm, New York, Washington, Athens, Baku, Yerevan and Johannesburg

As the Governments of Armenia and Turkey announced plans for formal diplomatic relations, the little known story is the role played by parliamentary diplomacy by PGA in Stockholm, Baku, Johannesburg, New York, Vienna, Yerevan, and Washington D.C. over three years under grants from the US State Department/American University and Swedish International Development Agency.

Just after 9/11 PGA Advisor David Phillips held consultations with Secretary-General Shazia Rafi on holding two tracks of discussions as side meetings to the PGA Forum 2001 in Stockholm, Sweden - the first between Greek-Turkish parliamentarians; the second between Armenian-Azeri parliamentarians in November 2001. The roundtables were chaired by Hon. Karl-Goran Biorsmark, MP, Sweden and Hon. Sen. Longin Pastusiak, Poland respectively. Off-the-record deliberations between Armenian MPs led by Mr. Artash Geghamyan, MP and Turkish MPs led by Mr. Bulent Akarcali, MP were held with Mr. Phillips.

Greek-Turkish parliamentary dialogue 2001-2004

November 2001, Stockholm: PGA conducted a roundtable between Greek and Turkish parliamentarians led by Hon.Ms. Elsa Papademtriou, MP [Greece] and Hon. Ms. Gonul Saray, MP [Turkey] to address conflict management and environmental policy and establish a working relationship between the two parliaments. They chose the urgent issue of water management of the Aegean sea, shared by the two the two Parliaments that had never met previous to this dialogue on that issue.

January 2002, Stockholm: Greek and Turkish delegations reviewed their documentation on specific river conditions, and agreed to a series of projects to be taken forward, including facilitating the publication of a childrens' guide and presenting their findings at the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg, South Africa from August 29-30, 2002. The delegations also agreed that a conference on environmental projects should be held in Istanbul involving Greek and Turkish experts and PGA experts on common actions.

August 2002,Johannesburg: The PGA Greek-Turkish series was presented by the head of the Greek parliamentary delegation Hon. Papademetriou on legislating for clean water at the PGA Parliamentary Workshop on Clean Water/Clean Air, a side event for legislators at the World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannnesburg, South Africa on August 29-30, 2002.

September 2003, New York, Washington: Follow up sessions between Hon. Papademtriou, MP, [Greece] and Hon. Reha Denemec, MP, [Turkey] took place on September 13, 2003, as side meetings to the PGA Assembly on the International Criminal Court, held at United Nations Headquarters in New York. At the PGA Annual Forum on September 16, 2003 at the US Congress, Awardee Hon. George Papandreou, Foreign Minister of Greece lauded PGA's work for peace-building across the Aegean.

January 2004, Athens: PGA held a Mediterranean Seminar hosted by Hon. Papademetriou in the Parliament of Greece. The parliamentary delegations from Greece and Turkey presented the progress achieved to date in the series of bilateral dialogues, detailing a comprehensive water monitoring strategy involving mayors and local officials going forward.

Armenian-Azeri parliamentary dialogue 2001-2003:

On parallel track, PGA conducted a series of dialogues in 2002 between Armenian and Azeri parliamentarians that address the link between conflict management and sustainable development through discussions on shared water resources. The Armenian-Azeri dialogues Chaired by Hon. Longin Pastusiak, Chairman, Senate of Poland and PGA Executive Committee member, supported the progress in post-conflict peacebuilding and reconciliation through joint cooperation on development projects.

January 2002, Stockholm: The Armenian delegation led by Hon. Artash Geghamyan, MP and the Azeri delegation led by Hon. Asaf Hajiav, MP, introduced their national environmental concerns and agreed to review their status as signatories to international treaties on environmental issues, cooperate in their assessments of needed national environmental projects to ensure they are consistent with the joint strategies discussed in the PGA series,including regular information-sharing.

August 2002, Baku and Yerevan: Mr. Klas Sandstrom, PGA consultant expert in water management issues conducted site visits to Baku, Azerbaijan and Yerevan, Armenia. The two delegations met to discuss documentation on legislative initiatives to date, and discuss site-specific projects along transborder waters that could be jointly developed. Bodies of water such as Lake Sevana, the Kura and Araks rivers, and their delta in the Caspian Sea were identified as the major sites of point pollution and irrigated agriculture areas. The two delegations agreed to present the results of their initial findings at the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa.

August 2002, Johannesburg: The two delegations participated in the PGA Parliamentary Workshop on Clean Air/Clean Water, and conducting a series of four bilateral side meetings to further develop their joint proposals. The delegations agreed that parliamentary site-visits would be conducted of the major pollution sites and a comprehensive, ongoing monitoring mechanism would be developed involving regional experts in water management and the parliamentarians of both countries. Initial assessment visits were scheduled for Spring 2003. As trans-boundary water issues in the Caucuses heavily involve Georgia, the development of a trilateral PGA water management project was discussed. October 2002, Vienna: At a session chaired by Hon. Pastusiak, the two delegations reconvened at the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna, Austria to sign a letter of understanding on the process forward and agreed to form a Coordination Council (CC), consisting of members of parliament and representatives of PGA to oversee the work of selected technical experts in identifying sites along the Kura and Araks rivers for monitoring and cleanup.

While the grant ended in 2003 bringing to a close PGA's international role and many of the parliamentarians involved in these dialogues have left active politics, but their work with each other on peace-building laid the foundation for historic peace in South-Eastern Europe.

For further information please contact Charles Rubin: charles.rubin@pgaction.org