CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VIII (2) ContEurVIII2 | Page 52

ANNA KARAPETYAN
For the Armenian parties, these arrangements were important, first
and foremost, from a humanitarian perspective, as they prevented
casualties on the borders. In addition, the Armenian authorities presented
it as a diplomatic victory, as the Vienna, St. Petersburg, and Geneva
agreements were not implemented. The Azerbaijani side used them to
take the Vienna, St. Petersburg, and Geneva agreements (reached in
2016-2017 after the four-day war) off the negotiation table. In addition,
Azerbaijan took advantage of these arrangements to construct a positive
image and to balance the potential challenges arising from the
democratization of Armenia, while at the same time carrying out
engineering and construction works on its borders. The OSCE MG Co-
Chairs' statements focused on the implementation and development of the
Dushanbe Agreements, the Vienna and St. Petersburg agreements were
not mentioned any more.
In addition, the Azerbaijani side tried to show that it is ready for a
constructive dialogue with the new Armenian authorities. However, in the
summer of 2019, the number of ceasefire violations increased again, as
well as the tension in the rhetoric of the parties. The Azerbaijani Foreign
Ministry began declaring that the maintenance of the ceasefire is not a
necessary condition for conducting negotiations. "The situation on the
line of contact should not hinder progress towards a declaration or a
peace treaty," 10 the Azeri FM said after a June 21 meeting with the
Armenian Foreign Minister in Washington.
The development of the process showed that the change of power
in Armenia did not in any way influence the policy pursued by the
Azerbaijani side. Its constructiveness was temporary. As a result, the
Armenian Foreign Ministry put forward a proposal of Dushanbe+, which
supposes the implementation of the Dushanbe arrangements and
establishment of an investigation mechanism. That is, Dushanbe +
Vienna, St. Petersburg, Geneva. "Dushanbe should become also a
“Dushanbe plus”, because the situation and the tension demonstrated that
it can lead to an absolutely wrong direction. In this regard, the situation
when we have casualties, when we have ceasefire violations, indeed
outlines the importance of the measures, such as, investigation
mechanism of ceasefire violations and strengthening of monitoring

10 “Elmar Mammadyarov: Quite serious disagreements remain between Armenia and
Azerbaijan,”
Arminfo,
June
21,
2019,
https://arminfo.info/full_news.php?id=43193&lang=3 (accessed October 1, 2019).
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