The Karabakh Contact Group (KCG) was devised as a way to bring together activists and analysts from across the Armenian-Azerbaijani divide to discuss the ‘Basic Principles’ and other peacebuilding ideas.
The aim was to provide a flexible and confidential format for ‘Track 2’ dialogue, so participants were invited on the basis of their expertise and their ability to influence others in their society. Regional participants included civil society activists, academics, journalists, think tank experts and former politicians. International experts were also invited, bringing insights from other comparable conflicts.
To ensure confidentiality, meetings were held under the Chatham House Rule. Most took place over two to three days and most were in Tbilisi. One meeting was held in Washington D.C. In total there were seven cross-divide dialogue meetings and three outreach meetings.
The group generally achieved a high-quality level of discussion, and some participants who took part in successive meetings began to form more trusting relationships.
From small beginnings, focused on producing research reports in a ‘dialogue through research’ format, the project developed to become more focused on dialogue.
An external evaluation by Conciliation Resources stated: “The significance of the KCG work is that it puts the Madrid Principles back into the public sphere, questions the principles and provides a platform for public debate. The KCG work aims to make policy experts, academics and analysts think how policy makers should engage on dialogue on difficult issues and deal with a changing environment.”
Following each meeting, Conciliation Resources drafted briefing papers which summarised the discussions. These included the main areas of divergence (especially in the interpretation and understanding of the Basic Principles) and suggested possible areas for policy change.
In total, one research report was produced (‘Forced displacement in the Nagorny Karabakh Conflict: Return and its alternatives’), along with six discussion papers , some in multiple languages. These were disseminated to governments, authorities, the EU’s various agencies and to third-party states through their delegations to the South Caucasus. Presentations of the papers were given in Baku, Brussels, London, Stepanakert and Yerevan.
Feedback suggested that these papers were useful in explaining the key debates around the principal components of a peace agreement. However, they were also found to be at times too dense and inaccessible for a wider audience.
In terms of participation, the project was successful in ensuring that Karabakh Armenians and displaced Azerbaijanis played a prominent role, among others. However, it was difficult to involve participants who were closer to power structures. This reflected a deeper problem, which was the lack of good faith debates over the Basic Principles more generally. This meant that although the KCG created a narrow space for this kind of debate, it was not able to stimulate wider debate because there was little demand or take-up for its outputs.
The format was also criticised by some both for being too confidential and for reaching only the ‘usual suspects’ (despite every meeting featuring a different group of participants).
After the 2020 war, the lead implementer was informed in Azerbaijan that the title of the platform would no longer be acceptable. The Karabakh Contact Group was wrapped up pending the development of new dialogue platforms addressing the post-2020 setting.
Find out more
Supporting creative thinking across the Armenian-Azerbaijani divide, Conciliation Resources: background information on the project.
News reports
Karabakh Contact Group meet in Washington, Conciliation Resources, January 2015
The Nagorny Karabakh Conflict and the Future of the Madrid Principles, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 18 December 2014: audio recording of the meeting in Washington D.C.
The Nagorny Karabakh problem and the seventh year of the Madrid principles, 20 December 2014: Video of Washington D.C. meeting with Armenian language voice-over.
Photograph by Gulnar Salimova
