The small details in the South Caucasus can be of tremendous significance. This is what former US Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, former Ambassador Carey Cavanaugh told Voice of America.

“Whereas a small mistake in Georgia becomes a reason for a wave of wide demonstrations in Tbilisi, in the case of the Artsakh conflict, it leads to new deaths,” he stated.

Cavanaugh stated that even though there was no turning point during the meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Washington, the call of the intermediaries to show restraint is of important significance. “As far as the disagreements between the parties over the content of the intermediaries’ proposals are concerned, each of the parties cites the parts that it wants. They are probably reading the same document, but in a different way. Although Baku rejects the demand of Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan to have Artsakh join the negotiations, Azerbaijan has internally taken certain steps. Baku has declared that the format of the negotiations must remain the same, but has noted that it has changed the composition of its delegation, adding the presence of the Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh. I view this as a certain sign of preparation for changing the format of negotiations in the future.”

According to Cavanaugh, the current format of the negotiations was shaped during the presidency of Robert Kocharyan. “It remained the same during the administration of Serzh Sargsyan, but Pashinyan unequivocally declared that he can only represent Armenia. As far as the talks held with the participation of Robert Kocharyan in Key West in April 2001 and the so-called “exchange of Meghri” option are concerned, it was actually a little different, and the options on the table were not that primitive. It was initially not planned to sign any document in Key West, but if the talks succeeded, the document was going to be signed in any neutral zone, probably in Europe.”