“The Document in 14 points could be the starting point for the civil societies of the Caucasian area to get closer”. Professor Aldo Ferrari, of the Cá Foscari University in Venice, coordinator of the investigation program on Caucasus and Central Asia of the ISPI (International Relations Institute of Milan), has a specific opinion about the document: “It can be a starting point if it isn’t influenced by easy illusions, if it continues to work outside the strategic and geopolitical dynamics of the area and if it continues to be used in the diplomatic sphere”.

The closeness of peoples, peoples that have always found themselves to be extremely fragmented since their origins: “The Caucasus is the border between Asia and Europe, a very suggestive region, just think of the myths that live it, that of Prometheus chained to a Caucasian mountain after stealing fire from the Gods or the Argonauts who reach Colchis, a Georgian region. It is a great mix of populations with such important ethno-linguistic differences that the area is also called ‘the mountain of languages’, where all three monotheistic religion coexist. A multifaceted region where, before the unification under the Russian flag, in the Southern part the most intense relations were with the evolved societies of the Middle East while, on the other hand, the northern part used to interface with the nomads of the Russian steppe”. In short, an area diverse in all characteristics which define a population, ethnical, linguistic, religious and geographical. Differences which are at the basis of real crisis. Populations that look into different directions, some, such as Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan, towards Europe and the West and others still looking at Russia as the only possible solution: “We must understand that in the Caucasus, because of the above mentioned issues, it is necessary to put everyone around a negotiation table and listen to the petition of every population supposing the context is the Russian/eastern one, not the western one. Everyone’s efforts  must be considered as a long lasting perspective, with slow effects and not always successful, forgetting any hegemonic reasoning like the European one, as this would clash with reality. Beyond this perspective, there is no possible solution: even if intentions are good, even if the spirit of each diplomatic action is noble, the effects could be negative”. It is necessary to negotiate around a table “and balance all the different influences that come from Russia, Europe and the West in general”. But the document in 14 points could be a change in perspective and Professor Ferrari, who last year was one of the protagonists of the ‘Conference of the 150’ repeats it: “I remember the effort at the conference, the difficulty of putting different ethnical and political realities, some in conflict, round a table. I remember arguments, mediations, many points of view, but the final result was a common document”. A common document which makes the wind blow. ‘Winds of peace’ to make those mountain windmills turn, mills that don’t give flour if we don’t give them… wind.