The Karabakh Contact Group – an initiative to bring together Armenian and Azerbaijani experts to discuss the Nargorny Karabakh conflict – met in December in Washington. In closed sessions, experts from the region, and those based in the US and Europe, discussed various aspects relating to the “Madrid Principles” – the core set of issues on the negotiation table between official Baku and Yerevan. On 18 December, the Carnegie Endowment hosted a public event featuring Karabakh Contact Group participants, attended by around 80 people, focusing on the future of the “Madrid Principles”.
A video reportage of the public event by the Voice of America (Armenian service) can be found here:
A full audio recording is available here:
Background
Beginning in 2010 a cross-conflict forum supported by Conciliation Resources, the “Karabakh Contact Group”, was set up. Its purpose is to discuss and re-examine some of the core problems underlying the Nagorny Karabakh conflict. This initiative is part of Conciliation Resources’ engagement in the EU-funded “European Partnership for a Peaceful Settlement of the Conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh (EPNK)”