“The unsettled Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is a big problem for the cooperation between the South Caucasus countries and security issues in the region”, Temuri Yakobashvili, Georgia’s Ambassador to the US, has stated in US Capital May 19, APA”s Washington DC correspondent reports.

Speaking at the Potomac Institute’s Center for Terrorism Studies meeting with the students and analysts, the Ambassador, who is known as the architect of Georgia’s "engagement strategy" for improving relations with the regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, also called the international moderators to find a solution for Nagorno-Karabakh immediately. Meanwhile, the Ambassador considers Russia “as a main problem in the region”.

“What is happening in Armenia is because of the Nagorno-Karabakh problem it has fallen into Russia’s hands, it houses Russia’s military base and has unsettled relations with Azerbaijan”, Yakobashvili said, mentioning, largely because of the Karabakh problem the Armenia’s relationship with Turkey is not settled as well. 

“So the best thing is to find a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh problem. Because when you have this kind of irritancy, security dynamite, when you have problems like that you are dragged back from other issues”, he said adding, “Armenia has no luxury to focus on itself developments, because it has many other aspects. There are domestic problems in Armenia as well”. 

Ambassador Yakobashvili also touched upon the Armenian Diaspora factor. “Let’s not forget that Armenian Diaspora is one of the largest donors to the Armenian state and it mainly cares about anti-Turkish things. When you play on the international arena you should have a positive agenda not the negative one”, he said, mentioning, recognition of the “genocide” is not a positive agenda; positive agenda could be something as the future of Armenian state. “When you see the struggle between the Armenian government and the Diaspora (and the Diaspora is a variety of people), you see that it’s not helping”. 

The Ambassador said that another regional problem is the Russian military base in Armenian territory. 
“If the Karabakh problem is solved, if the relations with Turkey and Azerbaijan are settled, then Armenia will be very quickly developing. But being under security problem, landlocked, with Karabakh not solved and problems with Diaspora, it’s not that easy”, he added. 

Speaking about the other conflicts, Ambassador Yakobashvili pointed out that, neither in 2008, nor now Georgia had any problem with separatists, but the problem is Russia. “That’s why we were demanding the international peace-keepers in our territory and it still makes a big sense for us”.