Paper abstract:

This paper focuses on steps towards Armenian-Azerbaijani normalization process, which started after the Second Karabakh War and the contents of the 9/10 November 2020, Trilateral Statement. These developments brought to an end almost 30-year-long illegal Armenian occupation of the Azerbaijani territories, significantly changed the facts on the ground and also created an opportunity for the normalization of relations between Armenia and Turkey.

I argue that due to mistrust and hostility currently persisting between Armenian and Azerbaijani societies as well as to a certain degree different goals of the various external actors in regard to this process it will not be particularly easy to achieve tangible results in the near future. Although certain attempts towards normalization process have recently been made by the Governments of both states. At the same time, certain thorny issues exist, including the fate of the Karabakh Armenians currently residing in the territory where the Russian peacekeepers are deployed. Thus, all of these issues are closely intertwined with the different post-conflict environments established in Azerbaijan and Armenia after the Second Karabakh War that create obstacles to move to a peace agenda.

I also argue that consistent work should be done in regard to reducing the sense of victimhood and humanizing the image of the adversary. Building trust between two societies divided by conflict for decades requires a significant amount of time and patience, therefore, it would be better to consider a normalization process not as a final result, but rather as a daily process. Thus, this paper is based on desk review and latest publications on state of play.