Berlin, February 17 (AZERTAC). The Germany-Azerbaijan symposium on the Support for Stability, Security and Cooperation in the South Caucasus has been held for the second year in a row at the German Parliamentary Society here. The event dealt with the Khojaly massacre, which claimed the lives of over 600 unarmed Azerbaijanis including the elderly, women and children.

The event recently held in Berlin and organized by the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Germany together with the Germany-Azerbaijan Forum was attended by top-ranking politicians from Azerbaijan and Germany. Among them were Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Khalaf Khalafov, Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Germany Parviz Shahbazov, Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Christian Smidt, Vice-President of PACE and Head of the German Delegation to this organization Axel Fischer, head of the German delegation to the OSCE PA Doris Barnett, MP of the ruling CDU party Marco Wanderwitz, Head of the Moscow Bureau of the Germany`s Focus news magazine Boris Reitschuster as well as diplomats and representatives of the Berlin export community.

German Foreign Ministry’s special coordinator for Russia and eastern neighborhood countries Gernot Erler`s speech was similar to the analysis of geopolitical realities of the South Caucasus.

The German politician said that the EU eastern partnership suffered a huge blow at the summit of the Eastern Partnership in Vilnius, meaning President of Ukraine Victor Yanukovych`s refusal to sign the association agreement with the EU. Consequences of this blow, according to Erler, will affect EU`s relations with the countries of the South Caucasus. “It is obvious that European Union and the Customs Union are understood as two competing integration areas,” Erler said.

As far as the Ukraine concerned, Kyiv faced the choice – either EU or the Customs Union. “Only during the last Russia-EU summit, the specialists were instructed to find out whether the ultimatum-like choice between the two integration processes had no alternatives indeed,” said the politician.

Erler noted that during the Vilnius Summit, Georgia initialed an association treaty with the EU, which is scheduled to be signed this summer.

“If the Russian leadership tries to prevent this agreement from signing with Georgia like it did in Ukraine, a new phase of tension is expected but this time in close proximity to the borders of Azerbaijan,” he said. Erler assumed that in this case there would be problems of the Georgian export to Russia and tougher visa policy for the Georgian citizens.

“Such a turn of events will inevitably underline the rapprochement between Tbilisi and Moscow,” he concluded.

As part of the Eastern Partnership, the EU also holds talks with Baku. Azerbaijan is committed to the European integration course as a whole, however, it attaches huge emphasis to other directions of its foreign policy including relationship with Russia, which is one of the most important ones. Russia remains the major exporter of goods to Azerbaijan overtaking Turkey and EU. The trade relations between Baku and Moscow include such huge deals on the purchase of the Russian military equipment and weaponry.

“Besides, Azerbaijan realizes that resolution of the national problem No 1 – restoration of the territorial integrity of the country – is impossible without Russia,” said Erler, hinting Russia possesses keys to resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The German politician hailed the decision of Azerbaijan to back implementation of the South Gas Corridor project, which will enable the EU to diversify sources of gas supplies. This decision became the pro-European step of Azerbaijan, he noted. According to him, Russia will continue its efforts to purchase Azerbaijani gas from the Shahdeniz-2 project.

The German diplomat underlined that Tbilisi pursued one-sided and pro-western policy while Yerevan favors the Customs Union and Baku implements a balanced policy. Only a strong and self-confident state is able to pursue such a policy, he said.

“It is possible to note that Baku tends more to the privileged partnership with Brussels than to association with the EU. What is at issue is the strategic partnership on modernization,” Erler pointed out.

According to him, Azerbaijan’s foreign policy is aimed at maintaining peaceful co-existence of the two integration processes, which can be cited as an example for other countries of the region.