By Azerbaijan.US Editorial Board
It may not have made the evening news, but something remarkable happened in Yerevan this week.
For the first time in months, Azerbaijani and Armenian experts, analysts, and civic leaders sat at the same table – not to exchange accusations, but ideas.
The roundtable, organized by representatives of both countries’ expert communities and supported by official structures, brought together names long active in policy dialogue: Farhad Mammadov, Rusif Huseynov, Ramil Iskandarli, Kamala Mammadova, and Dilyara Efendiyeva from Azerbaijan; Areg Kochinyan, Boris Navasardyan, Naira Sultanyan, Narek Minasyan, and Samvel Meliksetyan from Armenia.
The participation of Armenia’s Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan gave the meeting added political weight and a signal of cautious endorsement from official Yerevan.
Beyond Formal Negotiations
While the official peace process between Baku and Yerevan has slowed under the weight of technical and political disagreements, meetings like this show that “track II diplomacy” – the work of experts, scholars, and civil society actors – can keep dialogue alive when politics reach an impasse.
Experts discussed issues ranging from the long-term peace framework and humanitarian cooperation to new logistics corridors and economic integration in a post-conflict South Caucasus.
These are precisely the subjects that remain too sensitive for public political debate yet essential for building a shared future.
Azerbaijani Experts in Yerevan: A Quiet Shift
The visit of Azerbaijani participants to Yerevan carried deep symbolic meaning. Just a few years ago, such a meeting in the Armenian capital would have been almost unthinkable.
Their arrival – under open names and institutional affiliations – signals a new level of trust and readiness to engage directly, even in an environment still marked by suspicion and trauma.
For many observers, this trip is more than a seminar; it’s a test of whether societies themselves are ready to move beyond decades of mutual isolation.
As one participant privately noted, “governments can sign papers, but peace is built between people who talk.”
The Power of Dialogue
The Yerevan meeting also highlights the role of regional think tanks and NGOs in creating diplomatic space when states are constrained by public pressure or geopolitical caution.
Such meetings do not replace formal negotiations – but they humanize them, giving policy a social foundation and diplomacy a human face.
The challenge now is to keep that momentum. Every small exchange, joint workshop, or visit chips away at the wall of mistrust that still separates two nations sharing the same geography – and increasingly, the same strategic future.
Because in the end, the road to lasting peace in the South Caucasus may not begin with signatures in Brussels or Moscow.
It may begin, quietly, around a table like the one in Yerevan.
