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Armenian coordinator of “Peace Bridge” initiative: Holding fourth meeting is a major result

Areg Kochinyan, coordinator of the “Peace Bridge” initiative and President of the Armenian Council

11 April 2026 15:36 (UTC +04:00)

Passage through the delimited and demarcated section of the Azerbaijan border is an important symbolic step demonstrating how realistic peace is and how feasible the implementation of the peace process agreed during the meetings of our leaders in Washington and earlier in Abu Dhabi is, said Areg Kochinyan, coordinator of the “Peace Bridge” initiative and President of the Armenian Council, APA reports.

He made the remarks at a press conference dedicated to the meeting of experts from Azerbaijani and Armenian civil societies held within the framework of the initiative.

He noted that the goal of the “Peace Bridge” initiative is to promote communication and dialogue among civil society representatives, experts, and the media.

“This initiative has two main objectives.

The first is to prepare societies in Armenia and Azerbaijan for peace after more than 30 years of conflict. This is very important.

The second is that this platform allows experts to propose new ideas and questions that have not yet been discussed at the state level negotiations and to test the reactions of the parties to these ideas. Sometimes these issues are also included in official negotiations.

The holding of the fourth meeting of the ‘Peace Bridge’ initiative today is itself a major result. At the beginning, there were many criticisms and doubts about whether this initiative would continue and whether it would become institutionalized. However, the fourth meeting is already being held, which shows that those criticisms were unfounded.

At the same time, the initiative has reached a certain level of normalization. Mutual visits, contacts, and work with societies are becoming routine.

It is no longer unusual for an Armenian expert to be in Azerbaijan or for an Azerbaijani expert to be in Armenia; it is now considered normal. This is also an important factor.

We have also agreed on a number of new initiatives in the near future — activities such as articles, research, and joint events will be additional outputs of our cooperation,” Kochinyan added.