Dushanbe+ is an attempt to bring back Vienna, St. Petersburg and Geneva arrangements: expert

Dushanbe+ is an attempt to bring back the Vienna, St. Petersburg and Geneva arrangements, director of Hayatsk think tank Anna Karapetyan told Aysor.am, referring to discussions over Dushanbe+.

She said stemming from the experience of the past year the Armenian authorities are making corrections in their policy with finally giving priority to the content and not names.

“By saying Dushanbe+ as it becomes clear from Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and yesterday from MFA spokesperson Anna Naghdalyan’s words they mean package of ceasefire fostering measures which includes investigation mechanisms. In short, Dushanbe + Vienna, St. Petersburg and Geneva. From the very beginning Armenia’s new authorities have set priority for them to start Artsakh conflict regulation process from the new point. With the same logic they avoided citing Vienna, St. Petersburg and Geneva arrangements reached after 2016 April war and did not demand their implementation. Dushanbe arrangements have been achieved and an illusion has been created that they are enough for maintaining ceasefire regime,” Karapetyan said.

She said experts have hailed the new arrangements but stressed that they should not push out the ones reached before from the agenda.

“But this realization came late when the Azerbaijani side started violating ceasefire regime. Only after it the MFA released a statement registering the necessity of implementation of Vienna, St. Petersburg and Geneva arrangements,” she said.

Karapetyan said today as well an attempt of “rebranding” is being made trying to present the former arrangements under new Dushanbe+ name for them not to be associated with the former authorities. She described it as domestic political PR issue.

The expert also stressed that as a result of policy of the new authorities during the past year the chances for implementation of Vienna, St. Petersburg and Geneva arrangements have noticeably reduced after allowing them to be left out from the statements of the mediators.

“Now additional efforts will be necessary to bring them back and form real mechanisms for reinforcement of ceasefire regime,” she said.