The signing of a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan is only the beginning. It is obvious that the peace agreement needs to be implemented. Thomas de Waal, a specialist in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and a senior analyst at the Carnegie Foundation, stated this in an interview with the RFE/RL Armenian Service.

According to him, there is a well-known statistic in conflictology that more than half of peace agreements fail within five years; and it is about rather multifaceted peace agreements. So it's not just the signing, it's obviously also the implementation. Armenia says it wants international guarantees of a peace agreement, and that means perhaps there should be an increased monitoring presence, such as a European monitoring presence at the border, to increase the deterrence factor and deter Azerbaijan from using force against Armenia. Thomas de Waal believes that's the idea. And then they try to internationalize the matter as much as possible. And here we see tension between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which says “no, we don't need any international agreement, or we need regional solutions,” by which they mean Turkey, Russia and Iran, excluding the West. de Waal believes this is the main problem.

As for the right of return, he believes that the majority of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians do not want to return to their homeland under the current conditions: under Azerbaijani rule.

Maybe they would like to visit, get their property back, visit family graves or move them to Armenia. But Thomas de Waal doesn't think that anyone is talking about the imminent right of return. In his view, this right of return should be broad-spectrum and comprehensive.

We are talking about return which should apply to everyone, there should be some international supervision over it, and this includes even those displaced between 1988 and 1990. It is not that many Armenians will want to return to Azerbaijan’s Baku and Sumgait, but Thomas de Waal believes that this right to return should be established internationally, and it will be a part of the future peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan.