ABSTRACT
This chapter examines new opportunities for negotiating Armenian-Azerbaijani peace in light of the Paris and Key West summits in 2001 and the role of the external actors who tried to break the strategic deadlock. It also addresses the Prague process that commenced in the summer of 2004 and continued in 2005 between the Armenian and Azerbaijani Foreign Ministers that aimed to formulate general principles that could be further negotiated to achieve peace. Consequently, the chapter exaplains the Rambouillet and Bucharest summits that tried to bridge the previously formulated package and phased peace plans in 1997 to resolve the conflict. For the first time since 1997 the Co-Chairs of the MG articulated the necessity of a referendum to determine the final status of Nagorno-Karabakh (N-K). The Co-Chairs, as the mediators in the conflict, would use any stick or carrot at their disposal to nudge the parties toward a zone of agreement.
