YEREVAN. – A three-day Armenian-Azerbaijani conference was held in Washington, and it was very productive, Regional Studies Center Director Richard Giragosian stated during a press conference on Thursday.

In his words, this was the first attempt at establishing dialogue, after many years, and it also included officials. 

“These meetings comprised open and secret meetings. They brought together representatives from civil societies, the diaspora, and governments. Armenia was represented by MFA department head, Tigran Mkrtchyan,” the analyst noted.   

“The reason why the meeting was productive is because it was not for propaganda purposes. It was more of an attempt to open the window of dialogue.

Three important agreements were reached; this will be considered the first step in a longer dialogue,” Richard Giragosian maintained, adding that the parties intend to make this event be as inclusive as possible. 

According to the analyst, it is noteworthy that official Baku has allowed for such thing to take place. “The dialogue was clearly separating the Karabakh conflict from Armenian-Turkish relations,” Richard Giragosian concluded.